Yay for Mother Teresa! What we already know will become official this Sunday, September 4, as Mother Teresa will be canonized a saint in St. Peter’s Square in Rome. Millions of people will at-tend. I never met Mother Teresa personally, but in 2002 I spent some time with some of the major superiors of the Missionaries of Charity from all over the world. While I was stationed in DeWitt at Bethany House (the youth retreat center), the sisters lived in a religious house in DeWitt for about seven weeks. I was asked to be their chaplain during this time. When I asked them what time they wanted daily Mass, they replied “5 a.m.” And then I asked them about Mass on the weekends, thinking it would be a lot later, they replied “5:30 a.m. or 6 a.m.!” By the way, there are some great films on the life of Mother Teresa that are worth watching. She certainly demonstrated heroic charity!
Labor Day: This weekend is Labor Day, which honors the American labor movement. Our country relied on the contributions that workers made to the well-being of our country. It’s also, in many ways, the unofficial end of the summer—and what a beautiful summer it has been! We are having only one Mass on Labor Day at 9 a.m. I plan on spending the rest of the day at my mom’s and possibly canning some tomatoes.
Guest speaker: This weekend we will have a guest speaker at the end of Mass talking about her experience in joining the Catholic Church. We are doing this to promote the Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) for those interested in becoming Catholic or if already Catholic receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. The RCIA is a wonderful program. Please encourage others who you think might be interested to join. Sometimes it only takes an invitation. Classes begin on September 18.
Fair Labor Meeting: Speaking of labor, a few of us from the staff are attending a fair labor meeting in Lansing on Thursday, September 8. This is due to many of our employees who are now required by law to be hourly instead of salary. There have been many questions that arose from this decision by the Fair Labor Standards Act.
School Starts: So excited for the school year to start this Tuesday, September 6. Here we go! Our first school Mass is set for Thursday, September 8, at 8 a.m. on the Feast of the Birth of our Blessed Mother. What a great way to start the year! Our school enrollment went up by 31 students. This is two years in a row the enrollment has increased.
Golf Outing: Speaking of the school, thank you to all of you who are participating in next Saturday’s (September 10) Boosters Club golf outing at Atlas Country Club. The proceeds from this event go to support our school’s athletic teams. What a blessing this is!
Religious Education: Starts Sunday, September 11. One of our long-time Religious Education instructors, Shawn Fatheree, passed away last week. She was a very dedicated instructor and will be missed greatly. If you are ever interested in teaching Religious Education, please let Jan Gravel at the parish know.
National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children: Amazingly, there have been close to 59,000,000 abortions in the United States since the Roe vs. Wade decision to legalize abortion in 1973. We’ll remember them with special prayers at our Saturday, September 10, 8 a.m. Mass. I have talked to many women who deeply regret their abortions. My heart goes to them. And their babies are waiting and praying for them in heaven.
K of C: Met with three leaders of our Knights of Columbus last Sunday: Dean Hayward, Vern Miller, and Shawn Slattery. They wanted to meet to see how the Knights could help the parish in any way. What a blessing this organization is to our parish!
Crim Race: Fr. Gary ran a 1:10:47 time for the ten-mile Crim race. But it wasn’t fast enough for me. I mentioned in a previous bulletin column that I might take out to dinner anyone who had a better time. Because he didn’t run fast enough it seems like I might owe a couple of people a dinner—and no, those who had a better time than Fr. Gary by running the 8k or shorter races do not count! But as we mentioned last weekend, he paid the price. He ended up getting a couple IVs after the race. He is doing fine now. He’ll have to train harder next year. By the way I was planning to run the Crim, but ended up getting a stress fracture—that’s my excuse this year (could be another ailment next year ☺).
On the way: As many of you know, Director of Evangelization Larry Blondin is on his way to becoming a permanent deacon in May. On August 23 he received the Ministry of Acolyte with five other deacon candidates. We have other men interested in becoming permanent deacons as well, which is so good to see.
Spiritual Direction: Another blessing from our parish is that four women from our parish are now enrolled to become spiritual directors. This is a tremendous blessing as many more people are seeking a spiritual director to help them on their journey.
Be assured of my love and prayers.
Msgr. Jerry