February 2, 2013. Presentation of the Lord.
February 3, 2013. World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life.
February 11, 2013. Luncheon meeting and speaker, 12:00 Noon at the University Club.
February 13, 2013. Ash Wednesday. Day of fast and abstinence.
February 18, 2013. Board meeting, 12:00 noon at Sacred Heart of Jesus.
February 22, 2013. The Chair of St. Peter the Apostle.
February 25, 2013. Prayer Service and Luncheon Meeting, 12:00 Noon at Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Looking Ahead...
April 20, 2012. Sisters' Day at the Ballpark (5/3 Stadium), 1:00 p.m. Gates open 12:30 p.m. Pray for good weather.
June 20, 21, and 22. Serra International Convention, Majorca, Spain. See below for more information.
July 1, 2013. Feast Day of Blessed Junipero Serra and the 300th anniversary of his birth.
Majorca 2013. USAC President Greg Lynch writes in the Fall 2012 Volume 7 issue of Serra Leader:
"It is my prayer and wish that all Serrans all round the world can come together to honor Blessed Junipero Serra and concentrate on our mission. The year 2013 is the 300th Anniversary of Blessed Junipero Serra's birth. Our aim is to honor our patron all year long. A very active committee with members from both Serra's National Council for the United States and Serra International is working on the plans for having the 2013 international convention in Spain (Barcelona/Majorca). We want every club to have a banner to display throughout the year at all events in the district and have a club representative deliver it to Petra, Majorca in June 2013 at the convention.
We are suggesting that each district/club sponsor an event and invite non-Serrans to help spread our story...Take a look at www.majorca2013.com to see the exciting early plans for pilgrimages, EWTN TV show, Huntington Museum exhibit, Regional Convention at Carmel, novena, and many more. In addition, the Programs Committee will be publishing ideas for programs. We invite everyone to join us to make this a rebirth of Serra...It is going to be a once in a lifetime event.
In addition to the international convention in Spain, a major celebration will happen on November 24, 2013, the actual date of Serra's 300th birthday, at the Carmel Mission in conjunction with the California bishops. I strongly encourage your attendance at this event. If you plan to be there, please let us know for proper planning...
Our main mission is vocations, so we continue with our successful programs for College Connection, National Vocation Awareness Week, World Day of Prayer for Vocations, World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life, and Priesthood Sunday. Last year we were asked by the Vatican to do more for vocations. Joe DeLoy, USA Council president at the time, introduced a program called Promote New Vocations. Try to start a new program to emphasize NEW Vocations."
Editor's Note:
1) Our club has purchased a Serra Banner. It arrived today at my house and I will bring it to the next meeting.
From the Vocations Committee.
Serrans across the country can be assured that the USA Council continues to serve them. Fostering and promoting vocations to the ministerial priesthood as well as encouraging and affirming vocations to consecrated religious life remain our objectives. Bishops in the United States have asked Serrans to help them build a culture of vocations, increase the awareness of Church vocations, and improve the vocations environment in families. We have and will continue to respond to their challenge.
Club leadership provides guidance for where energy is best placed in pursuing those objectives. I would encourage you as a leader in your club to make it a priority to attend the Serra Regional Convention this fall. This is the best opportunity for you to share with other club leaders your successes, frustrations, and future opportunities. Throughout the years, I have always been happy to have gone to those in the Great Lakes Region and have returned more enthusiastic and better informed as a result of attending.
Also, consider these specific ways to pursue the mission of Serra to encourage vocations:
*Ask an individual whether he or she has considered a vocation as priest or vowed religious. Just as importantly, ask your club's members to to the same. Your diocesan Vocations Office would welcome the names of such individuals whom you see as good candidates and who have been approached about such a life of service to the church.
*Start a Vocations Committee in a parish in your area that doesn't already have one. The USA Council website, www.serraus.org, has more information on how to do this successfully.
*Obtain and show at a general meeting or a meeting of your club's Vocations Committee, the DVD "Parenting Vocation." You can find more information on this excellent resource at http://www.word-net.tv/parenting-vocation.dvd.htm. This DVD was produced by the same group who created "Jesus Calls Women," another excellent DVD.
The capable staff members at the USA Council office are available for more information. Additionally, I am available to answer questions you may have regarding any of those items described above.
Mary, Mother of Vocations, pray for us!
Gino Dimattia
USA Council Vocations Vice President.
e-mail: GinoDimattia@juno.com
Cell Phone: 419-302-4620
Priests' Anniversaries for February.
Reverend Phillip Witkowski, February 2, 1975
Reverend William Langlois, February 24, 1974.
Congratulations. We congratulate Dan Grady, who has been elected to the post of President-Elect of Serra International. Dan will fill in the details for us in next month's newsletter.
Father Vincent O'Malley. Father O'Malley addressed the Member-Guest gathering on January 28 regarding the state of the priesthood around the world. Using Frequently Requested Church Statistics as a guide, he gave the happy news that the Church vocations are in the beginning stages of an upswing in a 300-year cycle. Thank you, Father O'Malley and all the guests and members who attended.
31 Club. Nancy Mulvihill organized 31 Club presentations for the weekend masses of February 2 and 3 for Msgr. Ed's two parishes, St. Mary's of Lowell and....of Saranac. Weldon Schwartz, Sara VanderWerff, and Dan Grady assisted with presentations and sign-ups.
News from Holy Family Radio. February 5 will mark the second anniversary of Jerry Usher's Vocation Boom program, broadcast weekly on Holy Family Radio. The station has also burned a DVD of Father Ron Hutchinson's dialog with several of our seminarians which took place last month. The DVD will be available to our club to be played at one or more of our meetings.
Continue to Pray. Let us continue to pray for Bob and Hazel Paul and their family. Hazel is making slow but steady progress in recovering from the stroke she suffered last summer. Your prayers are helping!
2013 March for Life. A record crowd estimated at 650,000 participated in the 40th Annual March for Life in Washington D. C. Grand Rapids Serrans Frank Lake (accompanying his grandson Bradley) and Nancy King were among the participants, as well as students from Catholic Central and West Catholic High Schools. Of the event, Frank Lake writes:
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I went to the Right to Life March in Washington D. C. We left by bus Thursday, January 24 in Grand Rapids with about 50 students from Catholic Central High School. We arrived at 5:00 a.m. on Friday morning at the 4-H Center in Chevy Chase Center in Maryland. In the morning we attended to the Verizon Center in Washington D. C. for a National Youth Rally and a mass celebrated by Cardinal Wuerl, the Archbishop of the Diocese of Washington, and a number of con-celebrants, including about a dozen bishops and more than 200 priests. That was a WOW! In the afternoon we went to the March for Life. On Saturday we visited the Natural History Museum, the Old Post Office Building, and the Library of Congress, and then went on to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for the Mass celebrated by Bishop Carlson of Saginaw, along with nearly a hundred other priests. We arrived back in Grand Rapids on Sunday morning. Had a great time with my grandson Bradley. What surprised us was the large number of young priests and sisters. The Holy Spirit is renewing the Church. FrankEditor's Note: Are we making a difference? Having also attended the Youth Mass and Rally at the Verizon Center in other years, I can attest to the vocations connection to the events centered around the annual March for Life. I know what Frank means when he says the event was a WOW! The energy, the electricity of the rally are palpable, at least as much so as at an exciting sporting event. Furthermore, EWTN estimates that 80 percent of the participants in the March and related events are under 20 years old. That's wonderful news for the future of our Church and our country.
On Saturday evening I went to the Vigil Mass at St. Patrick in the City on 10th Street. There was an overflow crowd in this very large church, with young people from all over the United States in attendance. Chief Celebrant Msgr. Salvatore Crisculo not only thanked the young people for coming to Washington to march, but also announced a first in the history of the march. The March for Life was not only mentioned, but featured "above the fold" in Saturday's Washington Post. We've also heard that the March was mentioned in several of the local media as well. The voices of 650,000 American and international marchers are difficult to ignore. Let us continue to pray for the unborn. I, for one, cannot help but wonder how many of the 55 million lives lost in the United States since Roe v Wade would have included priests and religious. And let us continue to recognize that every life is precious, from conception to natural death. Last, we thank all of you for your prayers.
The Presentation of the Lord.
This weekend the Church celebrates the feast of the Presentation of the Lord which occurs forth days after the birth of Jesus and is also known as Candlemas day, since the blessing and procession of candles is included in the liturgy. According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, February 2 marks the end of the Christmas season. The reformed calendar has designated that the Sunday after Epiphany, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, is the end. This feast in the Ordinary Form is no longer referred to as the "Purification of Mary but the "Presentation of the Lord".
Read Luke 2:22-35, the account of the Presentation including the Canticle of Simeon. In the Latin rite, the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple is the fourth joyful mystery of the Rosary.
A Message from our President.
Dear Serrans:
Member-Guest was light on attendance, but we had a great meeting and some lively discussion. I'm confident that there will be at least one new member from this meeting. Father Vincent O'Malley is always an inspiration to me and I trust to others as well. The picture he paints of where the church is now is far more favorable than I sometimes feel she is today. Thank you if you brought a guest, and a big thank-you to Weldon Schwartz and Dan Grady for getting the word out to Holy Family Radio.
Please pass along the link to our newsletter (http://serraclubgrandrapidsnewsletter.blogspot.com/) to anyone who might be interested in Serra Club, and add people's e-mail addresses to the list and forward to Nancy King so that they can stay in the loop on Serra events. I have found this to be a great tool to keep people interested in our mission and in joining in on our events and eventually joining Serra.
We are starting to get the word out for the Sisters' Day at the Ball Park. The date is Saturday, April 20. Start praying for good weather now!
Our Regional Conference Committee is starting to pick up steam again for this September's event. Please listen to the call for more help and jump in somewhere.
I would also ask that you keep our friend Fr. Aaron Ferris in your prayers. With the Bishop's blessing he resigned from St. Mary's and is awaiting his next assignment.
Mary, Mother of Vocations, pray for us!
Tim Hile
Joint Message to Serrans:
Forwarded from Tim Hile.
Dear Tim:
This message is to further amplify the release in the Bellringers of January 16, 2013 and to encourage Serrans to support their leaders in their effort to establish enduring peace and unity in Serra International.
The SI Board met in Orlando, Florida on January 11 to 13th, 2013. It took important decisions to move Serra forward. The highlights are as follows:
1. The Resolution of Unity of November 14, 2012 recommended by the Dialog Committee was discussed and approved unanimously.
2. The USA Council approved (November 14, 2012) the same Resolution of Unity with some amendments. The differences are to be further moderated once again by the Dialog Committee after which any outstanding differences are to the referred to the Episcopal Advocated Team for advice, counsel, and final decision. Their decision after approval by SI and USAC Boards shall be binding on both parties. Consequent to this SI will immediately reinstate the USA Council.
3. The SI Board will immediately direct its Legal Counsel to prepare an agreement to discontinue the legal action without costs, subject to USAC entering into the same agreement.
4. In our effort to achieve significant cost savings in Serra's administration, both offices of Serra International (SI) and the USA Council of Serra International (USAC) are to be consolidated into one. Recognizing the different roles SI and USAC perform to advance the cause of Serra, the Dialog Committee will work with the Executive Director to determine how the staff in the office will function harmoniously.
5. Immediate search for an Executive Director has commenced under a Search Committee which is being assisted by a professional Search Firm (Moran Company) with specific expertise with non-profit organizations. This process is expected to be completed by June 1, 2013.
6. The Dialog Committee will continue to function to facilitate the smooth implementation of the Resolution of Unity until the consolidated office takes effect.
Let us all join together to build a new, united and better Serra that we can be proud to hand over to future generations. We commend you to continuous prayer to Junipero Serra and our Blessed Mother for success in this new initiative for the good of Serra and its mission.
John Tomi Asengua Greg Lynch
President, Serra International President, USA Council of Serra
Stones to Gems.
Finally, as we prepare for Lent, let us consider the following:
"A year and a few months ago, the thirty-three Chilean miners were welcomed to the surface at Camp Hope after a sixty-nine day ordeal underground. During their captivity in darkness, these men changed in remarkable ways. Jimmy Sanchez, nineteen, the youngest miner, was working in the mine temporarily to support his family. When his mother saw him emerge from the rescue capsule, she said, 'This was like watching Jimmy being born again...He was totally changed, a very different person, much more mature.' Others commented that 'we suffered so much, went through so much pain, so many anxious days together...In so many ways this was a life-changing experience.'"
In addition to the Lenten spirit of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the weeks of Lent bring us face to face, like the miners, with our temptations, some glimpses of God, our failings, the choices we face, personal sacrifices, and the sacrifice of Jesus himself for our salvation.
Human rough edges were rubbed off in the depths of the mine in Chile. It was as if people who were once like stones became cut and polished gems as they endured long days and nights in the depths of the earth.
The Lenten ministry of Jesus' Spirit fashions stones into jewels for Easter: loving us, finding us willing, then cutting and polishing us, each facet of our lives. This is the work of our loving God. Pray with Jesus this Lent: INTO YOUR HANDS, LOVING GOD, I COMMEND MY SPIRIT. AMEN.
Source: Our Lady of Sorrows bulletin, February 3, 2013, taken from TheCatholicDirectory.com
