Catholic Community of St. Jude at 801 North Bridge Street, DeWitt, MI 48820 US - Home

Welcome, Fr. Bob Irish!

 

I received word earlier this week that Bishop Boyea has decided to send Fr. Bob Irish to serve our parish community in place of Fr. Pieter Van Rooyen. Fr. Bob has been working in hospital ministry for a number of years, most recently at a Catholic hospital in Las Vegas, NV. Fr. Bob has decided to return to parish work within the Diocese of Lansing, and will begin his service to the parish on June 26, 2013. In turn, this will allow Fr. Pieter to begin his advanced degree work a year earlier than originally anticipated. Here are some words of greeting from Fr. Bob:

 

“Happy Easter to the family at St. Jude!  I grew up in Grand Ledge with 8 brothers and sisters and an even larger family with 24 nephews and nieces, 42 grand nephews and nieces and 6 great-grand nephews and nieces, many of whom still live in the mid-Michigan area.  I was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lansing in March 1992. Prior to priesthood, I served as a police officer, professional minor league baseball umpire and high school teacher and coach. I have served St. John’s parish in Jackson, St. Patrick parish in Brighton, and as pastor of Holy Trinity Student Chapel in Ypsilanti. For the last 16 years I have ministered outside the diocese in Catholic healthcare. I spent the last 5 years as Vice President of Mission in a Catholic hospital in Las Vegas. There will be time to tell you more about my story and I look forward to hearing your story in the months to come.  I am humbled to be assigned to your parish community and look forward to my continued ministry as priest with all of you.  As this period of transition will occur on June 26, I ask that you keep both Fr. Dwight and me in your prayers as we each adapt and grow with our respective new community.”

 

Please help Fr. Bob to feel welcome here in our parish community. I know Fr. Bob from my first assignment at St. Thomas in Ann Arbor and used to help out when he was at Holy Trinity, Ypsilanti. I think his skills and priestly experience will be a great benefit to all. Let’s also wish Fr. Pieter well as he looks forward to his return to school.

 

Fr. Dwight

 

Parish Pictorial Directory

When the link opens it will ask you first for the number of subjects(people plus animals) that will be in your portrait.  Once you have selected a number the dates for portraits will lighten in the calendar, if you want a date in May, click the arrow on the calendar to advance it to May. All the available dates will lighten and you can choose from them.
Click here to sign up for an appointment time. To learn more about the Pictorial Directory see the article information. 

 

The Story Behind the New Crucifix in the Church

You may have noticed that there is now a permanent crucifix on the large oak cross in the church. There’s a wonderful story behind how all this came about.

Several years ago, Bishop Boyea noted that we did not have a permanent crucifix in the church near the altar. He asked me to work on making sure that one was put in place. At first, I thought that a large crucifix suspended over the altar would be a good solution. After pricing large crucifixes (between $30,000 and $50,000), I decided this would not be an option—especially since we were still in the midst of the debt reduction campaign. I just didn’t feel comfortable approaching the parish community with yet another special collection at that time. However, as the saying goes, God does work in mysterious ways.

A family approached me some time later with a request. One of their long-time friends who had the bishop’s permission to have a chapel in her home was aging and was faced with the need to move to senior living. She had to sell her home and it meant finding a new place of honor for the beautiful crucifix that had been in that chapel for many years. They asked if the crucifix could find a new home at St. Jude. See where this is heading?

They brought the crucifix to church some time later and the moment I saw it I knew that it was meant to be the permanent crucifix in the church near the altar. I carried it to the large oak cross and held it in place. It was home. The contrast between the ebony color of the cross and the color of the oak in the church is perfect. Indeed, the size and scale of the crucifix are perfect, too—it was exactly the size that was needed to fit beautifully on the cross. In addition, the corpus (the statue of Christ’s body hanging on the cross) was equally beautiful. The crucifix had found its new home!

Thanks to Roger Pline who lovingly cleaned it and the large oak cross and then mounted the new crucifix in place. Roger also fashioned the new bracket and wall mounting that are used with the processional crucifix. The processional crucifix will continue to be used for each Mass in the main church as well as for weekday Masses and any other Mass that is celebrated in the gathering space.

Please make sure to take the time to step up close to the new crucifix and admire it. It is a wonderful work of art. My thanks to the parish family who helped to make all this possible.

 

Bridge Street Construction and Repaving

You may have noticed that one of Michigan’s two seasons (construction—the other season is winter) has come to downtown DeWitt. The city has begun the process of installing sidewalks along the west side of Bridge Street from downtown to the north edge of the church property. After the sidewalks are finished, Bridge Street will be resurfaced from downtown DeWitt all the way north to the city boundary. The city has assured us that the resurfacing project will require just a few days to accomplish and will be done with as little inconvenience as possible. We’ll try to keep everyone posted once we know a firm date for the start of the resurfacing work.

 

6:00 PM Sunday Evening Mass Schedule

for the Month of May

Over the last few years, we have developed the pattern of not celebrating the 6:00 PM Sunday evening Mass on holidays and certain other special weekends. We will continue this pattern. Here is the schedule for the 6:00 PM Sunday evening Mass for the entire month of May:

 

May 12 NO 6:00 PM Mass (Mother’s Day)

May 19 6:00 PM Mass will be celebrated

May 26 NO 6:00 PM Mass (Memorial Day)

 

The Sunday evening Mass will go on its summer vacation beginning Sunday, May 26, and will return Sunday, September 8, the Sunday after Labor Day.

 

Offertory Envelope Booklets Now Available for Pick-up

Our 2013-2014 annual offertory envelope booklets are now available for pick-up in the parish hall. Picking up your annual envelope booklet helps to save the parish almost $2000 in postage!

 

If You Are Hospitalized at Sparrow, Lansing

Sparrow Hospital has recently implemented an electronic medical records system for all its patients. If you are hospitalized at Sparrow, make sure to have your record note that you are Catholic, that you belong to St. Jude, and whether or not you wish to have communion brought to you by one of the many laypeople who do so on a daily basis. Without these vital pieces of information, we won’t be informed that you are hospitalized.

It is also very helpful to have a family member or friend (with your permission) call the parish offices to let us know that you have been admitted to the hospital, as there can be some lag-time before we are notified by Sparrow. Making sure to let us know here at the parish and making sure to inform the folks at Sparrow is the best way to make sure these bases are covered.

I and the other members of the pastoral staff are happy to come visit folks at any of our area health care facilities, but it’s best if you or someone you love let us know, rather than assuming that the hospital or care facility either can or will share that information with us. Because of HIPPA privacy laws, the sharing of such information is no longer automatic.

 

 

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