Dear Sisters and Brothers,
I am very excited to share with you a piece of good news. At the end of May, we will have a Deacon joining our parish. Peter Lawrence is one of our seminarians who will be ordained to the diaconate on May 16, 2015. For the next year, until his ordination to the priesthood in 2016, he will be assigned to our parish. He will be here full time during the summer months (June – August) and then serving and preaching at our weekend Masses through next May, while he completes his final year of studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.
This is a great blessing to our parish, and yet another powerful reminder that God is with us and wanting to do great things for us. Peter is planning on starting here the weekend of May 23/24. I am looking forward to the time I will have with him before I leave for Durand in July.
Please take a moment and read his short note of introduction.
May God bless you and your family abundantly this week.
Fr. Jonathan
My name is Peter Lawrence and I am very excited to be assigned as a deacon to serve at Holy Family for the year! I am 27 years old and am from Christ the King Parish in Ann Arbor and the second oldest of eight children in our family (three boys, five girls). I was born in Ann Arbor, but grew up in Kalamazoo after our family moved there. We eventually moved back to Ann Arbor after my second year in college, which is when I first seriously thought about the priesthood. At that time I decided to wait and take some more time to pray and discern about this decision and so I ended up entering seminary three years later after finishing up my bachelor’s degree at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant.
I am very much looking forward to spending the summer here with Fr. Jonathan, Fr. Gary and with everyone here at the parish. I am planning on arriving at Holy Family soon after my ordination to the diaconate May 16th. Please keep me in your prayers and know of my prayers for all of you!