Friday, July 14, 2023
Dear Sister and Brothers in Christ,
Welcome to Week 5 On the Road to Emmaus. I’m Bishop Earl Boyea of Lansing. It’s so very good to have you here. Over the course of a year, we are walking together through the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Every week I issue a communication – just like this one – containing catechesis, inspiration and a challenge. We might call this a “training in holiness!” I encourage you to invite your family members and friends to join us.
This week our challenge is a little different from the previous four weeks as we take a pause and refocus on a challenge that we’ve already done. This is something we’ll do every fifth week on the road to Emmaus. Why is this a good thing to do? Because in the interior life, a virtue is an acquired good habit – and acquiring good habits requires repetition.
Hence you can take time to prayerfully re-read Saint Luke’s account of the Road to Emmaus or double down on your efforts to arrive for Holy Mass 15 minutes early and to use that time for silent prayer fostered by the Prayer of Saint Thomas Aquinas for use prior to Mass. The choice is yours. God bless you.
Okay. We’ve discussed our possible challenges and consumed quite a bit of catechesis in recent weeks. So, now it’s time for some inspiration. Did you know that the Diocese of Lansing is blessed by four perpetual adoration chapels? Each is a sacred place where people can spend time with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. They are usually open 24/7. You can find them in Lansing, Ann Arbor, Jackson, and Burton. Our multi-media journalist, Matt Riedl, got up in the middle of the night in order to find out just who frequents these chapels when most of the rest of us are fast asleep.
Yours in Christ,
+ Earl Boyea
Bishop of Lansing