Diocesan Services Appeal

February 21, 2025 / amk / KofC, News

This weekend is our Diocesan Services Appeal Commitment Weekend. I invite all members of our parish community to join in support of our annual appeal. Our parish goal is $15,312.00. No gift is too small…every dollar donated helps those in our parish and in our unified efforts in the wider church. Further, one-half of all paid contributions received, over and above our parish goal, will be returned for our local use here at Good Shepherd Parish.

You can submit your DSA pledge envelope during Mass this weekend—or take your DSA envelope home to prayerfully consider your gift decision. Those paying by cash or check are invited to return their completed pledge form in the DSA envelope to our parish office. Those who wish to pay by credit card or electronic funds transfer may enter your gift online at www.dioceseoflansing.org/appeal. Every one of our parish households is encouraged to reflect on how they can bear witness to our faith in Jesus Christ by supporting the work of the DSA this year.

The Good Word

February 21, 2025 / Diocesan / KofC, News

Happy Seventh Sunday! This week I want to squeeze several thoughts into one article, so we’ll get right to it and continue where we left off last week. We were considering the process of holiness from a big-picture perspective. What can you and I expect when we commit ourselves to following Jesus as a disciple? God, out of His infinite goodness, walks into our commitment with us and immerses us in divine grace. His grace conforms us to the image and imitation of Jesus by healing us, building us, and sending us. Let’s look at each in turn.

Grace Heals – My first car was a 1996 Pontiac Grand Am. It was a green sedan with 90k miles, an upgraded V6 engine, and fog lamps. I put a new radio in it and named it Lylah, I loved that car. Alas, within two months it blew one of its head gaskets. This causes coolant to seep into the combustion chamber and spew white smoke from the exhaust. But to replace the head gasket requires deconstructing about half the engine! Well, I could never have done that on my own. I was 16, I didn’t have the money, the tools, or the expertise. So, we parked the car in the garage for several weeks and my dad helped me do the surgery on my green beauty. Healing grace is like this, a Father with the resources and expertise to diagnose and guide us through the intricate deconstruction and reconstruction of our mental, physical, emotional, and moral wounds.

Grace Builds – While we had the engine apart, my dad and I also sent away the intake manifold for chemical cleaning and milling. We installed all new manifold gaskets, swapped in new spark plugs, replaced all the head bolts and most of the coolant hoses, even flushed the brake system. Building grace is like this, a Father who sees what are already good and working assets in us and improves them, expands them, renews them, or even reveals them to us if we haven’t discovered them yet. In the spiritual life these assets are our faculties, virtues, and charisms.

Grace Sends – By the time we finished Lylah’s head gasket surgery, I had learned so much more about my car because my dad included me in the process. I had spent tons of quality time with him. And while from the outside my car looked the same, on the inside it felt spiffy and brand new. We lowered it off the jacks to the ground and finally test drove it. She was perfect. For the next ten years Lylah faithfully sped me off to school, to the movies with friends, to sports practices, to college and back, and eventually to the seminary. Sending grace is like this, a Father whose love renders us able to move forward. They are the graces that reveal the various missions of our day, month, year, season, and life, bestowing courage to accept them, using our healed and built tools to successfully complete them.

In the spiritual life, if you are not healed up, you will always limp along in frustration, with setback after setback no matter how much effort you put in (ever been there?). If you are not built out, your soul will inevitably grow tired, dull, and worn thin (ever felt that way?). If you are not sent forth, you might be perfectly capable but will spin your tires and go nowhere while your precious life passes you by (ever sensed that happening?). So, let’s make good use of the opportunity and begin now at step one. Next week I’ll share with us several facets of healing I’d like to address.

Fr. Brian

20 Out-of-the-Box Things to Do for Lent

February 19, 2025 / CL / KofC, News, Youth

Are you tired of giving up chocolate for Lent? Then here are some other creative ideas on what you can do for Lent 2025.

To be clear, this is not a list of things to do instead of fasting and sacrificing during Lent. I’m always on guard for talk that sounds like, “I’m not doing a regular Lent, I’m doing a cool Lent.” Fasting and sacrifice are essential practices modeled and endorsed by Christ himself and are among the main actions that the Church calls us to during the Lenten season. (No pain, no gain. No cross, no crown.)

That being said, prayer and almsgiving—the source and fruit of sacrifice and fasting—are also essential to Lenten observance. Self-giving love must flow from and into the Trinity, which is the source and destiny of all love.

Resurrection Box of Joy

February 15, 2025 / CL / KofC, News, Youth

The parish community is invited to participate in a Parish Lenten Project to help serve needy children from St. Luke’s New Life Center in Flint. Sr. Carol has provided our parish an abundant supply of shoe boxes. The boxes will be decorated with an image of Our Resurrected Lord and a special message. Parishioners can take a box home and fill it with items for a child beginning the week of Ash Wednesday, March 5– you choose girl or boy! Items can include: prayer cards, religious books, small food items, Easter candy, socks, shorts, shirts, slippers, small toys, crayons, pencils, jewelry, art supplies, etc. (no weapons or inappropriate items).

Return boxes to the parish hall and all Boxes of Joy will be delivered to the children the week of Palm Sunday –in time for Easter!

St. Mary Mission: Evening of Prayer & Praise

February 14, 2025 / CL / News

The Jubilee Year 2025: Pilgrims of Hope

February 1, 2025 / CL / KofC, News, Youth

Pope Francis opened the Jubilee Year of Hope for the universal Church on Christmas Eve 2024 in Rome. Pope Francis released a papal bull proclaiming the Holy Year 2025. The Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year is entitled Spes non confundit (“Hope does not disappoint” and can be found here). In addition, the Apostolic Penitentiary has published this decree.

The Jubilee of Hope Opened in the Diocese of Lansing on December 29, 2024,
The Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

To Strengthen & Share Hope

A central aspect of the Jubilee Year is the Jubilee Year Indulgence.

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE APOSTOLIC PENITENTIARY
INDULGENCES FOR JUBILEE YEAR 2025

A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin.

The indulgence applies to sins already forgiven. A plenary indulgence cleanses the soul as if the person had just been baptized. Plenary indulgences obtained during the Jubilee Year can also be applied to souls in purgatory with the possibility of obtaining two plenary indulgences for the deceased in one day.

To obtain an indulgence, the usual conditions of detachment from all sin, sacramental confession, holy Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the pope must be met. (Usually, an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be).

Make a Pilgrimage to Rome and pray for the Pope’s intentions in any one of the Four Major Papal Basilicas (St. Peter’s Basilica, the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, or St. Paul Outside the Walls) or any of the special Jubilee churches listed by the Apostolic penitentiary in Rome.
Make a pilgrimage to one of the following churches in Italy: Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels in Assisi, Basilica of Our Lady of Loreto Basilica of Our Lady of Pompeii, Basilica in St. Anthony in Padua, OR in the Holy Land: Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.
Perform an extraordinary work of mercy such as a generous gift to the poor, or visiting nursing homes or prisons
Participate in diocesan or parish sponsored spiritual exercises, missions, or formation activities based on the documents of the Second Vatican Council or the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Visit any local Cathedral, Marian Shrine, or other special church designated by the local bishop for obtaining the Jubilee Indulgence.
Fasting at least one day a week from “futile distractions” such as social media, television, video games, certain phone Holy Doors: Holy Doors are to be opened at the Papal Basilicas of St. Peter, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls (no. 6) and at the Rebibbia Prison in Rome. The Dicastery for Evangelization notes that the distinguishing mark of the Jubilee Year is not the Holy Door, but rather the Jubilee Indulgence, received through the Sacrament of Penance and acts of charity and hope. The various ways and many places where this indulgence may be obtained are summarized above and are outlined in the Apostolic Penitentiary’s Decree on the Granting of the Jubilee Indulgence, issued May 13, 2024.

Holy Doors:

Holy Doors are to be opened at the Papal Basilicas of St. Peter, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major, and St. Paul Outside the Walls (no. 6) and at the Rebibbia Prison in Rome. The Dicastery for Evangelization notes that the distinguishing mark of the Jubilee Year is not the Holy Door, but rather the Jubilee Indulgence, received through the Sacrament of Penance and acts of charity and hope. The various ways and many places where this indulgence may be obtained are summarized above and are outlined in the Apostolic Penitentiary’s Decree on the Granting of the Jubilee Indulgence issued May 13, 2024.

Click here to learn more:

+Find out conditions for how to obtain the Jubilee Year Indulgences

+Diocesan Events for the Jubilee Year

+Places of Pilgrimage in the Diocese of Lansing

+Questions Regarding Indulgences

Catholic Men’s Conference 2025

November 27, 2024 / CL / KofC, News

Gather in fellowship with hundreds of other men ages 14 and above to hear from dynamic speakers about How the Lord wants to IGNITE your spirit to live as a faithful Catholic in our post-Christian world.

This conference is not meant to simply ignite your Faith for a day, but to invite men across the diocese to build strong Christian communities in their homes, parishes, and workplaces that burn with zeal for the Lord.

Join us to connect with other Catholic men from around the state, hear from nationally renowned speakers, spend time in prayer and adoration, engage with exciting Catholic ministries, and celebrate Mass with Bishop Boyea!

Watch as NFL Super Bowl Champion, Matt Birk, invites you to join him at Ignite, the Diocese of Lansing Catholic Men’s Conference, which is being held in Ypislanti, Michigan, on Saturday, March 22, 2025. As well as Matt, other speakers include:

Dr. Jonathan Reyes: Senior advisor with the Knights of Columbus, known for his work in Catholic social justice and education.

Peter Herbeck: Director at Renewal Ministries, evangelist with a passion for faith renewal and missionary outreach.

Father Joe Krupp: A dynamic priest from the Diocese of Lansing and media personality, offering a relatable perspective on living Catholic values.

The Most Reverend Earl Boyea: Bishop of Lansing, who will celebrate Holy Mass and offer his insights on faith in today’s world.

The event is organized in conjunction with the Knights of Columbus and will take place at the Gervin GameAbove Center in Ypsilanti, MI, from 9AM to 5PM. The conference welcomes men ages 14 and up.

* To register and learn more, go to: www.michigancmc.org.