Our Vision
We want to live in a world where every parish embodies its true Eucharistic identity.
We long for families and parishes to burn with Eucharistic devotion, so that they might joyfully fulfill their mission of bringing the world into the Eucharistic covenant.
After all, the Church exists in order to evangelize, this is her deepest identity (Evangelii Nuntiandi, p. 14). The Eucharist is ordered toward this mission.
The Loreto Project is founded on the belief that parishes fostering beautiful Eucharistic devotion will become empowered for mission.
Beauty will help lead to the truth. Beauty will help lead to a relationship with the truth, Jesus Christ. And it will help lead into a particular type of relationship: a covenental one.
We want to live in a world where parishes are embodying their Eucharistic identity by: (1) deepening this covenantal communion with the faithful already present, and (2) bringing the lost sheep into this relationship.
Our Mission
To achieve this vision, our mission is to partner with parishes to develop and implement events, training, and strategy for deep, lasting cultural change. Founded upon the principle that beauty leads to truth, our main strategy is to help a parish form a pastorally-minded monthly Eucharistic holy hour and community night.
This strategy is inspired by the Encounter Night structure and Walk With One movement put out by the USCCB through their National Eucharistic Revival page. Great fruit is being born from times of Eucharistic adoration that contain: beautiful music that leads people into prayer, powerful exhortation, and guided meditation. We see this transformative reality through many movements of the Church in conferences, camps, parish missions and more.
The Loreto Project focuses on walking with parishes long-term. It is essential to the mission that the events are not only beautiful but also regular. It is also essential that teams are trained to not only help with logistics of the night but act as outreach.
Included within our mission, The Loreto Project releases music and media for Eucharistic Revival. These songs and videos have the intent to help individuals become more Eucharistic in prayer as well as to help form Eucharistic disciples.
Joseph & Mary
Joseph and Mary, originally from Michigan and Mississippi respectively, now reside in Steubenville, Ohio where they steward their ministry.
Both have a long term love of music, but they come from very different backgrounds. Mary was raised as number 6 of 9 in a very large and devout Catholic family. She started playing music at the age of 7, where she quickly learned to love it as a form of prayer.
As early as 11 years old, Mary was leading music for masses at her home parish. When she went on to college, she continued to use her gifts both at Aquinas College in Nashville where she started and Franciscan University where she completed her Bachelors in Business. Following college, Mary started working at the Catechetical Institute at Franciscan University, but she continued to use her gifts for the Kingdom. On top of continuing to do masses, holy hours, and retreats, Mary played for the Franciscan Steubenville Conferences for 3 years and lead worship for a Franciscan University Pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Joseph, on the other hand, was not raised Catholic. He grew up in a house without faith and considered himself atheist. He started playing electric guitar at the age of 14, where he used it as a way to escape and find some peace. Though he played covers of Rock'n'Roll primarily, he started writing his own music very early on which he always wanted others to hear to help them encounter the light and peace he found in it.
At the age of 19, Joseph joined a semi-professional metalcore band that released albums, music videos, and did many shows in the West Michigan area. He did this while studying accounting at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but he eventually left to pursue music. Joseph found himself wrapped up in the drug lifestyle associated with the music. It was this lifestyle that put him in a situation where he was pursued by individuals who wanted to kill him, and this led to him reaching out to God for help.
God miraculously saved him from this situation and cured many of his addictions. Following this experience, he started to follow Jesus Christ. On this journey of conversion, he left the band and the lifestyle, despite the band just starting to get offered tours and noticed by labels. In 2016 Joseph had a profound encounter with the Eucharist and Psalm 116 that would be a pivotal moment for him coming into the Catholic Church in 2018.
Since coming into the Church, Joseph finished a Bachelors in Philosophy at Franciscan University. The Lord has also baptized his musical gifts. He has led masses, holy hours, music for retreats, released an album, and even led worship internationally through pilgrimages to Medjugorje and Lisbon / Fatima. He has worked and volunteered in numerous ministries, and is currently completing a Masters in Catechetics and Evangelization at his alma mater.
Joseph and Mary met in Steubenville after college through the intercession of St. Joseph and the help of a local family. They knew early on they were called to marriage, and entered engagement after 6 months of dating. They were married on June 27th, 2024 on the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.