To prepare for Christmas, Good Shepherd will offer a time for Adoration and additional Confession times on Friday, December 14 from 7:00 – 9:30 p.m.
Come open your hearts to receive God’s mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation in this healing sacrament. God’s waiting are you ready?
The Knights of Columbus are sponsoring a “Keep Christ in Christmas” poster contest. Registrations for the contest will be sent home with children to be signed and turned in. Poster paper, supplies, and time will be provided during class time. We are excited to learn and prepare for Christmas with this extra fun opportunity. Thank you Knights of Columbus!
Peace,
– Gina
Below you will find our Advent, Christmas and New Year’s Mass schedule. We hope that this will help you and your family draw closer to Christ.
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (Holy Day of Obligation)
December 7 – Vigil
December 8 – Holy Day
Adoration and Confession
December 24 – Vigil of Christmas
December 25 – Christmas
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Holy Day)
December 31 (Vigil)
January 1
Weekly Confession at Good Shepherd: Tuesdays 5:30 – 6:30 pm, Saturdays, 3-4 pm
Weekly Confession at St. Robert: Wednesday 5:30-6:30, Saturday 9-10 am,
Sundays 5-6 pm
As the Church prepares to celebrate the Immaculate Conception the below article explains the beauty of this Holy Day.
It’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without the intervention of a human father; but that is the Virgin Birth. Others think the Immaculate Conception means Mary was conceived “by the power of the Holy Spirit,” in the way Jesus was, but that, too, is incorrect. The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception was brought about the normal way, was conceived without original sin or its stain—that’s what “immaculate” means: without stain. The essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of sanctifying grace, and its stain is a corrupt nature. Mary was preserved from these defects by God’s grace; from the first instant of her existence she was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free from the corrupt nature original sin brings.
When discussing the Immaculate Conception, an implicit reference may be found in the angel’s greeting to Mary. The angel Gabriel said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). The phrase “full of grace” is a translation of the Greek word kecharitomene. It therefore expresses a characteristic quality of Mary.
The traditional translation, “full of grace,” is better than the one found in many recent versions of the New Testament, which give something along the lines of “highly favored daughter.” Mary was indeed a highly favored daughter of God, but the Greek implies more than that (and it never mentions the word for “daughter”). The grace given to Mary is at once permanent and of a unique kind.Kecharitomene is a perfect passive participle of charitoo, meaning “to fill or endow with grace.” Since this term is in the perfect tense, it indicates that Mary was graced in the past but with continuing effects in the present. So, the grace Mary enjoyed was not a result of the angel’s visit. In fact, Catholics hold, it extended over the whole of her life, from conception onward. She was in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence.
taken from Catholic.com
We prepare for everything we consider important in life and that includes Christmas. Join our parish for Best Advent Ever, a free email program that will help you prepare for Christmas in a unique way. Each day you’ll receive an email with short inspirational videos from Matthew Kelly, practical tips for your everyday life, and real life stories of hope. To Sign-Up Visit: dynamiccatholic.com/best-advent-ever.
We have gathered some resources to help you and your family celebrate Advent.
Children’s Online Advent Calendar
Blessing the Family Christmas Tree
Find the Story behind the Christmas Stories
Four Gifts for You this Advent
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Online Retreats to Help You Celebrate the Season of Advent
Sign up for online Sacred Advent Retreat
Sacred Advent is a daily e-mail prayer break during a busy season. Each day invites you to a step-by-step progression of praying with a Scripture reading and related points of reflection.
Sign up for Matthew Kelly’s Best Advent Ever to receive daily inspirational emails with short videos, encouragement, and coaching for Advent.
More Advent Resources…
Celebrating Advent as a Family – here are several ideas for how you can celebrate Advent.
A favorite idea I took from the above is: Advent Angels – At the beginning of Advent each family member can blindly pick a name of another member of the family and become his or her Advent angel. Prayers, sacrifices and acts of kindness can be offered and exercised daily. During the Christmas season small homemade gifts can be exchanged between the ‘angels’. This prolongs the joy of Christmas, encourages creativity and teaches children (and adults) to discover unique talents they can share with others.
How should we prepare for Christmas
Advent Resources from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
Christian Service will have a Giving Tree set up at the front entrance of the church on Saturday, December 1 and Sunday, December 2. Parishioners are asked to take a tag from the tree and purchase a gift for a local family in need.
Please return all gifts wrapped including the gift tag from the tree by Sunday, Dec. 16th.
May giving these gifts help remind us all of the joy and love celebrated on that first Christmas, and help to show the love of Good Shepherd to these families.
Following our recent diocesan assembly, Bishop Boyea has declared a Year of Prayer for the formation of missionary disciples. Our broken world can only find healing and peace in the Prince of Peace. Let us pray and discern how best to accomplish this new evangelization. https://dioceseoflansing.org/office-bishop/year-prayer
The men of our area gather on the third Thursday of each month to grow in faith, discipleship and brotherhood with prayer, Mass, and a dynamic speaker presentation of relevance. Come, join us to be strengthened in community, with reflection and practical application to grow in discipleship and live as a faith-filled man. We finish with great food, beverages and fellowship.
Holy Spirit
9565 Musch Rd,
Brighton, MI 48116
United States
Rory Clark
1-810-333-2746
Rory@SacredHeart.io
Check out their website for details
We hope you will find these resources helpful.
Bishop Robert Barron’s Video Why Remain Catholic? (With So Much Scandal)
May the below encourage you and offer some things that we all can do to help bring about a renewal in the church. As Ralph Martin said in his letter, ” Jesus is still Lord and will use the current grave problems to bring about good.” Jesus told us he will not abandon us, and the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.
Here are some other resources, which provide light and hope during this dark period:
Additional Prayers:
Together let’s pray for the victims and the entire Body of Christ.
Let’s also pray the rosary daily as Mary requested, for peace in the world and true renewal in the Church.
Our Lady of Sorrows… Pray for us!
what can we do as we continue to pray for the pope and our leaders that God may give them the wisdom and courage to deal with the root of the rot and bring about a real renewal of holiness and evangelization in the Church?
»We need to go about our daily lives, trying to live each day in a way pleasing to God, loving Him and loving our neighbor, including the neighbor in our own families. We need to look to ourselves, lest we fall.
»We need to remember that even though we have this treasure in earthen vessels (or as some translations put it, “cracked pots”), the treasure is no less the treasure. Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater! Baby Jesus is the treasure, and He is still as present as ever and still as ready to receive all who come to Him. And the Mass! Every day, He is willing to come to us in such a special way. Let’s attend daily Mass even more frequently, to offer the sacrifice of Jesus’ death and resurrection to God the Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, for the salvation of souls and the purification of the Church.
»We need to remember that the Catholic Church is indeed founded by Christ and, despite all problems, has within it the fullness of the means of salvation. Where else can we go? Nowhere; this is indeed our Mother and Home, and she needs our love, our prayers, and our persevering in the way of holiness more than ever.
»We need to remember that there are many truly holy and dedicated bishops and priests, and we must pray for them and support them. They need and deserve our support.
»We need to remember that this isn’t the first time such grave problems have beset the Church. In the fourteenth century, St. Catherine of Siena bemoaned the “stench of sin” coming from the papal court and prophesied that even the demons were disgusted by the homosexual activity he had tempted priests into and the cover up by their superiors! (See chapters 124-125 of Catherine of Siena’s The Dialogue.)
That isn’t to say that we don’t need to take seriously and do all we can in response to the grave scandal we are facing in our time. And yet we need to remember that all this is happening under the providence of God, and He has a plan to bring good out of it. It was even prophesied strongly in Mary’s apparitions in Akita, Japan. Jesus is still Lord and will use the current grave problems to bring about good.
And finally, I’m beginning to see why the Lord has impressed on me so strongly in the past year the urgent need to heed the appeals of Our Lady of Fatima. Indeed, as Mary said,
“Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and to pray for them.”
Let’s continue to pray and offer sacrifices for the conversion of sinners and as reparation for sin, and let’s pray the rosary daily as Mary requested, for peace in the world and true renewal in the Church.
taken from Letter by Ralph Martin “Dear Troubled Catholics”
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IF YOU HAVE BEEN ABUSED OR VICTIMIZED BY SOMEONE REPRESENTING THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
*Please believe in the possibility for hope and help and healing. We encourage you to come forward and speak out.
If I have been the victim of child sexual abuse by someone representing the Catholic Church, whom should I contact?
Contact the Victim Assistance Coordinator for the Diocese of Lansing, Cheryl Williams-Hecksel, LMSW, 888-308-6252 or cwilliamshecksel@dioceseoflansing.org.
What if I am an adult victim of sexual harassment, abuse, or other types of harassment by someone who works for the Catholic Church?
Contact the Lighthouse Incident Reporting service, 844-446-0009, or Lisa Kutas, Human Resources Director, 517-342-2511 or lkutas@dioceseoflansing.org.
Here are our recent bulletins
December 9, 2018