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From the Pastor's Desk | June 3, 2024
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8th Grade Trip
Last week, I spent a couple of days with our 8th graders, some parents, and Mrs. Patton on Mackinac Island. It was such a great experience spending time with them. I will miss this crew next year! I am also very encouraged and inspired by seeing the transformation of our kids as they move through St. Martha School. Our 8th graders have developed a desire for the Lord within their hearts that is perceptible. This is exactly what Catholic education is all about - forming, not only future scholars, but future saints who love the Lord. I am proud of the work being done in the school, our primary ministry in forming the youth of the parish.
As the school year winds down, please keep Mrs. Patton, Mrs. Farnsworth, all the faculty and staff in your prayers. They work extremely hard and are nearing the time for a much needed respite. Pray also for the kids and their families as they move into summer vacation.
Graduates
This is graduation season! Let us pray for our graduates from Lansing Catholic High School, Okemos High School, Haslett High School, Williamston High School, and the surrounding areas. Let us pray, certainly for the successes of their future endeavors but, most importantly, that they grow in the faith of Christ.
Fr. Mike and I had the blessing of being present for Lansing Catholic High School’s baccalaureate Mass. I also drove down for Father Gabriel Richard High School’s (Ann Arbor) baccalaureate Mass to watch my former students graduate. It is always a joy seeing the young men and women relish in their accomplishments and have such hope for the future!
Ordinations
This is also ordination season - the time of year when young men across the country are being ordained for ministry in the Church as deacons and priests. Just a few weeks ago, seven men were ordained transitional deacons for service in the Diocese of Lansing. We have with us for the next year Dcn. Jack Jobst who will, God willing, be ordained a priest in a year. Next week, two men will be ordained priests for service in the Diocese of Lansing.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor of vesting Fr. Matthew Kurt at his ordination Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Detroit. Fr. Kurt was one of my former students during my time at St. John Student Center on the campus of Michigan State some years ago. He will be assigned to St. Fabian in Farmington Hills for three years of service and then he will be released for active duty in the United States Army as a priest-chaplain. He is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army.
At Fr. Kurt’s ordination Mass, Archbishop Vigneron mentioned that the ordination of a priest is an occasion for both joy and renewal to the promises we made on the day of our ordination, whether we were ordained one year ago or fifty years ago. Please pray for these men! Being a priest is such a gift and an incredible joy, but it also comes with challenges and frustrations that are particular to being a priest.
Gospel Reflection
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, otherwise known as the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. We spent the four weeks of this past Advent focused on the Eucharist - the source and summit of the Christian Life.
From the earliest moments of the Church, the Apostles down through the Church Fathers, it has always been understood that the Eucharist is really, truly, and substantially Jesus Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity. From the earliest moments in the Church, the early Christians would gather on the Lord’s Day, read the Word, and celebrate the Eucharist. We read this in the earliest Church writings from the Didache through the patristic writings. It has always been understood that the Eucharist is what Jesus says it is - true food come down from heaven. 2,000 some years later, we gather every Sunday - on the Lord’s Day - to read the Word and celebrate the Eucharist just as our earliest brothers and sisters did because it is Jesus Christ who unites us around His very self.
In the words of the prophet Isaiah, we beg the Lord to come down and return for the sake of His servants. “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before you, while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for, such as they had not heard of from of old (Isaiah 63:19-64:1).” The heavens are rent, God has indeed come down, and, in the Eucharist, God has wrought the most awesome deed that we could hope for - God continually present among His people.
The Church has never understood the Eucharist to be just a mere sign or symbol, but rather God Himself. Flannery O’Connor, the great American novelist, in response to a friend who spoke of the Eucharist as just a symbol, said, “Well, if it is just a symbol, then to hell with it.” The Eucharist is an outward visible sign of an interior, invisible reality. The key word being reality. The Eucharist really and truly is Jesus Christ. It is the Eucharist that gives you and me the strength and resolve to live the Christian life. The Eucharist gives us strength precisely because the Eucharist is Jesus Christ.
As we pray today, particularly on this solemnity, let’s prayer perhaps for two specific graces:
· First, for greater trust in the Lord - particularly His words in John chapter 6
· Second, for greater faith in what the Church teaches to be True.
A blessed Corpus Christi
to you all!
Fr. Ryan
