Monthly Archives: December 2020

Vigil Mass, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

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Father,
The image of the Virgin is found in your Church.  Mary had a faith that your Spirit prepared and a love that never knew sin, for you kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception. Trace in our actions the lines of her love, in our hearts her readiness of faith.  Prepare once again a world for your Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen

St. Mary Mass Intentions are for Fr. Stanislaus Czarnota+
Sacred Heart Mass Intentions are for Arthur & Frances Bramer by Chres Reuter.

Vigil Mass:  https://youtu.be/fBLsrHjDfP0

Readings of the Day:  https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010121.cfm

From Sacred Heart Parish, we wish you a very safe and Happy New Year.   May God’s blessngs shine upon you!

Your Legacy to Sacred Heart Parish

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Your Legacy to Sacred Heart Parish

Imagine a gift that gives forever.  That’s exactly what a bequest in your will or making the parish the beneficiary of a life insurance policy can do for our parish endowment.  The plans you make now will strengthen our parish family by providing perpetual financial support year after year. 

Leave a Catholic Legacy. Include a gift in your will to Sacred Heart Parish.  Help ensure a strong Catholic community is here for generations.  Simple ways to do this include changing a beneficiary on an IRA, retirement account, life insurance, or even bank accounts.   

 Contact The Catholic Foundation at 517-253-8787 or legacygiving@dioceseoflansing.org for more information.  There are also informational folders located in the front entrance of church and in the Parish Office.

 

Principal Anne Atkin Bulletin, January 3, 2020

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It is a Brand New Year

Help me, God my Savior, for the glory of Your name, deliver me and forgive me for my sins for Your name’s sake. Lord, I pray that You remove my guilt and wipe away my sins so that I can draw closer to You. With You there is forgiveness so that I can, with reverence, serve You. I praise You for forgiving me for my sins even though I do not deserve it! Thank You for loving me unconditionally, Amen!   Psalm 79:9 & Psalm 130:4

During the first week of Advent, Bishop Boyea asked two great questions in the article entitled Advisory: The Perfect Christmas Gift. In this article, he talks about forgiveness and repentance and how they can heal and change you. The questions are: Still don’t know what to give your family for Christmas? Why not surprise them with a new, improved version of you? One that is more happy, peaceful and easier to live beside. The full article can be found here: https://www.dioceseoflansing.org/office-bishop  You can sign up for Bishop Boyea’s Friday Memo at that address as well.

This article touched me on a deep level and I was inspired to do exactly that. Give my family a better, more peaceful version of myself. But Advent and the end of 2020 at school is very busy. Here it was, Christmas already and I was still the same old me. As it turns out, four weeks of Advent is not enough time for me to really dive into forgiveness and repentance. So, I would like to give my family the gift of a more peaceful me as a New Year resolution.

Forgiveness

I have a bad habit of hanging on to my hurt. Maybe you do too. The times I have been wounded and the times I have injured, can pop into my head unexpectedly. It is easy to pretend that we are over it. That it is all in the past or that everything worked out in the end. We are wiser and stronger for persevering through the times when we have had to apologize for hurting someone. Or the times when we had to forgive when we are wounded. Yet, it can continue to bubble up when we least expect it. The times I was left out or judged. The times I was misunderstood and not shown God’s grace and had to fight for myself. This type of sin is sneaky because we can harm or be harmed with a harsh word or a quick judgement. Yet, the effect can last in our soul until we truly give the hurt to God.

Our children do it too. Feelings can get hurt quickly when they feel left out or say mean things. These injuries can be long lasting. The students at Sacred Heart are taught that they are beautiful through this sin. They are taught that injuring each other is normal and so is forgiving yourself and others, by talking to God through prayer and confession. We will injure people. We will be injured. It is in how we think about it, that we can find divine purpose in the day. Children who are taught that they are a beautiful gift from God with special talents will be more at peace because they try to shine this light on those around them. So we love them and build them up with respect and understanding and they have an easier time with forgiveness and repentance. The concept is a simple one, but like all things that involve our brain, we must practice it everyday. So, this year, we will really get after forgiveness and repentance. The perfect gift to give our families. A more peaceful me.

Have a Happy New Year and Blessed 2021.

God Bless,

Anne Atkin, Principal

 

Sacred Heart School

Students are balanced: confident of mind, academics and Catholic Faith.

Serving the Community. Teaching our students to live and model the Catholic faith. Reflecting the unconditional love of Jesus.

Remaining structured with the purpose of graduating students who are prepared to persevere.

 

Fr. Todd Bulletin, January 3, 2020

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Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s,

We are here in the New Year!  I think we are all a bit cautious after the experience of 2020 when so many things we took for granted were turned upside down.  So many of the disruptions that we have been dealing with will be continuing for a few more months.  All that adds up to the fact that we might be approaching this New Year with fear.  We can wonder if Jesus has a plan, if He can somehow draw all of these pieces back together again.

In this New Year, facing these very real questions, I want us to turn to a beautiful story from the Old Testament: the book of Tobit.  It is a short book, but packed with wisdom.  Tobit shares the story of two families.  One is Tobit and Anna; they are an Israelite family in exile and, due to persecution, living in poverty.  To top it off, Tobit becomes blind.  In despair at all that has happened, Tobit prays that God might simply let him die so his suffering can come to an end.  The other family is that of Raguel and Edna.  Their daughter, Sarah, also prays for death because she has lost seven husbands, each killed in turn on his wedding night by the demon Asmodeus.

At this pivotal moment, a moment of despair and perhaps like a moment we might be experiencing ourselves, we hear that “the prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of the great God.  And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them” (Tobit 3:16-17).

This begins a journey where the angel Raphael in human form ends up guiding Tobit’s son Tobiah on a journey to retrieve money for his destitute family.  Raphael unites Tobiah and Sarah and drives away the demon that had been tormenting her.  On the night of their wedding, Raguel and Edna check on Tobiah and Sarah and find that all is well.  They then pray a prayer of thanksgiving.  One line of this prayer especially stands out: “Blessed are you, because you have made me glad.  It has not happened to me as expected; but you have treated us according to your great mercy” (Tobit 8:16, emphasis mine).

There are such important truths wrapped up in this story—the reminder that God does see all that we are going through and sometimes a single answer to prayer will actually encompass many people and many prayers.  Can Jesus draw many scattered pieces, even many scattered sufferings, and bring great good out of them?  Yes!  Oftentimes when we can’t see a way forward, we give into the temptation to think there simply isn’t one.  I love as well this honest prayer from Raguel and Edna, that things didn’t turn out as they expected.  How often God doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we expect, and that is okay.  This story reminds us to let God work His solutions in His time and His way.  If 2021 is anything like 2020, we need to remember this truth!

Let us begin this New Year well, surrendering ahead of time all that will come, and confident knowing that Jesus does see it all and can draw all together for good.  May the book of Tobit be a great start for this year.  I am excited to see what Jesus has for this year!

God Bless,

Fr. Todd

 

Mass Intentions January 2-10

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Saturday, January 2

4:30pm ~ Don & Helen Wines

Sunday, January 3

8:00am ~ Richard Camp ~ 31st Anniversary by Family

11:00am ~ Brian & Agnes Koenigsknecht

Monday, January 4

8:00am ~ People of the Parish

Tuesday, January 5

4:45pm ~ Confession & Adoration

5:45pm ~ Richard Bade by Larry & Dottie DeVries

Wednesday, January 6

8:00am ~ MaryRita Seel by Mike & Susan Marry

Thursday, January 7

8:00am ~ Janice Reuter by Chres Reuter Family

Friday, January 8

9:00am ~ Pauline Garr by Tony & Linda Marry

Saturday, January 9

4:30pm ~ Dick Baron by Kathy & John

Sunday, January 10

8:00am ~ Dean Jacobs by Betty Camp

11:00am ~ Don Harlan by Mullaly Family

 

Homilies, December 27, 2020

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Gospel

LK 2:22-40

When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
They took him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, 
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, 
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
He took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
“Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”
The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
“Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
—and you yourself a sword will pierce—
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”
There was also a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years,
having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time,
she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions
of the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee,
to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God was upon him.

Fr. Todd Homily

Fr. Tomy Homily

Christmas Mass, December 25, 2020

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Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Mass Intentions are for:
Sacred Heart
4:30pm ~ Mary Smith
10;00pm ~ Minerva Shaffer ~ 20th Anniversary by Dan & Rita Shaffer
9:00am ~ Arthur & Frances Bramer by Chres Reuter

St. Mary on the Lake
6:00pm ~ Harold Faust+
9:30am ~ Bernard & Lois Reuter+

Christmas Mass:  https://youtu.be/p4y7MxCP5kQ

Readings of the Day: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122520-day.cfm