Fr. Joe Bulletin, May 20 2018

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Greetings in Christ, all!

What a wonderful Easter Season this has been.  Now, here we are at the Feast of Pentecost: the birthday of our Church.

What we celebrate this weekend is nothing less than the joy of the God giving us the gift of His Holy Spirit.

For many Catholics, we are not quite sure what to do with this gift.  We are not sure what the Holy Spirit is and how He can help us.  To that, we have been blessed to offer the Life in the Spirit seminars and, while we are wrapping up our first run of these sessions, we are offering more.  I simply cannot encourage all of us enough to check this out.  Keep your eyes and ears open for the next set of sessions: you will NOT be disappointed.

I wanted to take some space here and run through the summer with you.

Our schedule this summer is quite…interesting. There are a lot of different things going on that make our calendar quite challenging and what I ask is for your patience and understanding with the inevitable errors or changes that will come about as a result.

The biggest thing that is challenging us continues to be the lack of priests.  Fr. Tomy is stretched over Mt. Zion, St. Anthony’s and us and I continue to cover Sacred Heart, St. Mary on the Lake and St. Joseph in Adrian.  While the original plan was for that time at St. Joe’s to have ended in June, it remains unclear to me whether or not that will actually happen, as their new priest will not be arriving until August.

Beyond that, we are blessed to have a lot of marriages, baptisms and other such wonders and it is going to make our calendar interesting.

If you see something and wonder why we are doing it on such and such date when we should be doing it on another, know that we met for hours trying to figure this all out and have offered everyone our absolute best.

So…there it is.  We are beginning a wonderful and challenging run that we will give to God and ask Him to strengthen us for.

May God bless our efforts to worship Him, love Him and love each other more every day!

 

DSA Commitment Weekend, May 19-20, 2018

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“Go and Announce the Gospel of the Lord” is the theme of our 2018 Diocesan Services Appeal.  It reminds us that each of us is called to discipleship.    Supporting the DSA is one way to share our blessings and the Good News with the world.

This weekend, our parish will conduct Commitment Weekend for our Diocesan Services Appeal. This is when we will be asking each member of Sacred Heart Parish to consider a generous gift to DSA. Our parish goal of $23,297.00 can be reached if each one of us shares a portion of the many blessings God has bestowed upon us. Please prayerfully consider how you or your family will respond to this call to carry on Christ’s work in our community.

 

2018 DSA Prayer

Loving and gracious God, we praise you and we thank you for the bountiful gifts that you have bestowed upon us.

Instill in us the courage to “Go and Announce the Gospel of the Lord.”

Help us to understand that we are called to discipleship, to grow actively in faith and to go and share the good news with the world.

Please bless our unified efforts and help us to bring Christ’s love to all we encounter.

Give us the grace to be generous in our support of the Diocesan Services Appeal, so that we may faithfully participate as missionary disciples in the work of Your Holy Church.

Amen.

 

 

Happy Mother’s Day

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As we celebrate Mother’s Day, let us pray for Mothers, Grandmothers, Godmothers and special ladies is our life.

 

 

Here are 12 powerful Bible verses for moms and about moms:

“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” Philippians 4:8

“For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16-17

“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” John 19:25-27

“He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!” Psalm 113:9 

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you.” Isaiah 66:13

“Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her.” Proverbs 31:2

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

“Encourage … older women as mothers.” 1 Timothy 5:1-2

“And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed.” Luke 1:46-48

taken from www.catholic.org

Principal Anne Atkin Bulletin, May 13 2018

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Prudence – Independence but with virtue

“What happened?”  It is that simple. If it is a first-time offender, it might take a while for them to talk.  The mind is racing, I can almost see it. Taking in the emotion of “being sent to the office,” and the trauma of having your day go upside down and sideways can make kids clam up. That’s okay. They are thinking and, by taking the time to think, we are already making progress. When a student is sent to my office, I do not like to know why the student is there. It is best if we begin the conversation with an open heart and mind. What the student is thinking about is right from wrong. They are using the common sense that they have learned from their parents. Most of the time, the child can figure out their big mistake as they are explaining.

When we raise our children, we spend the time it takes to keep them safe, to make reading a part of their day, to feed them healthy food, to give them love and patience; we are giving them the gift of Prudence. Prudence is a Cardinal virtue under the theological virtue of faith, love and hope. The virtue of Prudence gives us independence. This resonates with many parents because we want our children to be independent and be able to make good decisions for themselves as they grow and mature.

Prudence is the answer.  It is our job to give good counsel. It is so important that we be that stable, rock-solid presence in their lives; so as we guide our children, they have the ability to, not only think about their situation but to think about it the right way. Teaching children virtues builds your relationship. They will trust that you know struggles happen as they grow but you can teach them patience, self-control, courtesy- the list goes on. Being prudent means that children will develop common sense, right from wrong, and they will choose to do the right thing.

This week in prayer, we talked about how our Moms are such a blessing. They are our role models, mentors, and confidants and we pray to grow up to be just like them. Prudent.

Happy Mother’s Day to all!!

God Bless,

Anne Atkin, Principal

 

Deacon John Bulletin, May 13 2018

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Last Sunday, I wrote about a little boy named Emanuele who asked Pope Francis if his nonbelieving dad would go to Heaven.  After hearing what a good man Emanuele’s dad was, Pope Francis said, “God is the one who decides who goes to Heaven.”  This Sunday I thought I would take a look at the old question that never seems to go away – “Do unbaptized babies go to heaven?”

Limbo used to be a popular notion among Catholics to explain what happened to unbaptized infants who die.  Limbo, however, was never an official teaching of the Church.  It was simply a theoretical solution to the question of what happens to such children after death.  The question comes up because all people are born with Original Sin which is washed away with the sanctifying grace received through the Sacrament of Baptism.   However, very young children are not able to sin because they have not reached the age of reason.  But nothing impure can enter heaven.  So, does that mean they are to be condemned to Hell?  Limbo was an attempt by theologians (not the Church) during the Middle Ages to explain how unbaptized infants might be sent to a state called “Limbo” which derived from the Latin word “Limbus” meaning “border”.  Namely, they are neither in Heaven nor in Hell.

While Jesus didn’t reveal what happens to unbaptized infants who die, the Church’s official position is that Sacred Scripture and Tradition provide plenty of reason for us to hope that those innocent children enjoy the full happiness of eternity in Heaven.  Regarding children who die without Baptism, our Catechism says the Church can only entrust them to the great mercy of God who desires everyone to be saved (1261).  Jesus showed his tenderness to children when He said “Let the children come to me. Do not hinder them.” (Mark 10:14)  His words provide us hope there is always a way of salvation for children who have died without Baptism.

So, with all that said, do unbaptized babies go to Heaven?  It really doesn’t seem fair if they don’t. And I do like what Pope Francis told Emanuele – God is the one who decides who goes to Heaven.  As I wrote last week, I think if we really believe in God’s love, we can trust him to do the right thing.  

Deacon John

Adapted from “Introduction to Catholicism for Adults” by Rev. James Socias; and the “International Theological Commission – Hope of Salvation for Infants who Die Without Being Baptized”, www.vatican.va

 

 

Fr. Joe Bulletin, May 13 2018

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Greetings in Christ, all!

This blessed and holy Easter Season is drawing to a close: can you believe it?

I wanted to take this time to run the DSA by you for this year.  I had received some questions about why we are doing a DSA since we just did the big Witness to Hope Campaign and I thought this would be a good format to tackle it.  I understand people feeling frustrated or confused…especially at Sacred Heart, where we literally just finished the campaign.  I’ll ask us to think of two things when we think of DSA and then, at the end of this article, I’m going to ask everyone to consider a radical approach to our yearly DSA efforts.

The first thing is this: DSA is Diocesan Service Appeal and it is the way the diocese funds herself for the year.  They don’t have a parishes per se, they don’t have weekly collections, they are totally dependent on the yearly DSA collection to operate; they have no other means of funding.

The second thing is this: as you may remember from the handouts, the Witness to Hope campaign was done to accomplish two things: help parishes meet any extra needs they have and help the diocese shore up its numerous trusts and efforts to help people. At both parishes, we benefitted greatly from the Campaign, as the diocese basically footed the bill for our fundraisers.

So, here we are, as we are every year (except last year!) asking God’s People to chip in and help the diocese with its numerous offices and ministries.  At our Parish, we recognize that we are part of a bigger reality: we are a part of the diocese of Lansing and we need to do our part.

I want to pitch an idea that I hope will make it easy to hit our DSA goal every year and I am asking you with all my heart to consider this.  Every year, we meet our DSA because a couple people step up and write big checks.  For the most part, we do not have a large number of people participating and I’d love to change that.

Here is what I am getting to: if every family within our parish would commit to pledging $20.00 a month to the DSA, we would go over our goal and help our diocese.

In order for this to work, we would need everyone to participate…we would need everyone to commit to this and, if we did, we would easily make our goal.  To be clear, I hate asking for money.  I really do.  This time of year is one where my hunger to help us do our part clashes with the realization that money is tight and many people don’t like it when I ask.  But here is the thing: the diocese is not separate from us, it is a family we are part of and the diocese is counting on us to help them help us and all the other parishes in our diocese.

I am asking you to please challenge yourself and consider doing your part, especially if it is not your custom to participate in the DSA campaign.  Let’s not put all the burden on 5% of our parish family, but take it all on together.

I will be preaching on the DSA next weekend, May 19-20 and I will share some very specific examples of what your DSA dollars do…I think it will blow you away.

Please help me spread the word and this challenge…I would be so grateful.

God bless you…thank you for who you are and all you do.

I’m blessed.