From the Pastor's Desk

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Each October the Diocese has us celebrate Safe Haven Sunday - a weekend meant to encourage us in making our homes real safe havens. We are all generally good at knowing who is welcomed into our homes and we have security in place so those who shouldn’t be in our homes can’t get there. This weekend reminds to be so intentional with the things that enter our homes, lives, and hearts through the internet. If we don’t have some contro

Dear St. Mary on the Lake and Sacred Heart I will be gone Oct 16-23, so starting this coming Friday. The majority of this will be for my annual priest retreat as a part of my spiritual direction program through the Institute of Priest Formation. (I will have one more session in February to complete the three-year program. We meet at Mundelein Seminary in northern Illinois). I am adding a couple of days to the retreat window so I can visit Alex Cziezsperger, our parish sem

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Thank you, Fr. Kusi, for covering Masses this weekend. Currently I am up in St. Paul, MN visiting the seminary before heading back down to Mundelein seminary this Sunday afternoon to begin retreat. I finish retreat Friday morning and drive back that afternoon. Thank you again for your prayers for me and know of mine. It is a blessing to return to my Alma Mater, St. John Vianney College Seminary. I haven’t been there since my b

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Thank you for the many volunteers that make the Roast Beef Dinner possible each year. It is taking place this weekend, Sunday, October 4th Noon-2pm. Come on by for a tasty take-out dinner. I am looking forward to classroom visits this coming week. The kids have been saving up questions and I am always so edified by their sincere and growing faiths. I wish I would have been asking the questions they are asking about God when I

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, A word from Bishop Boyea inviting us to join him for the year of the Family. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, The family is the domestic church and the foundation of society. It is where future generations are born, educated, and formed, and where vocations to the priesthood and religious life most often take root. So, how can we help our families grow in holiness and happiness? Beginning this September, I invite

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Fr. Paul, Fr. Kusi, and myself will be gone this week Monday-Thursday for our annual priest convocation. There will be a Monday morning Mass but no Masses Tuesday-Thursday. Please pray for us as we get together and we will be praying for you. It is always so good to see the brothers. Next Sunday, October 4th is the annual Roast beef dinner at Sacred Heart. I hope to see you there as you stop by for delicious take out meals. I

Dear St. Mary on the Lake and Sacred Heart, It is a joy to have our students back for the new school year. Our first week I made the rounds of all the classrooms and was again inspired by the great questions the kids were asking. One was about the authorship of the books of the Bible. Who wrote them and when? How did that work? We know quite a few specifics in regards to the authors of the books of the New Testament but not nearly as many in regards to the Old Testament

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, This weekend I want to share a story from Fr. Kusi that was put out by the Diocese about a year ago that we may have missed. Now that he is a part of our parishes, I thought it would be nice for us to hear his story of a partial healing he experienced at a prayer service. Fr. Kusi shared this story on the feast day of St. James, his previous parish: “I had open heart surgery on January 23, 2024, for a valve replacement on my aor

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, Just a reminder that you are welcome to visit Sacred Heart School after Masses this weekend if you would like to see how it looks with the window project wrapped up. It is great! I have included this Biography from Harrison. He will be moving in later this week. As a heads up- he does have a nut allergy, particularly peanuts and pistachios. “Hello everyone, my name is Harrison Bertram. I am 24 years old and was born and raise

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, I am getting very excited for the beginning of the school year! We have an open house at the School August 29/30 for anyone to come over after the weekend Masses at Sacred Heart if you would like to see all of the renovations. I am very happy with them. Many, many thanks to all of your and our benefactors who have made this project possible! In the first week of September, we will be welcoming Harrison Bertram for the year. He

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, After Masses this weekend I will be finishing my summer vacation time this week (Mon-half of Wednesday) with a sibling’s camping trip. This is our third year making it happen with all ten of us siblings and all the nieces and nephews (now 18 strong). We will be at a family campground on the westside of Michigan where I will be happily staying in an air-conditioned cabin! Now that we are in August, I am really looking for

Dear St. Mary on the Lake and Sacred Heart, As you read this, I am out West. It is a goal among us brothers to not be Tourons (tourists + morons) so hopefully we have not been a part of any viral videos circulating the web for doing something dumb in the national parks! It is hard to believe that Mason’s internship will be shortly drawing to a close. His last weekend will be next weekend, August 8/9th. He will be returning to Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. Lord

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, I will be gone July 27-August 3 for vacation. I will be heading out west with my twin brother, Fr. Gary, and our oldest brother. We will be splitting our time between Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. This will be my first visit to these national parks and I have heard how beautiful they are. All three of us love hiking so it is going to be a great time. Fr. Kusi will be covering daily Masses while I am away.

Dear Sacred Heart and St. Mary on the Lake, A big thank you to Katie Mocny and all the volunteers who helped to put on Totus Tuus this year! It is a blessing for all of our kids. Thank you to our missionaries who were willing to spend a summer serving in parishes throughout our Diocese. It has been a blessing having Fr. Kusi move into the rectory at St. Mary on the Lake and it will be a great blessing to have his help when I take some tim

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