Calendar of Events.
February 5, 2012. World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life.
February 13, 2012. Luncheon Meeting and Speaker, 12:00 Noon at Louis Benton Steak House.
Speaker will be Larry Nienhaus of Holy Family Radio.
February 20, 2012. Board Meeting and Luncheon, 12:00 Noon at Sacred Heart.
February 27, 2012. Prayer Service and Luncheon, 12:00 Noon at Sacred Heart.
March 14, 2012. (Wednesday). Member-Guest Reception, 5:30 p.m. at Louis Benton Steak House. Beverages and heavy hors d'oeuvres will be served. Please start thinking of guests to invite and let Tim Hile know.
April 29. 2012. World Day of Prayer for Vocations.
May 9-11, 2012. First Annual Spring Sharathon, a telephone fund raiser for Holy Family Radio.
Watch for possible Serran involvement in this event.
June 21-24, 2012. Serra International Convention, Providence, Rhode Island.
Priests' Anniversaries for February.
Fr. Phillip Witkowski, 2-2-1975 and Fr. William Langlois, 2-24-1974.
News from Serra U. S.
Go to the serraus.org website's "In the Loop" News for The History of Serra International: 75 Years of Sevice to the Catholic Church. This book is now available for distribution. Only 500 copies were printed, and 200 of those were sold at two regional conventions in Tacoma, WA and Riverside, CA. Copies are great as gifts to speakers, to a new club member, for your Bishop or Chaplain, to honor outstanding Serrans, as well as being a great recruitment tool. The first four clubs each purchased a box. Two copies may be purchased at $50, a best buy, or $29.75 for one; a box of 17 is just $400.
SEND YOUR CHECK TO:
SERRA HISTORY PROJECT
P. O. Box 3673
Carmel, CA 93921-3673
Also note that November 24, 2013 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of our patron, Blessed Junipero Serra. On June 5, 2011, the USA Council Board approved a resolution to plan an international celebration to honor this illustrious day...
The celebration of Blessed Serra's birth will give our organization a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to honor our patron and to increase the awareness of our organization and mission to non-Serrans and the Church on a wide scale...We encourage all clubs, regions, and districts to plan an extraordinary event during 2012 and 2013 to mark the celebration locally.
Finally, we may plan to be in Fr. Serra's birthplace of Petra, Majorca, in July 2013. Majorca is a beautiful small island in the Mediterranean Sea just south of Spain. This momentous occasiojn calls for a momentous journey; please join us.
Last, please note the all new illustrated novel of Blessed Junipero Serra's life. Give one to each eighth-grade student in your district and clubs area. To order, write or call
USA Council of Serra International
65 E. Wacker Place, Ste. 802
Chicago, IL 60601-7238
Call: 1-888-777-6681 or e-mail serraus@serraus.org / www.serraus.org
From the serraus.org website we may also download special planning materials for the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life. This site includes liturgy planning guide, music suggestions, homily guide, general intercessions, prayer service, prayer card master, bulletin announcements, clip art, and poster.
District Governor Bob Barrett Visits our Club.
District Governor Bob Barrett braved foul weather to visit our club on Monday, January 23. Bob related his long personal background as an insurance professional with personal ties to Grand Rapids (wife a GRCC graduate, married in GR, personal friends and long-time business associates on our area, etc.), and his deep commitment to Serra and its work, including two terms as president of the Detroit/Oakland Serra Club. Bob has led the effort in the Detroit area to establish a vibrant Traveling Chalice program, Parish 31 Clubs, and to use those programs to establish Parish Vocation Committees and contacts.
Perhaps most significantly, Bob has implemented a USA Council College Connection Program which connects thousands of graduating Detroit area high school students with opportunities and resources for continued growth in the practice of their Catholic faith on or near the college campus where they will be attending. The sad statistics are that only 15% of Catholic students persevere in the practice of their Catholic faith upon entering college. College Connection has had a HUGE effect on improving that statistic.
Bob hgas communicated with all bishops in the dioceses in the Lower Peninsula regarding Serra. He has met with, and received an enthusiastically positive response from, either the Bishop and/or the Vocations Directors of each of the three Lower Peninsula dioceses that do not have a Serra Club (Gaylord, Lansing, and Kalamazoo). All are anxious to form Serra clubs in their diocese--multiple Serra clubs in at least two cases. Bob has asked for Grand Rapids Serrans who would be willing to work on an extension committee with the Diocese of Kalamazoo.
Bob is eager to promote, in all clubs, vocations programs such as those undertaken in Detroit to move forward with Serra Club extension in the Dioceses of Gaylord, LOansing, and Kalamazoo, and to promote membership growth and retention in our existing clubs. Bob will be providing information on, and urged our participation in, the annual District 15 Spring Leadership and Planning Conference. (SLPC).
Bob presented "A Man Called Francis" to the GR club, about a holy man whom Bob met personally, and who died recently in the U. P. Francis presented stigmata wounds and was involved with several miraculous cures. Bob also provided the club with some resource materials related to starting a new Serra Club and related to the vocations programs which he discussed in his address to us.
Bob is undeterred in enthusiastic pursuit of his work for Serra in the name of the Lord despite some significant physical problems. We offer him a sincere thank you for his yeoman's work in the short time he has been our District Governor, for the Serra resource materials he brought for us, for his gift of the book on Francis and for visiting with our club at our Monday Serra meeting.
Note: We thank John Osterhart for contributing this piece.
March for Life 2012.
The more years I walk in the annual March for Life in Washington, D. C., the stronger my
conviction becomes of the direct link between the march and all of its related events and the call to priestly and religious vocations. This 39th Annual March, marking the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade, provided a living example of the power of perseverance in the Lord's service and the power of prayer. The March has grown over the years from an estimated 20,000 in 1973 to close to half a million in 2012, with EWTN providing by far the best and most complete coverage of any of the news media.
At first the pro-choice people hoped that the marchers were just a handful of old people and that soon the event would die out, but once again young people, at an estimated 60 percent, dominated the crowd, many of them carrying signs that read, "We are the Pro-Life Generation." Pro-life conventions, youth rallies, prayer vigils, special masses, and events such as Rock for Life contradict the distorted view that the Occupy protesters represent a majority of our youth.
The presence of a hundred or so, or even a dozen of the protesters can capture media attention for days on end, but the pro-life cause and all of the related events receive barely a mention. People of all ages and all denominations participate, but the the without the Catholic presence,
especially of Catholic clergy and religious, the March would be significantly smaller.
As we left Grand Rapids, in the middle of a snowstorm, by the way, we picked up passengers along the way at Fowler, East Lansing, and Brighton. The 15 or so East Lansing passengers were Michigan State students boarding from St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church and Youth Center. Their youth leader found online an arrangement for them to stay at Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown, where the pastor had offered the use of the church basement and parish kitchen to these students for their entire stay.
As we neared Washington, our bus co-ordinator urged fellow passengers to take the microphone and talk about the reasons why they were marching. She herself recalled that when she was expecting her third child, her doctor suggested abortion in the belief that the child was somehow flawed. She and her husband assured him that abortion was not an option for them. She changed doctors, and that child is now in his twenties and doing quite well in life. Another mother told of a similar experience. One of the college students said she had only recently become pro-life ( I never learned why) and was looking forward to marching for the cause. And one of the chaperones, nearly overcome with emotion, spoke of how inspired he was by the young people who were so vibrant and so enthusiastic about the cause, not only at that moment but in past years as well. At our Sunday noon mass at St. Patrick's Church in downtown Washington, our celebrant noted the presence of great numbers of young people at that mass and mentioned that at the two earlier masses, the church was filled to capacity both times, largely with the young people who would be marching the next day.
I have directed our readers to visit the EWTN U-tube of the 2012 March, and at this site one can find the related events as well. I simply searched with EWTN News March for Life 2012. One of the U-tubes indicates that American pro-lifers are making a difference in other parts of the world as well. In Belgium, for example, young people meet regularly at various locations to pray the Rosary and hold prayer meetings for the cause.
The considerable participation by seminarians from across the country cannot be ignored. After the Vigil Mass at the Basilica, they gather in the crypt and pray all night in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. They also attend in large numbers the Youth Rally and Mass at the Verizon Center immediately before the March. After the March, as my family and I were waiting in the hotel coffee shop to board the bus for home, a young man who introduced himself as Chris wished us God's blessing and said that he was a seminarian from the Diocese of Miami. When I asked him what had caused him to enter into the priesthood, he replied that he was once part of a team who spoke to members of the House of Representatives about the pro-life cause. "One day, I was right in the middle of my talk, and I heard the call then, and I answered." He pointed out his three companions at another table, who were fellow seminarians. I went over and introduced myself and said I belong to the Grand Rapids Serra Club. They knew about Serra and thanked us for praying for them. Their joy in their service to the Lord was unmistakable.
On the way home, as we unloaded passengers at Fowler, I learned that one of the buses approximately 50 youth group members had boarded on Sunday night, marched on Monday, and boarded for home that evening, riding all night. What extraordinary dedication! Even for teens, riding all night two nights in a row and marching for much of the afternoon cannot be an easy thing. May the Lord bless this upcoming pro-life generation.
Another Military Vocation Story.
In 1981, Stuart Swetland graduated with top honors from the U. S. Naval Academy, earning a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. His long-term dream to serve his country was realized when he was commissioned as a Navy officer. He went on to serve on frigates and destroyers. Today he's Monsignor Stuart Swetland, a Catholic priest and the Flynn Professor of Christian Ethics at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg, MD. Though Monsignor Swetland's trajectory from military warrior to spiritual warrior might raise some eyebrows, it's a well-worn path to the priesthood. Annually, about 10 per cent of priestly vocations are men drawn from the ranks of active-duty military, with another sizable portion of recruits raised in military families.
Now that number is getting a boost as the Archdiocese for the Military Services completes the first three years of its new vocations initiative specifically designed to encourage and foster priestly vocations in all the services.
The AMS not only aspires to increase the shockingly low number of military chaplains, but also to draw these recruits into dioceses throughout the United States. The brainchild of Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of Baltimore, who previously led the Archdiocese for the Military Services, the program received seed money from members of the Order of Malta and has gradually gained traction under the leadership of Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who succeeded Archbishop O'Brien in 2008. Since the AMS' first vocations director, Father John McLaughlin--a late vocation on loan from the Archdiocese of Boston--hit the road in the summer of 2008, about 40 young men have signed up. Some participate in the "co-sponsorship" program, in which the AMS and the recruit's home diocese share seminary formation and educational expenses and then establish a period of service at home and as a military chaplain. Others enter religious orders or apply to a regular diocesean vocations program.
"The Diocese of Arlington, VA has the most co-sponsored seminarians, and others include Baltimore, MD, Monterey, CA, Peoria, IL, Austin, TX, and several other dioceses in Texas," reported Father McLaughlin, who will finish his three-year appointment in June and will be replaced by Conventual Franciscan Father Kerry Abbott.
Father McLaughlin did not serve in the military, though his father was a Marine. A graduate of Boston College and a top wrestler, he worked in real estate and coached high-school wrestling on the side, winning state championships. Over time, he began to reassess his own career plans and entered the seminary.
Over the past three years, Father McLaughlin has signed up recruits from every military service but the Coast Guard and landed graduates from West Point, the U. S. Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy. He has met young men whose faith was ignited or solidified as they fought on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan and grappled with the enduring questions of human existence: Why am I here? What is my mission on earth? Why was I saved when others were taken?...
"Men who enter the military do so out of a sense of service," says Msgr. Swetland, "a willingness to lay down their life for others and to give the gift of self." "And that's what you need for the priesthood."
A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT.
As I sit down to write this message, I feel the challenge to remain positive about Serra and its mission to support, foster, and pray for vocations. The positive message of Serra, and you, my fellow Serrans, feed my soul and help me to push onward. Please continue to pray for a quick and meaningful resolution to the disagreement between Serra International and USAC. There have been recent discussions between the parties, and the SI president has remained here in the U. S. for six weeks to aid the process.
As Serrans we continue to serve and aid the Church in support of priestly vocations and our own formation. It is through this service where we see God at work in our current priests' lives and in the lives of our seminarians, our future seminarians, and in our own lives. Please pray daily for more priestly vocations. As Father O'Malley reminded us last month in his talk, the vocation cycle is on the upswing!
February will be a regular month of meetings for the Serra Club of Grand Rapids: 2nd Monday, February 13, will be at Louis Benton, with Larry Nienhaus of Holy Family Radio as speaker. The Board will meet on the 20th at noon at Sacred Heart, and our fourth Monday prayer service and luncheon meeting will take place at Sacred Heart as well.
Please keep inviting your guests to our Wednesday, March 14 event at Louis Benton for Fr. Mark's talk on Love Wins. Beer, wine, soft drinks and heavy appetizers will be served. This event will take the place of our regular Monday meeting that week. I look forward to seeing you there and meeting your guests.
The Regional Conference 2013 Committee is off and running. We have secured the hotel and are now beginning to meet and work on the agenda and speakers. We could use some additional members to join us an tackle projects. We are meeting on Mondays at 5:30 at St. Stephen's. Joe Scoville is running the meetings, so they will be prompt and well organized. The 2012 Regional Conference in Cleveland just started in earnest, an indication that we are ahead of the game so far.
Thank you to all who came out to see Bob Barrett at our last meeting at Sacred Heart. Bob has made fast work with a number of dioceses who do not currently have clubs. Also, Bob is the force behind the College Connection for the Detroit/Oakland Serra Club. I ask each of you to pray about joining me in taking on the College Connection for our club. I think this is a great service and have watched too many young people head off to school knowing where everything else is on campus but the location of the Catholic church. Let me know your thoughts on the College Connection at the next meeting.
As we look forward to spring, you will need to mark your calendars for Sunday, April 22 for the 2nd annual day with Serra and the Sisters at the White Caps! More to follow soon. I look forward to seeing you at all of our February Meetings.
Mary, Mother of Vocations, Pray for Us!
Adoration Reminder.
St. Isidore, 24/7. Code 513.
IHM, 24/5. Code 5412.
