Dear St. Mary on the Lake and Sacred Heart, Totus Tuus is this week! Check to see if there are still open slots if you have not already signed up. It is a great week! Totus Tuus will include Mass at St. Mary on the Lake every day this week at 11:15am with the kids, and you are welcome to attend. We will still have our regularly scheduled Masses Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday at Sacred Heart this week. Fr. Paul is covering St. Anthony’s in Hillsdale July 6

Dear Sacred Heart and St Mary on the Lake, Blessed 4th of July weekend and 250th birthday of America. An important time to reflect on our many blessings, the sacrifices of those who enabled us to enjoy such blessings, and the ways we can continue to grow. May we each be able to see the small way we can make our country a better place by how we live in Manitou Beach and Hudson. The following is an abridged form of the “Prayer for the Government of the United

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, We have a lot happening this weekend! I am so pleased to welcome Fr. Josh Bauer for a Mass of Thanksgiving this weekend at our 11am Mass at Sacred Heart. It was great to have him with us many times over the years as a seminarian and he left his mark with us- particularly helping with painting at Sacred Heart School and other projects. But it was better yet to see him grow into his vocation and now to welcome him as a

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Every summer each parish in the Diocese hosts a summer mission appeal. They are a direct reminder of the fact that there is no such thing as a lone wolf Christian. The reality is that we are all a part of the body of Christ and that means we are a family with brothers and sisters. St. Paul perhaps best captures this truth in his first letter to the Church in Corinthians 12:12-26: “As a body is on

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, This weekend we celebrate our parish feast day, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. Make sure to enjoy the ice cream after the Masses. What does this feast mean for me? A common question people ask is simply this: “What is it like to be a priest?” One way I describe it is that being a priest is to see with the heart of God. It is a glimpse behind the veil when we see others as Jesus sees them.

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, We celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi in which we celebrate the gift of Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist. I love meeting with our little kids preparing for their first Holy Communion and asking them how much of Himself Jesus gives in the Eucharist. All of Himself. Then to ask how much of ourselves we are meant to give to Him when we receive. All of ourselves. On this weekend I wanted to share part of this a

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Construction time! This coming Monday, June 1st, the window replacement project at Sacred Heart School kicks off. Krieghoff will hit the ground running and aims to have it completed by August 14th. Over that two and half month period, I ask for your patience and cooperation with the construction zone. At various times our school parking lot will be more or less available as there will be equipment moving about.

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Blessings and safety for everyone this Memorial Day weekend. We will be celebrating Mass at 8am at Calvary Cemetery in Hudson on Memorial Day. It is a powerful way to start this day praying for those who have died so that we might have the freedoms we enjoy. It is a small way to thank them and their families who suffered their loss. I have been so pleased with the growing number of people who pray this Mass with

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Congratulations and blessings on our High School graduates! For those who will be pursuing college I have included this link to Newman ministries. It will be a help to get plugged into a good Catholic community at college. https://newmanministry.com/ Theology on Tap: This will be Friday, June 19th, at Clark Lake Golf Course from 5:30-7:30pm. There is RSVP info available on the posters in the

Dear St. Mary on the Lake and Sacred Heart, A Blessed Mother’s Day to all of our moms! We cannot say thank you enough for your love and sacrifices given and expressed in many ways we will never know. Over the years I have talked with a number of moms who struggle with the fact that they themselves were not perfect parents, not a perfect mom. Sometimes that can be a discordant note of sadness on this day that should be so bright. If that is a burden, I enc

Dear St. Mary on the Lake and Sacred Heart, This weekend I want to continue sharing some tips for our families bringing little ones to Mass. If you didn’t happen to see last week’s bulletin a reminder- For all our families with young kids: You are welcome at Mass! Not just welcome- you are wanted at Mass! A few weeks ago, our parishioner Bea Cuthbertson stopped by and we were rejoicing at all the young families and kids we have been seeing at Mass. She la

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, I will be gone this week (Mon-Fri) to Mundelein Seminary (Mundelein is just north of Chicago) for my Spiritual direction course. This was a three-year program and this week begins the final year. It has been a great blessing for me personally in my priesthood, along with being a blessing in helping me minister better. There are about 80 priests who are there for the week so it is also wonderful to spend time with

Hello parishioners of Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake! My name is Mason Abbott and I am very much looking forward to being with you all this summer. I grew up in Lansing, at Church of the Resurrection parish. I was born into a Catholic family of four boys, of which I am the third. We originally were at St. Martha’s in Okemos, but switched over to Resurrection when I was in 2nd grade and we have been there ever since. I have been in Catholic school my whole life. I fir

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Many Blessings on this Divine Mercy Sunday. A trick question I like to ask our school kids or those in faith formation is if they know what the unforgivable sin is. It is a trick question because that sin doesn’t exist. The only sin that God can’t forgive is the one that I don’t give to Him to forgive. May this Divine Mercy Sunday remind us of that great truth. If there is any sin we have been carrying around,

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Blessed Easter! My encouragement this Easter is simply to live it. Live the graces of this past Lent and live the freedom already given us by the Resurrection. The promise of Easter isn’t just something far off, to be received only at the end of our earthly lives as we enter eternity. We should see and enjoy the fruits of victory over death and sin right now. Many little dying’s and being raised to new life lea

Dear St. Mary on the Lake and Sacred Heart, A Blessed beginning of Holy Week to everyone. Our job is a simple one this week—be taken up into the great arc of our Salvation. May this week remind us that there is nothing abstract or distant in any part of it. Jesus is not just redeeming people in a broad sense. He is redeeming me. He is saving me. I would encourage you to come to as many of the Holy Week liturgies as possible- Holy Thursday, Good Friday,

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Many blessings on Sacred Heart School this weekend as we have our Open House following the 11am Mass. (Our original Open House was rescheduled due to a snowstorm.) Please come by the school for a visit and a walk through. The Czeiszperger family will be making fresh crepes in the school basement and who doesn’t like fresh crepes! I am so proud of our school, our teachers, our staff, and our stud

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, The 18 th grandbaby (a little girl) for the Koenigsknecht clan is due anytime now. Having failed in the family betting pool regarding the right day and time 17 times previously, I have the evidentiary misguided hope that I will win this time! I have been gone for Mary’s feast day, the Annunciation on the 25 th so hopefully I will be able to celebrate two things that day. It is hard to believe how quickly this s

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, I am very happy to welcome Fr. Matthew Bonk this weekend. We parish-swapped for the weekend—I am up in Flint covering his parishes so he can be with us to celebrate Mass and invite everyone to the Lenten mission each evening Sunday-Tuesday. A reminder that Fr. Matthew is also going to be celebrating a bonus Mass followed by breakfast, with a time for Q & A on Monday morning at St. Mary on the Lake, at 9:30. His p

Dear St. Mary on the Lake and Sacred Heart, We now have Votive Candles at both Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake. What is the meaning of Votive Candles? “Votive comes from the Latin votum, meaning promise, dedication or simply ‘ prayer. ’ It reinforces the idea that the candles represent our prayers before God. As humans, we are body and soul and our prayers often need to be expressed in a physical, tangible way. … Similar to incense, the light of th