Greetings in Christ, all!
I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very blessed and peaceful Advent season. This is our time when we prepare to celebrate God’s birth among us and the hope we have because of His Second Coming. Let’s focus our minds and hearts on the gift of Hope that God offers us.
We’ve got a big feast coming up in our Church. December 8th is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This is a Holy Day of Obligation. We will celebrate Mass for this Holy Day at the following times:
· Tuesday, December 7th at 6 pm
· Wednesday, December 8th at 8 am (Worshiping with our HFS students!) and 6 pm
Please make sure to come to one of these Masses and bring your kids along as we thank God for preparing Mary to receive Jesus. Were it not for the wonder of what we celebrate on this day, we would not have Jesus!
You may recall that, over the last five years, the Diocese of Lansing has been working hard with Lay People and Priests to come up with a way to help priests and parishes minister effectively in our Country. I’ve been excited about this, because I think it’s important for us to look at where we are as a Church, what we’ve become and what we need to change so we can be who God called us to be. As a Church, we spend so much time and energy trying to function, that we become like an energy plant that spends all its resources on running itself. This is not what we are made for. This diocesan plan, called Realigning Resources for Mission (RRM) was released last week and we’re going to use our homilies this weekend to talk about it.
Oddly enough, I don’t think we’ll notice much for the first 1-7 years for a few reasons, primarily being that the plan is going to unfold over that time period. Beyond that, I’ve spent the last few years trying to prepare you all for a change in the way you experience priests. I think the days are long gone when a priest should spend all his time on finance, insurance, building maintenance, new programs, etc. As I’ve shared with you before, a priest’s first job is to be holy. His second job is to minister, especially in ways only he can (Mass, confessions, hospitals/hospices, weddings, baptisms, etc.). I’ve been so appreciative of those of you who have supported my efforts to focus priesthood away from “Guy in charge of everything” to this. I know it’s a change, but to me, it is essential.
Anyway, I type all this to let you know that we’ll be talking about it this weekend and I’m excited for our future. We exist to “know, love and serve the Lord in this life and be with Him forever in the next” and it’s my sincere and joyful conviction that this new plan will help us do that even better.
I just love being with you and I’m so blessed for the way this parish has grown so significantly. It’s because of you, your love and fidelity. I can’t believe I get to be a part of it.
Bless you all!
fjk