On Thursday, February 24, over 800 priests, deacons, religious, parish staff and school teachers from throughout the Diocese of Lansing will gather to learn more about the implementation of Realign Resources for Mission across the diocese. Entitled “Made for Mission”, this one-day conference will afford participants an opportunity to talk, listen, discuss and, most importantly, pray with and for each other.
At the conclusion of a two-year review, the Realign Resources for Mission committee identified 24 parish groupings across the Diocese of Lansing where, they believed, greater co-operation between the parish communities could yield greater growth in both holiness and apostolate within each area. That plan has since been approved by Bishop Earl Boyea.
So far, Bishop Boyea has given the go-ahead for eight of these parish groupings to proceed with implementing the Realign Resources for Mission vision in their particular area.
Thus, over the next nine days you are asked to pray for the success of the Made for Mission conference and for the success of the Realign Resources for Mission process in each of these eight parish groupings. Today we pray for the Eastern Ingham Grouping: Saint Mary, Williamston; Saint Martha, Okemos. Here is the list for forthcoming days:
Day 2. The Eastern Washtenaw Grouping: St. John the Baptist, Ypsilanti; Christ the King, Ann Arbor; St. Joseph, Ypsilanti
Day 3. The Hillsdale Grouping: St. Anthony of Padua, Hillsdale; Sacred Heart, Hudson; St. Mary on the Lake, Manitou Beach
Day 4. The Jackson Grouping: St. John the Evangelist, Jackson; Queen of the Miraculous Medal, Jackson; St. Mary Star of the Sea, Jackson; St. Catherine Laboure, Concord
Day 5. The North Lansing Grouping: St. Mary Cathedral, Lansing; Church of the Resurrection, Lansing; St. Jude, DeWitt; St. Therese, Lansing; St. Andrew Dung-Lac, Lansing
Day 6. The South Washtenaw Grouping: St. Andrew, Saline; Immaculate Conception, Milan; St. Mary Manchester
Day 7. The Western Washtenaw Grouping: St. Joseph, Dexter; St. Mary, Chelsea
Day 8. The South Lansing Grouping: Immaculate Heart of Mary, Lansing; Cristo Rey, Lansing; St. Peter, Eaton Rapids; SS James, Cornelius, and Cyprian, Mason
Day 9. The Made for Mission Conference and the entire Diocese of Lansing
Both today, and for the next eight days, we encourage you to pray the Veni Sancte Spiritus prayer that God’s Spirit may animate these parishes, their schools, their corporal works of mercy and, indeed, our own hearts and our own diocese in the days and months to come. Here is the text of the prayer in English:
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labour, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend:
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
O Mary, conceived without sin, patroness of the Diocese of Lansing, pray for us who have recourse to thee. Amen.