Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake,
Blessings to you on Labor Day weekend!
Next weekend we will be welcoming Fr. Jose Edyadiyil, V.C., a Vincentian Missionary Priest, for our annual Mission appeal. He will be celebrating and preaching at all our Masses and will make an appeal on behalf of the Vincentian Missions.
The Vincentian Congregation (V.C.) is a Missionary Religious Congregation that was founded in Kerala, India. It was modeled after the Mission first founded by St. Vincent de Paul. Members of this flourishing congregation are engaged in mission work in all parts of India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. The Vincentian Missionaries need our help to carry out their many missionary, educational, and charitable activities in their Missions.
Proceeds from the Mission appeal in our parishes will be used to:
1. Help provide a lifeline to the poorest and most vulnerable sectors of the Missions 2. Provide excellent training and formation for the Vincentian Seminarians
3. Provide Christ-centered education to thousands of children in the De Paul schools and job training for the youth in their Technical colleges 4. Bring the Gospel to Non-Christians
5. Support the New Evangelization Ministry through popular Mission retreats, Bible conventions and residential retreats, etc. bringing a good dose of joy and enthusiasm for the Faith
There will be a special collection taken up during the Mass to help the missionary work of the Vincentian Fathers. Thank you ahead of time for your generosity since these missionaries need our help. Please keep Fr. Jose and all the Vincentian Missionaries and seminarians in your prayers.
I am always struck on these weekends when we welcome missionaries doing such good work throughout the world, that we have been directly blessed by missionaries ourselves. It is a part of our history in America that the faith was sustained by the work of missionaries. Sacred Heart Parish got its start in the 1840’s over on Catholic Hill as a Missionary Church connected to Adrian. Fr. Peter Kindenkins would walk from Adrian once a month to Catholic Hill to offer Mass. Amazing to think about and makes me very grateful for cars!
These many years later we are still blessed by missionaries who help sustain us in our faith and walk with the Lord. It is a joy to have Fr. Ginu with us. When he joined his missionary community he knew that his priesthood would always be lived somewhere away from home. Being a Catholic means being part of a huge family that spans the whole globe. This is a way for us to help care for a brother or sister in Christ who we will probably never meet in our life. This annual Mission appeal keeps us rooted in who we are and is a way to express our thanksgiving for the many missionaries who have also blessed us.
God Bless,
Fr. Todd