BUILDING THE CHURCH One of our parishioners can best be described by using the term:vaggi meaning wanderer. With his travel trailer in tow, George comes to the Brighton area in the spring, and in the fall heads off to Arizona for the winter. He has the good fortune of having children located in these and other places along the way, so as the weather changes, George packs up his "home" and goes off.
While George was in the Brighton area this summer, the trailer park where he resided required that he move out for a day or two every few weeks. During his exodus, he used our parking lot as a temporary residence; and before leaving a week ago, he thanked me.
Laughing, I thanked him! Because whenever he sojourned in our parking lot, people would inquire about the trailer. With a straight face, I would tell them it was the "construction trailer" for the building of the new church! My humor usually provoked a surprised reaction.
The truth is that maybe we should have a construction trailer parked in back as a reminder that we need to always be "at work in building the Church". For it is an ongoing task to help people grow in faith and in their commitment to Christ and His Kingdom. It is the continuing task of forming the Body of Christ.
A NEW JOB Because I truly believe that "building the Church" is the never-ending task of God's people, I decided to accept the bishop's invitation to accept another job. The new task will be in addition to my responsibilities here; it will only mean that there will be times when I will be away.
The task is to be co-chair of the Strategic Planning Commission for the diocese. This commission will oversee a process that will involve as many people as possible: clergy, religious and lay; the Church-going, the non-Church-going and even those who are not Catholic.
The process will involve listening to what the folks have to say and crafting a response. Then we go back to folks for their feedback and finally craft a plan that will be adopted by a convocation of diocesan leaders.
The process will take about three years. But the final product will take us well into the next century, because the purpose of this is to develop a long range plan for how the diocese and the 95 parishes will continue to grow over the next several years.
While it will be a lot of work, it should also be great fun. I am looking forward to it for two reasons in particular: the first is that I believe that this will truly be the work of the Holy Spirit who leads and directs our Church and, secondly, it has the potential of shaping our diocesan Church well into the next century.
The three-year process of building our own spiritual home was enjoyable. This new
three-year process of building the Church, should be even more fun!
Fr. Dave Howell
If you would like to have a Liturgy celebrated for a special intention, arrangements can be made by calling Kay at the office. A contribution is usually made to pay for the cost of the bread and wine and all the other items that are needed for the celebration of the Liturgy.
Please pray that the sick will respond to God's healing will, especially: Raynald Raymond, Pete, Al & Ann Polcyn, Larry Czap, Sue Keough, Miriam Marker, Matt Even, Eileen Auld, Cornelius Smits, Keith Kovach, Ellen Colombo, Ken Colombo, Emerson Brown, Adeline Smith, Larry Cecil, Anna Cecil, Dottie King, Catherine Schumont, Ken Carson, Norman Moon, Shirley Brake, Keith Dunn, Karen (Pat Spindler's daughter), Laurie Deirlein, Ron Schaar, Jeannette Wood, Merle, Ed, Zora Kolef, Keith Freel, Tom Cavanaugh, Timothy Richards, Mary Kay Davis, Edith Reagan, Joseph Pasienza, Miren Mohrenweiser, Donovan, Jessie, Mary Swift, Valerie Black, Joanne Fournier, Jerry Bettens and Dennis.
This week begins our Small Faith Communities for the fall. There are sheets in the gathering area with days, times and places of these gatherings. Entitled "A Year of Favor from the Lord" our materials are coming from the Archdiocese of Detroit and offer discussion topics related to the Millennium and our Church. They will run for five weeks and are an excellent opportunity to meet your neighbors and share your faith. Any questions contact me.
Grief is a natural and normal reaction to loss, but sometimes the intensity of our emotions can seem overwhelming. A New Day is a series of eight meetings designed to increase our understanding of the stages of grief, offer some survival techniques, include prayer and Scripture reflections and provide an opportunity to meet with others who have experienced similar losses in their lives. Our sessions will begin Sunday, Nov. 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the rectory lower level. There is a cost of $10 for the New Day Journals. A registration sheet is available in the gathering area or contact me by phone 229-8624 to register or any questions.
Yours on the journey, Marilyn
The children in the Confirmation program will present their names to Father Dave asking to be enrolled for the final preparation for the sacrament of Confirmation next Saturday. Please continue to pray for these students.
There will be a special evening for catechists and aides on Monday, Nov. 8, from 6-9:30. It will be an evening of enrichment, energy, involvement and learning. Dinner
will be provided. Please mark your calendars and plan on joining us.
Sister Maryetta
Just a reminder that for all NCYC participants and chaperons there is a diocesan gathering for all participants this Thursday, Oct 14, in Lansing 6:30-8:30pm.
I hope your calendars are marked for the weekend of Oct. 24 for our meeting with Phil Leonard who is a youth minister from Detroit. He will be coming to spend the evening with us playing guitar, singing and talking to us about the upcoming year of 2000. I guarantee it will be great evening, and on Saturday, Oct. 23 the Sr. high youth group will be hosting a dance. The first one we had last year was a blast.
For anyone who has attended our Hunger Awareness Retreat in the past with St. Pat's, there will be a planning meeting for this year's retreat in December. The meeting will take place on Tues., Oct. 19, at 7pm over at St. Pat's Church. Please let me know if you plan to attend.
It is that time of the year again - Jamboree time! Sat, Nov. 6 is when this day-long Diocesan event takes place in Lansing. There will be music, workshops, a Mass celebrated by Bishop Mengeling, and a dance to finish the day off. Teens numbering over 1000 from all over the diocese will be there. It is a great way to spend a Saturday! There are registration forms in the gathering space. If you have any questions, feel free to call me at the offices.
Margaret Callaghan
Sign up sheets, for both students and parent volunteers, are out in the gathering space for our trip to Erwins Orchard in South Lyon to visit their haunted maze on Monday, Oct.11. Note that we are asking you to prepay your ticket at the time you sign up. The cost is only $7.00, which includes a wagon ride to the maze and cider and a donut. You must sign up this weekend or contact me at the offices Tues-Fri., 1-5pm.
Margaret Callaghan
I. Robert Palmer & Linda Marciniak II. Jason O'Hara & Melissa Touchette
Fiscal Year runs from July 1, 1999 - June 30, 2000
Total income for the week of October 2/3, 1999:
Approximately 1,276 people contributed:
Using Stewardship envelopes..............$12,246.00
Loose collection.........................$ 827.00
Building Fund payment on pledges.........$ 2,217.00
Other....................................$ 177.00
Total receipts...........................$15,467.00
Weekly expenses..........................$16,682.00
+/- for week.............................$-1,215.00
+/- year-to-date.........................$+1,420.00
Thank you for your Gifts
FLU SHOTS will be available through McPherson Home Care here at St. Mary Magdalen on Saturday, Oct. 23, 5:30-6:30pm and Sunday Oct. 24, 10:00am-1:00pm. Individuals covered by Medicare will need to bring their cards. Those paying cash will be charged $10.00. If you have any questions, call Mary Lou (517) 545-6161.
FOR YOUR GOOD HEALTH - A note from your Parish Nurse Ministry Influenza is spread from person to person by direct contact with respiratory secretions. It may also spread indirectly by items contaminated with secretions. The virus enters your body via the mucus membranes (eyes, nose, mouth).
Thorough handwashing is the first line of defense in disease transmission, especially after sneezing, coughing and handling tissues.
St. Mary Magdalen is building a float for the Fantasy of Lights Parade in Howell on Nov. 26. Construction is set to begin in the next couple weeks. We need lots of help in many different areas construction, costumes, lights, skirt design, etc. Help as your schedule will allow. We are also in GREAT need of lights for the float. We need over 5000 lights, as well as several other items. There is a basket in the gathering space to collect them. Contact Barb Colley, (810)227-7108 or Laurie Cooper, (248)328-0338 for more information.
Sunday, October 24, from 2-7pm here at St. Mary Magdalen. Facilitated by Allen Theis, licensed marriage and family therapist, some effective ways to enhance and revitalize your marriage will be presented. Open to all married couples, a meal and child care will be provided. Contact Marilyn at 229-8624 for more information and to register.
Your parish Community Life Team invites all adults members of the Parish to join the fun of a Hoe Down, on Saturday October 16 from 7-11pm right here in our own barn. Weather permitting, we'll have a bon-fire and hay ride also.
In the gathering area are sign-up sheets for attendance (approximate head count), help with refreshments, decorations and set-up on Friday October 15 from 3-7pm or between those hours. Call Joanie Monforton, 229-5738 with questions.
ONE GOD/MANY RELIGIONS - WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE will be presented by Fr. John Budde, Pastor Holy Family in Novi on Tuesday, Oct. 19, 7:30pm at St. Pat's in Brighton.
CELEBRATION OF GOD'S MERCY in prayer, drama and music will be at St. Francis of Assisi in Ann Arbor next Sunday, Oct. 17 at 2:00pm. All alienated or inactive Catholics are especially invited to take another look.
50+ Livingston Area Catholic Council on Aging next meeting will be held Wednesday, October 27, at St. Pat's, Brighton. All 50+ Catholics are invited to attend the meeting from 10-12:00 noon.
Dear Dad, As I look back on the past 18 months, I am filled with all sorts of emotions; from the incredible high from your love and warmth experienced at close hand since you came to live with us to the frustration and exhaustion of trying to give you back your desire to live and go on for another day. I realize the frustration was because my motives were selfish. I did not want to face losing you. For those months, thank you. I thought I knew what a wonderful father and man you were, but during this time I discovered you were so much more than I could have imagined. The inconvenience, the call for more patience than I thought I had, cannot begin to outweigh the pleasure of sharing this time with you.
When your health failed and were faced with the decision to find someplace where you could receive the care you required, it was the hardest one I have had to make in my lifetime. I did not want you to think we did not want you, because we did. We have spent many hours hoping it was the right one. I guess we will not really know until we meet again. Always know we love you very much.
This is a letter that I wrote to my father who passed away a few months ago after living with my husband and myself for the last 14 months of his life. The emotions, pain and joy that our whole family experienced are not unique. There are many families in similar circumstances that face these same feelings. There are so many decisions to make when our loved ones grow older - emotional ones, financial and legal. We hope we did our best.
Sunday, October 10 Diane Kubus
Monday, October 11 Kathy LaTarte, Laura Meader
Tuesday, October 12 Christine Reid, Kathy McKay
Wednesday, October 13 Lisa Konieczka,Chris Kovanda
Thursday, October 14 Betty Polaske
Friday, October 15 Pam Hurn, Sandi Phillips
Saturday, October 16 Leo Camden
Prayer Intercessions may be filled out each weekend and placed in the basket located between the inside glass doors in our Gathering Area.
Fri., Oct. 15; Teresa of Jesus, virgin, religious, doctor of the Church. Teresa was born in Avila, Spain, in 1515 with the family name of Teresa de Cepeday de Ahumada and was of Jewish descent on her father's side. As a child she was very devout and even wished for martyrdom. At the age of 20, she was moved by reading the letters of St. Jerome and she decided to become a nun at the Carmelite monastery of the Incarnation at Avila. Shortly after her entrance she became seriously ill and had to be sent away for treatment. She returned to the monastery after her cure but she was practically an invalid for several years. Teresa, at the age of 40, resolved to dedicate herself to the practice of prayer. She then began to work for the reform of Carmel and she obtained permission to found the convent of St. Joseph in Avila. Writing from her own personal experience, St Teresa composed three major works on prayer and the mystical life: The Life (her autobiography), The Way of Perfection, and The Interior Castle. During her lifetime she made more than 40 new foundations of Carmelite nuns of the strict observance. Teresa was the first woman declared "Doctor of the Church" in 1970 and is the patroness of Spain.
Before each weekend Liturgy begins, there is a three minute explanation of a segment of the Mass.
This column offers additional information.
Receiving Communion under both forms is another custom that has been restored to the faithful in the reforms of 1969. Until the fourteenth century it was customary for the assembly to receive both the body and the blood. But several factors led to the reception of only the Body. Receiving only the Body or the Blood had long been an accepted practice in the Church. The sick or imprisoned only received the Body and infants who were baptized and confirmed by the Bishop at the Easter Vigil only received the Blood. Throughout the Middle Ages there was a steady decline in the numbers of those who received Communion. Adoration became more common. This emphasis of religious piety on seeing the Eucharist made the Blood almost secondary since it could not be seen. Kneeling also became more common than standing in the later Middle Ages. The difficulty of distributing the cup to people kneeling at the communion rail and fear of spillage re-enforced the custom of communion under only one species.
Even before the Reformation, there were calls for the return of communion under both species. During the Reformation, this became a matter of controversy leading to the Council of Trent (1562) to justify the practice. For if we receive only the Body and the Blood, we still receive Christ, whole and complete. The Vatican Council II restored the right to receive under both forms again, so that the full meaning of the Eucharist might be available to every communicant.
For a few brief years since the last council, the practice of intinction (dipping) was employed. Never having been a custom of the Roman Rite, this practice was stopped, for our long tradition has been the understanding of Jesus' command to take and drink from a common cup. Although studies commissioned by the Church demonstrate no evidence of the spread of disease from this practice, some still find it difficult to drink from the common cup. Those who find it so should refrain from receiving the Blood. The practice of communicants dipping is unacceptable, for it could be even more unsanitary for others and it could result in the Blood of Christ being dripped on the floor.
There is a nationwide ministry available to traveling Catholics providing free information on the location of the nearest church and times of Masses on weekends and holy days. This service is available to all parishes by calling 1-800-627-7846 or checking the internet at www.masstimes.org.
Sunday, October 10
Is 25:6-10a/Phil 4:12-14,19-20/Mt 22:1-14
Monday, October 11
Rom 1:1-7/Lk 11:29-32
9:00 a.m. David Lang
Tuesday, October 12
Rom 1:16-25/Lk 11:37-41
9:00 a.m. John Loveland
Wednesday, October 13
Rom 2:1-11/Lk 11:42-46
7:00 p.m. Fr. Carlson Robideau
Thursday, October 14
Rom 3:21-30/Lk 11:47-54
9:00 a.m. Jack Duffy
Friday, October 15 - Teresa of Jesus, virgin, relig., doctor
Rom 4:1-8/Lk 12:1-7
9:00 a.m. Edmund & Mary LeClaire
Saturday, October 16
Rom 4:13,16-18/Lk 12:8-12
Sunday, October 17
Is 45:1,4-6/1 Thes 1:1-5b/Mt 22:15-21
4:30 St. Mary Magdalen Parishioners
9:00 a.m. Margaret Marie Carney
11:00 a.m. Mary & Carl Wojewodzki
Monday, October 11
7:30 p.m. E-Team (Conference Room)
7:30 p.m. RCIA Catechist Formation (Adult Formation)
7:30 p.m. Renewed Eucharistic Minister Training
Tuesday, October 12
7:00 p.m. BeFriender Training (Rectory LL)
7:30 p.m. Inquiry (Conference Room)
7:30 p.m. Sacrament of Penance Class (Adult Formation)
7:30 p.m. Charity & Justice (Social Hall)
7:30 p.m. New Eucharistic Minister Training
Wednesday, October 13
9:30 a.m. MOMS Group
6:30 p.m. Religious Education
7:30 p.m. Finance Council (Adult Formation)
7:45 p.m. Renewed Eucharistic Minister Training
Thursday, October 14
10:00 a.m. Bible Study
6:30 p.m. Scripture Rosary
6:30 p.m. Religious Education
7:30 p.m. Music Ministry
Friday, October 15
NO ACTIVITIES PLANNED
Saturday, October 16
9:00 a.m. Hospitality Training
10:30 a.m. Server Training
4:30 p.m. Rite of Election for Confirmation
7:00 p.m. Hoe Down
Sunday, October 17
9:30, 11:00 & 5:45 Religious Education
10:00-1:00 Flu Shots
2-7:00 p.m. Married Couples Retreat
7:00 p.m. Youth Group
7:30 p.m. Bible Overview
Vision Statement | Sacraments | Ministries | Weekly Bulletins
Parish Staff | Religious Education | Miscellanous Information | Special Events
