Ramona O'Brian finds her seat in the green gymnasium of St. Cecilia Catholic School every Sunday at 11 a.m. It's the Spanish-language Mass for a church whose building was pierced by a bolt of lightning and swallowed in flames two years ago.

On Sunday, the 77-year-old celebrated the groundbreaking of the church's reconstruction with hundreds of other parishioners, mariachis and the Dallas Diocese's Bishop Kevin Farrell. "God willing, this construction will begin," said O'Brian, a sentiment echoed through the day.

At the microphone, the bishop cheered the crowd with a boast: "Today, St. Cecilia's will rise again."

Applause blended into his plea: "We are in a sense God's co-workers. Let us pray that God will bring this to successful completion."

The price tag to that finish line is more than $7 million. The church will double its seats to about 1,000 from its Oak Cliff perch on West Davis Street, where taquerías and tire shops nestle close to sidewalks. Completion of the project is targeted for fall 2011.

"This is a poor parish, and all of us are blue-collar type people, you know what I mean," said Tony García, a fundraising leader in the audience. "We make minimum wage here."

So when García saw a founding parishioner and school alumnus challenge the crowd to cut a check, the former altar boy beamed. Edward Rice gave $500. "I want to challenge every family to match this," Rice said, taking his turn at the microphone. "It's not that big." Then, the 80-year-old Rice matched his first check himself, saying he did so to honor "the four nuns who helped teach me."

García said more than $5.5 million has already been raised for the church with 76-year-old roots. Since the fire, a portable altar appears each Saturday night and Sunday in the school's gymnasium, amid basketball hoops and "Fightin' Bulldogs" banners.

The bishop had been in Dallas only four months when lightning hit St. Cecilia's church. He told the crowd he thought the Rev. Edmundo Paredes, the church rector, would be buried in discouragement "that tragic day."

But a lesson was learned in a parish that's one of the most important in the nine-county Dallas Diocese, the Dublin-born bishop said: Spirit – not a building – makes a church.