From the Pastor's Desk | June 29, 2025

Various Musings...

You can tell it’s summer with a headline Various Musings. I cannot believe that next week will be the Fourth of July! Summer flies by! 

I sit on the board of directors of the Michigan Association of Nonpublic Schools. Last week, I was up north for our board planning days and board retreat. We were able to get a round of golf in at Crooked Tree (Petoskey, MI) but the majority of the week was filled up setting the agenda for next year, approving budgets, etc. This association, under the auspices of the Michigan Catholic Conference, advocates on behalf of all of the faith-based schools in the state of Michigan. It is an incredible organization and staff and certainly worthwhile ensuring we have a voice downtown Lansing. 

Next week, July 7-9, I will be at the University of Notre Dame attending the School Pastor Institute as part of the Alliance for Catholic Education. This is a leadership symposium for pastors of Catholic schools designed to help us respond to the unique and complex challenges and opportunities related to serving as a pastor of a parish school. I am very much looking forward to this. Being on the campus of the University of Notre Dame is always exciting and I am hoping to get a round of golf in at Warren Golf Club. We’ll see…

Fr. Ginu Abraham, who will succeed Fr. David Fons as the pastor of St. Mary in Williamston, moves into the rectory this weekend. If you see him around St. Martha, please be sure to introduce yourselves and offer some words of encouragement. I do not know him well but will get to know him as we will occupy the rectory together. Please keep him and his ministry in your prayers. 

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. If you attend daily Mass, you might notice that some days we celebrate a Saint’s feast day and other days we do not. The General Roman Calendar is the liturgical calendar that dictates the dates of the celebrations of Saints and the mysteries of the Lord. These dates either occur on a fixed date or a particular day of the week. There is also a rank or order of these celebrations: 

Solemnities - these are the highest ranking feast days typically commemorating major events in the life of Jesus or the Blessed Mother, or the most important Saints. Examples include Christmas, Easter, Pentecost…

• Feast Days - these are a step down from solemnities but still quite important to the life of the Church. They often celebrate lesser events in the life of Jesus or major Saints. 

• Obligatory Memorials - these are celebrations of Saints or other events but are not as prominent as solemnities or feasts. 

• Optional Memorials - these are similar to obligatory memorials but the presider of the Mass has the option to celebrate the particular Saint or not. 

• Ferial Days - these are ordinary days of the week in which a solemnity, feast day, or memorial is not celebrated.

Commemorations - during the season of Lent we do not celebrate feast days or memorials. Rather, due to the penitential nature of the season of the Lent, we commemorate the particular Saint whose feast or memorial might fall on a particular day during Lent by praying the collect (opening prayer) of the particular Saint but the rest of the Mass is taken from the season of Lent. 

Think of it this way, the General Roman Calendar is like the heartbeat of the Church. When you look at an electrocardiogram, you see a visual representation of the electrical activity of the heart. You see the heart beat - the rises and falls. Similarly, throughout the liturgical year, our celebrations rise and fall with solemnities, feast days, memorials, and ferial days. Some days we have major celebrations while other days we move through the ordinary. 

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. Both were major Apostles of Jesus - Peter the rock on which Christ founded his Church and Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. We celebrate their feast day together for a couple of reasons. First, they were united in mission. Certainly they had disagreements but they were united in making Jesus Christ and drawing others to Him. And, they always worked through their disagreements in a spirit of collegiality and, to use the “church word” of the day, synodality. Second, they were both martyred in Rome; their belief and passion for Jesus Christ ended up getting them killed. 

Every five years, the bishops of the Church are required to make an ad limina visit to Rome. Ad limina means to the thresholds of the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul. During this visit, the bishops pray at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul and meet with the Holy Father and various dicastery heads to report on the state of their respective dioceses. 

I think there are two takeaways from the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles. The first is unity. Pope Leo XIV’s motto, as I mentioned last week, is In Illo Uno Unum, or, In the One We Are One. Peter and Paul were unified in mission. Their mission is the Church’s mission - to make Jesus Christ known, to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and to bring salvation to the world. Our mission must be their mission and we must be unified in this mission. 

The second takeaway from today’s solemnity is that Saints Peter and Paul were willing to die for the mission. How hard are we working to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Do we believe the Gospel is truly Good News for the world? For our families? For our friends? Are we willing to risk everything for the sake of Jesus Christ and his mission? Are we all in?

As we pray today, we pray for unity within the wider Church, in our parish, in our diocese, in our world. We also pray for the fortitude to be all in and on mission for Jesus Christ and his Church. 

Know of my prayers for you all! 

Fr. Ryan