Fr. Ginu and I will be gone this week for our annual convocation week. It is being led by Bishop Jerry Vincke, one of our own Lansing priests that became Bishop of Salina, KS. When he was named Bishop in June of 2018 it started the domino effect that helped me come here. I will be thanking him for the part he helped play in God’s Providence! This week with my brother priests is always a blessing each year.
Since our convocation is in Indiana this year my brother, Fr. Gary, and uncle, Fr. Bill, are coming down to carpool with me and Fr. Ginu. Monday morning Fr. Gary and I are planning a crossbow outing since Bow season will have just started. I can’t think of any better way to start convocation week than with getting a deer or two! Happy hunting for those who will be heading out.
Due to our being gone, we will only have Mass on Monday and Friday morning. We will not have Mass Tuesday-Thursday. On Friday morning we are welcoming Fr. John Whitlock who is the Vocation Director for the Diocese of Lansing. He will celebrate our school Mass and then visit the school for talks and some Q & A. If you have time on Friday mornings the 9am school Masses are such a joy.
I had classroom visits this past week and had some truly excellent questions. It is always so inspiring to see their faith and hear their insights into the working of God.
We are in the midst of our 54-day Rosary Novena where we are invited to pray a Rosary every day beseeching Heaven for the defeat of Proposal 3 in the upcoming election. Whether we are praying the whole Rosary or just a part of it each day this is a great thing to participate in and a way for us to become more comfortable with this great prayer.
I wanted to share a couple of quotes about the Rosary that I have found helpful:
“The Rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the Rosary is beyond description.” – Archbishop Fulton Sheen
Like all prayers the Rosary catapults us into the Heart of God where He can reveal what we need to most know. How many times the Rosary has been a great source of peace and consolation to me! Even when the external circumstances remained stormy, I was brought to that place of peace that prayer alone can bring.
“Say the Holy Rosary. Blessed be that monotony of Hail Marys which purifies the monotony of your sins!” – St. Josemaria Escriva
In the fight against sin which can be so discouraging, the Rosary is a grace. It picks us up and helps us keep going. Those Hail Marys, as repetitive as our sins are sometimes, means sin never has the last word - God does.
God Bless,
Fr. Todd