July 31-August 2, 2015. Serra International Convention, Melbourne, Australia. Msgr. Hankowicz, Dan Grady, John Osterhart (and Ellen), and Dennis Leiber (and Margaret) will attend from our club.
Our board chose Dan Grady and John Osterhart as delegates from our club.
August 10, 2015. Luncheon Meeting and Speaker, 12:00 Noon at the University Club.
August 15, 2015. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Not a holy day of obligation).
August 22, 2015. The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
September 21-28, 2015. World Meeting of Families, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. See the Diocese of Grand Rapids website for information about this Congress. Also, look for opportunities for a virtual pilgrimage. Families interested in attending may visit the WorldMeeting website.
November 7-13, 2015. National Vocation Awareness Week.
January 14-16, 2016. Serra Rally, Houston, Texas.
Priests' Anniversaries for August.
Reverend George Darling, August 11, 1984.
Reverend Stephen Dudek, August 11, 1984.
Reverend Dennis O'Donnell, August 20, 1983.
Reverend Dennis Morrow, August 24, 1975.
Reverend James B, Wyse, August 29, 1987.
Our Prayers are Requested.
Our prayers are requested for Mary Stepanovich, who is being treated for cancer, for
Hazel Paul, who has returned home, but is facing repair of a heart valve, andfor
Robbie Gross. Beth's latest note indicated that she has gone home but faces long rehab.
She and the family thank you for all your prayers and concern. Also, pray for the repose of the soul of Marian Marrow, mother of Fr. Dennis Morrow. Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated on June 20 at Ss, Peter and Paul, with the Most Reverend David J. Walkowiak officiating.
Serra's 80th Anniversary.
As we celebrate Serra's 80th anniversary, we note that copyright and literary property rights have been transferred to Loyola University, Chicago. Information about the archives and special collections have been cataloged at UA1991.01, UA 1992.19, and UA2007.35.
The administrative history of Serra appears as follows:
Serra was founded in 1934 by Harold Haberlie, Dan Rooney, Leo Sharkey, and Richard Ward in Seattle, Washington. These four men and their wives met in Leo Sharkey's home to discuss the idea of starting a Catholic Service Club and thus Serra was born. The first Serra club was chartered in Seattle with 35 members in 1935 Serra officially became Serra International in 1938, at the first convention. The first official Serra club outside the United States was chartered in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1943.
Serra International is named for Father Junipero Serra, a Franciscan friar who founded the mission chain in Alta, California. The mandate of Serra International is to foster and promote vocations in the Catholic Church and to aid in financing the education of seminarians. Serra clubs were chartered around the world to help promote Catholic vocations.
As interest in Serra International's work increased, so did the number of clubs. In 1954 The Serran magazine was first published in efforts to keep Serrans around the country informed. International clubs also had their version of The Serran, which was published in a variety of languages. Every year an annual convention was held to gather the clubs and decide on uniform goals for promoting Catholic vocations. Committees and programs were also created to help promote and finance vocations.
In 1946 Serra International moved its central offices to Chicago, and the headaquarters have remained in Chicago to this day. The growth of international clubs greatly expanded in the 1950s and 1960s as clubs were chartered in the countries of Canada, Mexico, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as additional charters across the United States. National Councils were formed in Great Britain, Brazil, and Spain...
About our Meeting Times.
In addition to this historical overview, Mark Meyers, onetime president of the Kansas City Serra Club adds this perspective regarding to meeting schedules for Serra Clubs:
"When the club was established, it was common for businessmen to enjoy 'two martini lunches,' one reason why the twice monthly meetings are commonly held over the lunch hour, although few businessmen have time nowadays for a long lunch."
Our club has long held that same tradition of holding two monthly lunchtime meetings. In recent times, our board has begun discussing possibilities of a change in that format. A number of Serrans who have tried to recruit new members have mentioned that potentially interested new members would not be able to attend the luncheon meetings and have therefore declined the invitations.
In July our Board decided to poll our membership about your suggestions. One distinct possibility is to go to one evening meeting at the University Club and one luncheon Board meeting at Ss. Peter and Paul. A suggested time for the evening meeting was 5:30 p.m.
Please reply to Nancy King at njking50@gmail.com to voice your opinions. We want to hear from you. We have made no official plans and will not do so until we know what you think. Please reply, whether you would like to keep the present schedule of whether you would have no serious objections to the new plan. We would make no changes, if we do so at all, in our meeting schedule until January, 2016. At any rate, a change in the schedule would require an amendment to our by-laws.
Our Plans for celebrating the Canonization.
The Board is also making plans for a special celebration of the Canonization on September 23.
A number of Board members are exploring the possibilities, whether it be a speaker, an event at the direction of the diocese, a lecture at Aquinas, or a meeting with local Franciscans. We will notify you as soon as a plan emerges.
Sara Vanderwerff plans to attend the canonization if she can get a ticket and a security clearance. Our Board voted to make her our official club representative if her plans materialize.
Thoughts from John Liston, who writes, "Serra is a "YES" organization.
"Yes" is an incredibly important concept for Serrans and all Catholics. In many respects, everything that we do as Serrans flows from the word "yes." We seek to help men and women say "yes" to their vocations to the ministerial priesthood or consecrated religious life, we say "yes" to our own personal call to holiness through prayer and good works. We say "yes" to our bishops, priests, and religious when asked for assistance.
All of these "yeses" are faint echoes of the most important "yes" in the history of the world. They all stem from Jesus Christ saying "yes" to death on the cross for our salvation (Romans 4:25). The Son of God said "yes" to an agonizing death because that was the only way He could also say "yes" to redeem humanity and conquer sin.
Jesus' "yes" and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, empowered the Apostles and disciples to preach the Gospel to all nations, despite the persecution they faced. Jesus' "yes" laid the foundation for our Church and led St. John Paul II to proclaim: "Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." That is exactly what Serrans must do: go out into the deep, outside of our comfort zone, to increase vocations and help spread the Gospel throughout the world.
Serrans must focus their efforts on assisting seminarians, postulants, novices, and those discerning a vocation to say "yes" to the Lord's call. This can be done through words of encouragement, but it should also be done through prayer and other acts of support. Additionally, Serrans are tasked with supporting and affirming priests, sisters, and brothers who have already said "yes" to their vocations.
Serrans must also say "yes" to their own personal call to holiness. However, merely saying "yes" is insufficient. Serrans must also live out their call to holiness and act in a way that allows everything they do to affirm their call to holiness. This call was clarified in 1988 by the Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici:
The Second Vatican Council has significantly spoken on the universal call to holiness. It is possible to say that this call to holiness is precisely the basic charge entrusted to all the sons and daughters of the Church by a Council which intended to bring a renewal of Christian life based on the gospel (41).
This charge is not a simply moral exhortation, but an undeniable requirement arising from the mystery of the Church: she is the choice vine, whose branches live and grow with the same holy and life-giving energies that come from Christ; she is the Mystical Body, whose members share in the same life of holiness of the Head who is Christ; she is the Beloved Spouse of the Lord Jesus, who delivered himself up for her sanctification (cf. Eph 5:25 ff.). The Spirit that sanctified the human nature of Jesus in Mary's virginal womb (cf. Lk 1:35) is the same Spirit that is abiding and working in the Church to communicate to her the holiness of the Son of God made man.
It is ever more urgent that today all Christians take up again the way of gospel renewal, welcoming in a spirit of generosity the invitation expressed by the apostle Peter "to be holy in all conduct" (1 Pt 1:15). The 1985 Extraordinary Synod, twenty years after the Council, opportunely insisted on this urgency" "Since the Church in Christ is a mystery, she ought to be considered the sign and instrument of holiness...Men and women saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult circumstances in the Church's history. Today we have the greatest need of saints whom we must assiduously beg God to raise up"(42).
The need for saints to rise up is even greater now than it was in 1988. That's the bad news. The good news is that anyone can become a saint by saying "yes" to a life of holiness. Recently, Pope Francis reminded us that we are all called to be saints. The Holy Father said, "Be holy by becoming a visible sign of God's love and His presence beside us. This is it: every state of life leads to holiness, always! At home, on the streets, at work, at church, in the moment and with the state of life that you have, a door is opened on the road to sainthood." Serrans have the opportunity to become visible signs of God's love by saying "yes" to Serra's objectives and purposes in their work to foster, promote, and affirm vocations and by responding to their own call to holiness.
Through Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, the Rosary, and prayers, Serrans say "yes" to their call for holiness. By encouraging, inviting, promoting, and affirming vocations, Serrans bear witness to Christ's love in this world. In living lives of holiness, Serrans walk to the path of sainthood.
Source: the Serran, Vol. 62 No. 2
Our president reaffirms John Liston's message.
On Thursday, July 30, President Weldon Schwartz wrote:
"Sorry about the delay in getting the President's message to you, but I've been outof town dealing with the death and subsequent funeral arrangements for my late mother-in-law, Elizabeth Hinch, age 95, who passed away a couple of weeks ago in Royal Oak. Funeral Mass is this Saturday in Berkley. We are involved in emptying out her apartment at the Senior Center.
My wife and my mother-in-law's two sons and I were with her through her final hours in the hospital. We were with her when she received last rites from the priest chaplain, to her final minutes on this earth and then bade her good-bye for the last time.
She wanted to die naturally, and refused all extraordinary measures that would have been needed to keep her alive. I believe that she went straight from this earth into heavenly reward to join her late husband, who had passed away five years ago.
It has been said many times before, time on this earth is limited and we have a duty to live our lives well, following the teachings of the Catholic Church as a good Catholic should."
He later added, ,"We are in the midst of some interesting potential changes in the way we conduct our business. We are also making plans about the upcoming canonization of our Patron. I would hope that you would think about the proposals that are discussed above in this newsletter and let us know your thoughts".
.
Adoration.
IHM 24/5, code 5412; and St. Isidore, 24/7, code 613.
