Greetings in Christ, all! This is the feast of Epiphany: the day we commemorate the arrival of the Magi from the East (present Iran) to honor the child Jesus. It’s a reminder to us that God’s Kingdom is for everyone: not a select group, not a specific ethnicity…everyone!
It’s part of our Catholic custom that we bless our homes on this day. To that end, we’ve provided all the necessary tools and instructions for the Epiphany blessing. Envelopes are located in the gathering space. Please take one for your family. It’s a short, really neat activity the family can do together today. I urge you to partake!
There is some sad news for us to pray about. This month, St. Pius X Catholic Church in Flint closes. That parish has served the people in Flint for quite some time. I’m asking us to place those good people in our hearts and pray for them. Should any of them choose to find a Spiritual Home here with us, let’s welcome them and love on them.
I want to end this article with a thank you and a review.
Last weekend I spoke at every Mass to give a sort of “State of the Parish” address. I hated not preaching, but we really prayed and this seemed to be where God was leading us. Not talking about Jesus bums me out and, as a result, I felt a bit insecure about it. So many of you were encouraging and kind in your response and that really helped me be at peace. Thank you with all my heart.
For those who weren’t here last weekend or who need a reminder, here it is in a nutshell.
Our Parish, School and Outreach to those in need are thriving. Our finances are good and we have no debt. People are returning to the practice of the faith in good numbers and our confession lines are wonderfully busy. We have our organ pipe installation contracted and work will begin in January 2025. Praise God!
We have some challenges for this next year that I want us to pray about and be ready for. This year, assuming we can find workers, we will build a sort of Super Structure on our property. We will use this large building as an office place for our maintenance, as well as a garage and storage for our outdoor work and tools. We will also use half of it for our Outreach Ministry. We are very excited about this.
As soon as that is complete, we will tear down the two houses and all the little sheds on our property. The houses cannot be saved without a significant investment that would end up exceeding the amount of money we’ll spend on our new building.
The place in the gathering space where the organ pipes are currently located will be replaced with a large, attractive wooden structure that houses statues of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the 12 Apostles. I’m a statue guy so I’m ridiculously excited about this as well.
We have a very serious problem on our grounds: the area between the Church, School and Rectory was not built to handle the drainage area it has become. Bricks and concrete are breaking down. I have a lot of info on this, but the short version is we are going to have to tear that whole area out and rebuild it in a way that allows access to the lower parking lot, but still deals with water runoff in a way that isn’t destructive to the rectory garage and the school gym/parish hall.
Finally, the Diocese is going to have another Capital Campaign, probably starting this year for us. I’ll have more info on this as we get closer to commencing the campaign, but we are going to combine our need to fix that area I wrote about above with whatever goal is set for us.
I then asked if any family is in a position to give, but does not currently give, to please consider doing so. We’ve done a lot of wonderful work with 25% of our parish donating regularly and it’s my belief that if we can get that percentage up, we could do so much more. Please consider going online and signing up for regular donations.
I closed by asking everyone to pray that we at Holy Family will be faithful to our mission and that God would protect us from evil.
Whew! That’s a lot of typing. Thanks for sticking with me.
Next week I hope to have more detail and updates for you on how wonderfully God has blessed us.
Thank you for letting Le and me be your priests. We think we are the most blessed priests in the world.
Fjk