Dear Sisters and Brothers in Faith:
Sunday, September 13, is the day our own Director of Faith Formation, Mary Moomey, will be officially commissioned as a Lay Minister for the Diocese of Saginaw. Bishop Cistone will be commissioning Mary and ten of her classmates at a celebration of the Eucharist at 2:30 p.m. at the Cathedral of Mary of Assumption in Saginaw.
Mary’s commissioning is the culmination of four years of prayerful study of many aspects of the teachings of the Catholic Church, and practical experience, most recently as our DFF. It has been a pleasure to have Mary with us since last February and to have benefitted by her hard work in our parish. We currently have two people working toward their own Commissioning as Lay Ministers. Gerri Clark has just completed her first year in the program. During this year she and her classmates have met one weekend (Friday evening until Saturday afternoon) per month for seminars on such topics as Old and New Testament Scriptures.
Morgan Monte has recently been accepted into the program and will begin her first year in the program later this month.
All three of these women, Mary, Gerri, and Morgan, need and deserve our prayers and encouragement as they enter the new phases of their spiritual journeys.
If you think you may be interested in entering this course of study to become a Commissioned Lay Minister for the Diocese of Saginaw, contact Deacon Mike for details.
Father Robert Barron was mentioned last week in this column and I was told by Father Fred that Father Barron was recently appointed by Pope Francis to be ordained as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, California. As the new Auxiliary Bishop he will be responsible for the counties of Ventura and Santa Barbara; his ordination took place on Tuesday, September 8, 2015.
In Today’s Gospel selection Peter expresses his belief in Jesus as the Messiah — the Son of God. However, he is unable to accept the whole mission of Jesus, which is to suffer and die and finally, to rise from the dead. Jesus knew that human life is filled with a lot of “ups and down”, joys and sorrows, pain and suffering. We, too must be aware of these “facts of life” and be ready, to get through all the good times and the bad times with the help of Christ.
I hope you have a Christ-filled week!
St. Vincent de Paul, pray for us!
May the Holy Spirit always be with you.
Deacon Mike