498 Clubs 46 Countries 14,940 Members
Calendar of Events. Please note numerous opportunities to carry out our mission, not only locally, but with fellow Serrans in Muskegon and Saginaw, and worldwide.
May is Rosary month.
May 8, 2017
Dinner Meeting and Speaker, 5:30 p.m. at the University Club. Sister Mary Ann Barrett, O. P., who in 2013 celebrated her 50th year as a Sister, will speak. Board Meeting at 4:30 p.m.
May 7, 2017 World Day of Prayer for Vocations.
On May 7, the Church throughout the world will pray for vocations. What can we do to make a special effort to ask the Lord for more vocations to the priesthood and religious life?
*Pray for the priests who have ministered to us throughout our lives.
*Keep our parish priests in our prayers throughout the week.
*Encourage our children, grandchildren, or other young people to consider a vocation as a priest or religious brother or sister.
*Pray a rosary for more young men and women in our diocese to respond to God's call.
May 11, 2017.
Serra Club of Greater Muskegon Vocations Dinner, 6:00 p.m. at Prince of Peace Catholic Church. So far, seven people from our club plan to attend. If you wish to double up on rides, please let us know. At this time we are not formally sponsoring a table of eight, but are paying as individuals. Tickets are $40 each. Make checks payable to Serra Club of Greater Muskegon and mail in care of Bob Nolan, 1210 Logan Road, Muskegon, MI 49445. At this time we are mailing in our checks separately. John Liston will be the speaker.
May 22, 2017.
Mass at 12:05 p.m. in the Chapel of St. Andrew's Cathedral. For the time being, attending this Mass has been serving as our spiritual activity for the month. An informal meeting follows at Cathedral Square. This is not officially a board meeting, but it provides an opportunity to discuss our ideas and concerns as Serrans. The meeting is optional.
May 27, 2017.
Pray the Rosary with Serra International, 9:00 a.m. EDT.
June 20, 2017.
The Most Reverend Robert J. Carlson Seminarian Endowment Fund Dinner, Swan Valley Banquet Center, 9521 Highland Green Drive, Saginaw, MI. Keynote Speaker will be Fr. Tony Russo, Pastor of Our Lady of Consolation in Rockford. The dinner will be hosted by Mistress of Ceremonies Katie O'Mara, with remarks by Bishop Joseph Cistone. There will also be a silent auction and a raffle. We may help by attending as guests, buying a table, sponsoring a priest, nun, deacon or seminarian and//or donating a gift for a silent auction basket. Donation: $55.00 per person, or a table of eight at $400.
Make checks payable to Saginaw Serra Club and mail to Mary Catherine Siers at 4482 Lynndale,
Saginaw, MI 48603.
June 22-25, 2017.
Serra International Convention, Rome, Italy.
October 29, 2017.
Priesthood Sunday.
November 4-11, 2017. National Vocations Awareness Week. What can we do as a club and in our local parishes to observe this special week?
For World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Serra's Canada Council and the Serra Foundation of Canada have teamed up with the National Catholic Broadcasting Council to encourage prayers for vocations during daily TV Masses being broadcast during the week of May 6-13. To watch from the USA, Masses will be carried on Catholic TV or the web:
http://www.catholictv.com/ or www.youtube.com/dailytvmass.
Congratulations!
The Serra Club of Northeast Fort Worth, Texas, USA was chartered on April 18, 2017. It is the seventh club in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area.
Priests' Anniversaries for May.
The Reverend Ernest J. Bernott, May 22, 1948.
The Reverend Michael Bliszcz, May 24, 1958.
The Reverend Anthony Britto, May 14, 1988.
The Reverend Charles Cuniff, CSP, May 21, 1983.
Msgr. William Duncan, May 19, 1990.
Very Reverend John Geaney, CSP, May 11, 1964.
Reverend Thomas Hack, May 28, 1955.
Reverend Theodore J. Kozlowski, May 29, 1958.
Reverend Joachim Lalley, CSP, May 22, 1965.
Reverend Charles O. Mason, May 19, 1979.
Reverend Peter Joang-Xuan Nghiem, May 20, 1972.
Reverend Kevin Niehof, OP, May 8, 1993.
Reverend Bradford Schoeberle, CSP, May 27, 2000.
Reverend Philip Shangraw, May 5, 1979.
Reverend Robert Sirico, May 13, 1989.
Reverend Leonard Sudlick, May 15, 1976,
Reverend Dominic Tirkey, May 19, 1998.
Reverend Mark Przybysz, May 19, 1980.
With three ordination Masses in May and June we have much to celebrate.
Bishop Walkowiak will ordain Michael Steffes to the transitional diaconate on Tuesday, May 9 at 7:00 p.m. On Saturday, June 3 at 10:00 a.m. Bishop Walkowiak will ordain Deacon Stephen Durkee, Deacon Steven Geerling, and Deacon Kyle Kilpatrick to the priesthood and on Wednesday, June 21 at 7:00 p.m. he will ordain Dennis Rybicki, Dean Vernon and Lance Walters to the permanent diaconate. All Masses will be held at the Cathedral of St. Andrew. The public is invited to attend or to watch online.
Michael M. Steffes Jr,, 28, is the son of Mike (Rhonda) Steffes and Mary K. (Tom) Schmidtz of St. Patrick Parish, Portland. He has three siblings: Jacob, Joe, and Naomi. He attended the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn.,where he received a bachelor's degree in 2014. Michael will enter his final year of seminary in the fall of 2017 and will complete his Master of Divinity degree in the spring of 2018. He completed his pastoral internship at Our Lady of Consolation Parish, Rockford, under the mentorship of Father Anthony Russo.
Aid to the Church in Need.
Aid to the Church in Need is a Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy Father.
Here are three ways to help our fellow Christians in these troubled times:
*Help Feed a Christian Family in Iraq. Since the summer of 2014, some 3.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes within Iraq due to the cruelty of ISIS. A great many came from Mosul and its surrounding area.Christians were given an ultimatum by the terrorists: to convert to Islam or be killed. As a result, there was an exodus of the Christian families from the city itself and in the plain of Nineveh. Most fled to the region of Erbil in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Catholic Church in Kurdistan is now overwhelmed, trying to help the thousands of refugees who have fled here, needing not only a roof over their heads but also food, clothing, medical care and, in the longer term, schooling for their children. It costs almost $338 to provide one family with basic necessities for six months...
*Pakistan--Keeping the Faith Against all Odds. A series of anti-Christian atrocities climaxed on March 2, 2016 when Christians celebrating Easter were targeted in a suicide bomb blast at Lahore's Gulshan-Hqbal Park. The attack killed 72 people, including 29 children, and injured 340 others.
Just hours after the terrorist strike, Archbishop Sebastian Shaw, OFM of Lahore visited with victims of the blast. "I visited every bedside and every victim, of whatever faith."
Comprising a Catholic community of about 500,000 people, the Archdiocese of Lahore's faithful make up less than two percent of the local population. Their minority status--coupled with their poverty-- puts Christians and others in the region at direct risk of intimidation and oppression in a country where the rule of law often does not apply. They need our prayers and support today.
*Help God's Faithful in South Sudan. In the last three years, more than 50,000 have died and nearly 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes in this, the world's youngest country. The faithful continue to live the horrors of bloodshed, abductions, and assaults on women and girls. With your support, Aid to the Church in Need is helping, in particular, the youngest victims of violence by funding Church programs like the House of Hope, started by the Missionaries of the Divine Word in the Parish of Lainya, where youth can play, learn to work as a team, and do their homework. Any amount will aid God's most vulnerable in their daily struggle to survive. Thank you and God bless you.
The website of Aid to the Church in Need provides further information as to how to contribute to these causes.
