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Fr. Dennis

10/29/2018

The Spiritual importance of All Souls and All Saints

We begin the month of November with two important feasts: The Solemnity of All Saints and the Feast of All Souls. These two Feasts connect us with the Church’s teaching of the Communion of Saints, which of course, stems from our belief in the Resurrection of the Body. The Christian faith is not some ethereal, head trip, it is rooted in our belief that our bodies will rise again on the Last Day when Jesus returns in glory. Throughout the month of November the readings for Mass turn our minds more and more toward eternity.

We traditionally call November the month of the holy souls – where we pray to the saints, our brothers and sisters in glory, to intercede for us – and we pray also, for the souls in Purgatory.

Here are some suggestions to make this a holy month of remembrance:

Go to confession. We should always keep in mind that we are one more day closer to eternity. Are we prepared for that day when Scripture tells us that we shall give an account to the Lord when we stand before the Judgement seat of Christ? How about recommitting ourselves to looking at the virtues and reflecting on a way we can work more on one of them - love hope, gratitude, encouragement, kindness, gentleness, etc.

Light a candle. Light a candle in Church or at home. Make a special corner and place photos of your loved ones who have gone and maybe your favorite saints. As you light the candle, say a prayer of thanks to God for your memories of this loved one and ask the intercession of the saints.

Visit the graves of the deceased. The Scriptures and the Church teach the respect of the body. The body is sacred, redeemed by baptism, and destined to rise again. The body we have now, although transformed by the power of the resurrection, will still be this body. We will spend eternity in our bodies. That is why the Church emphasizes the dignity of the body and so, the grave where our bodies will rest until we rise on the Last Day. We need to teach our children not to be afraid of death, but to see it for what it is, another step in our Christian journey toward eternal life.

Make a donation. One way to signal that you still feel connected to someone who has died is to make a donation to a charitable organization or to the fund for the poor at Church. In this way, we continue to remember our beloved deceased, and do good works in their name.

During November in a special way, I feel very close to all my family and the faithful I have known, who are now with the Lord. I feel this intimate bond with them and recognize more and more, that a very thin veil separates us and the next life.

God bless
Fr. Dennis

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Corey Luna

10/22/2018

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The Holy Spirit, at least from my own experience, is a person of the trinity that I have had the hardest time understanding in my own life.

I mean initially when one first really hears about the Holy Spirit, Pentecost comes to mind. Pentecost...always sounded like something in a fictional story to me personally. “And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Tongues of fire is an intimidating thing to try to understand (at least to me anyways), and really during my time in high school, when I was first coming into the faith I did experience the Holy Spirit in a powerful way, I just didn’t realize it was the Holy Spirit. The first time I think I was really aware of the Holy Spirit was when I went to my first unbound training session and was prayed over.

Unbound prayer is just a certain way for prayer leaders to pray over others to receive inner healing. I was a freshmen in college when Adam Halfman asked me if I wanted to go to this training. I was always interested in praying with others and inner healing so it seemed like something that would be really good for myself.

Throughout the training on the first day, we were going over obstacles/wounds that can hold us back from receiving the Lord. As the speakers were going over these different kinds of obstacles/wounds, I started to feel more and more hopeless. I felt like I could associate myself with at least half of the obstacles on the list of common obstacles that they gave us. I couldn’t help but to think that there was no way that I could be healed from all the ways that I was broken. That it was all too much and if I couldn’t be healed of this, how was I ever going to be good enough to pray over others in this way?

The next day we came back, and I tried to have a renewed attitude but I couldn’t help but to cling onto the fears that I had. On this training day, we would have another speaker come in, but we would also be prayed over. I was absolutely terrified to be prayed over because I was really worried that everything that I was fearing was going to be true. That there was something wrong with me and that I couldn’t be healed.

My time to be prayed over came up. I started to talk to the prayer leader about what I wanted to have prayers for. She asked me some questions and we went into some of my past, but not into everything. Once we started to pray I could start to feel some of the hopelessness that I had earlier start to leave, and then in the middle of her praying she stopped and said “I think that someone abandoned you in the past and the Lord wants to come into that and show you that he’ll never abandon you, no matter how broken you think you are.” Once she said that I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. She had not only known about a situation that I hadn’t told her about in my past, but also spoke into all the fears that I had been feeling leading up to this. I just felt an outpouring of relief and peace. The Holy Spirit put words of knowledge into my prayer leaders mind, and then poured out peace and joy into my own heart. After that prayer session, I felt like I could do anything and that the Lord could truly have victory over anything in my life.

The Holy Spirit reveals God to us on earth. God and heaven breaks into our lives through the Holy Spirit and it gives us all life. Whether it’s filling us with courage or confidence, physically healing, or speaking into the hardest parts of our life. Having more of the Holy Spirit in our lives is necessary to finding our way to God and to being disciples. Which is why we, the MHT staff, are holding the Holy Spirit Encounter tonight is that we want everyone to have the opportunity to have more of what they need as one of God’s children. I encountered the Holy Spirit in a powerful way my freshman year in college and seen so much more from Him since then that has only made me want to keep coming back for more. I encourage anyone that wants any more of God in their life to come and I know that the Holy Spirit will meet you with even more than you thought possible.

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Bill and Mary Beth Armbrustmacher

10/15/2018

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Bill and I are members of most Holy Trinity Parish, Bill has been a member his entire life. I have been here since marrying Bill 11 years ago. We both call this home.
Back in August we were blessed to attend the World Meeting of Families in Ireland. We went with a pilgrimage group from the Lansing Diocese that included diocesan ministry staff and Fr. Mathias Thelen. We have had the privilege to visit many holy sites, including Fatima, Lourdes, Avila and Rome. These pilgrimages have been special in helping us to grow in our faith. As we have learned of the struggles, the miracles and the Apparitions of the Blessed Mother, we are reminded of the constant care and love of both Jesus and his Mother for the church.
So the idea of a trip to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families was exciting. With a bit of the Irish in my heritage I was especially interested in this beautiful country. To see the “GREEN”, lush countryside, the rugged cliffs, and to hear the waves crashing against every shore was inspirational. To celebrate with half a million people at the Papal Mass in Ireland was as beautiful as we had imagined.
As we climbed the cliffs of Moher, nothing could prepare us for the awesome view of the cliffs. As we stood at the top, we felt very small and in awe of God’s majesty. It was there that we began to realize this was indeed a pilgrimage, not just a vacation.
Along the way we celebrated Mass at so many Holy sites. Fr. Mathias encountered some challenges, but rose to each occasion. Sometimes rushing into a church, with very little time to prepare, but always with an attitude of reverence and an inspired homily. At one Mass (a public Mass), the Irish people applauded after his homily, because he spoke the truth and he spoke of Hope. We celebrated mass at many Holy sites including “Clonmacnoise” the monastic site chosen by St. Kevin, on the Shannon River, St. Mary’s pro Cathedral, St. Patrick’s Cathedral and The Holy Cross Abbey, where we saw the relic of the true cross.
One place in particular moved us deeply. The Knock shrine in Mayo. As we drove along on the way to the shrine we saw many sheep in the fields behind miles of low stacked stone walls. Thinking about these sheep , we realized how these hardy, humble little animals go about their day eating and moving up and down the hillsides. Nothing profound, or glamorous about them. Or so I thought. As we entered the shrine of the apparition in Knock, It hit us. There on the high altar was “The Lamb”. He was beautiful, perfect, flawless and strong ,created in white marble. In front of the lamb stood our priest to celebrate the Eucharist.
The story of Knock is unique. On August 21(we were there on the anniversary) 1879, the Blessed Mother, St Joseph, and St. John the Evangelist appeared. Beside them and to the right was an altar with a cross and the figure of The Lamb, around which angels hovered. There were 15 official witnesses, young and old, who watched for two hours in the pouring rain and recited the rosary. Our Lady never spoke. Some feel she was simply calling us to pray… To enter into a deeper more contemplative faith. I invite you to visit the website to learn more about this little known Apparition.
The highlight of the our trip was yet to come. On Saturday, August 25, we started off from our hotel to walk to Croke Park ( Soccer stadium) to attend the closing ceremonies for the World Meeting of Families. We walked over 3 miles with thousands of others from around the world to attend.
This event was spectacular. Music, singers, testimonies, and over 500 Irish Dancers. Not to mention Andre Bocelli closing out the ceremony. When Pope Francis arrived, this massive crowd erupted in cheers, an atmosphere of joy. When our Pope spoke he did not shy away from the painful scandal in the Catholic church. He instead humbled himself to apologize and ask for forgiveness. Some say it wasn’t enough , that remains to be seen. The next morning we set out from our hotel to walk to the site of the Papal Mass at Phoenix Park. All the roads leading to the park were closed to traffic to allow the 500,000 people to walk the 4.5 miles. It rained and the wind blew most of the day. People came and kept coming, and coming. Near us there was a group from Haiti. These folks were all dressed up and wearing dress shoes and suits. It was such a witness to the honor that they felt in being there. We expected protests and were advised not to engage in discussion of politics and religion. This was not the case, there were no protests. Instead we were encouraged by groups gathered on the sides of the road to cheer us on, as we neared the park.
The Irish people have known persecution, famine, corruption and hardship for centuries. They still cherish their faith. We learned a great deal from them about being a faithful Catholic.
One of our fellow pilgrims said “I will not abandon Peter, because of Judas.” Bishop Barron said, “She’s worth fighting for.”
May God inspire you in all of your future travels!
Bill and Mary Beth Armbrustmacher

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Adam Halfman

10/9/2018

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This past January me and some of our parish ministry staff went to a conference in Ann Arbor about the power of the Holy Spirit. I probably registered more out of a sense of obligation than anything just because I had heard of a lot of good things coming from the organization putting it on. However, the day after the conference I noticed that something had changed in me.

As I spoke with people about the conference, I noticed that I had a new excitement about my faith and a greater ability to trust in the Lord, in His power and how He can impact our lives. I also noticed that the time I spent praying with people was more fruitful than it was before then. It’s difficult to describe but I felt like I could go deeper with them and their feedback afterwards confirmed that. People just seemed to be getting more out of our time praying together. My new confidence allowed me to hear the Lord more clearly in my life. I had a renewed faith that God had more that He wanted to do in my life and all I had to was take time to open myself up and sincerely ask Him to for it.

Since that conference our ministry staff decided to host a couple of healing services and to start praying for healing. Even though few of us had much experience doing that we trusted that the Lord wanted to heal people through us and all we needed to do was to put ourselves out there, trust in Him, and He would do the rest. And sure enough, people were healed during those services!

As exciting as that has been, and while we have more healing services scheduled during the upcoming year, we decided to change things up a bit for our next event. The ministry staff felt called to offer something similar to that conference that helped us go deeper in our relationship with the Lord. An event that would help people encounter the Holy Spirit in a new and more powerful way.

So the upcoming “Holy Spirit Encounter” night is simply a way for us to come together as a parish and ask the Lord for more of His Holy Spirit. The basics of the night will look pretty similar to our healing services with time in adoration and prayerful music. We’ll have some teaching about how to ask and receive more of the Holy Spirit as well as testimonies of how the Lord has been changing lives through prayer like this. We will also have time for people to receive individual prayer through our prayer teams as well.

Please consider joining us on Sunday, October 21 at 7 PM for this powerful night. We expect that this night will be a new, defining moment in the lives of people who attend, just like the conference this past January was for all of us. It’ll also be a opportunity for each of us to ask to receive more of His blessing in our lives. This will be a great way for us to come together as a parish and show the Lord that we are serious about doing His work in our community.

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Made For Happiness

10/1/2018

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I’m starting my fifth year working here at the parish. Kristina and I moved from Grand Rapids back in the summer of 2014 (back when we only had two kids!). Up until I started working here I had spent my whole life in the Grand Rapids diocese. While Hubbardston is only 12 miles away, it’s in a different county from Fowler and thus a different diocese.
A few months after I started working at MHT, the parish staff went to the first diocesan assembly. The assemblies were the fruit of Bishop Boyea’s pastoral letter on evangelization, “Go and Announce the Gospel of the Lord.” Beginning with a year of prayer, our bishop laid out a six year plan to equipe parishes to be communities of intentional disciples so that we may go out and invite others to experience the joy and freedom of having a relationship with Jesus. This pastoral vision included three assemblies, the first two brought together parish staff and volunteers from all over the diocese to share ideas with each other and learn from the expert speakers they brought in.
Attending these events wasn’t like anything I had done before. My experience with the Grand Rapids diocese and the bishops there was okay. There wasn’t anything bad, but there also wasn’t much to get excited about. Sometimes the diocese would spend a year focusing on Catholic schools or prayer or some other theme, but there wasn’t a vision, at least not that I was aware of. Lansing was different, and I was proud to be apart of Bishop Boyea’s vision.
And this vision for discipleship and evangelization wasn’t limited to the assemblies. In the past four years, I’ve been involved with various committees and ministries with the diocese, and all of them, from marriage preparation to catechist formation, have evangelization as their starting point.
I have been especially impressed with Bishop Boyea’s leadership in all this. He has hired some great people to lead the various ministries in the diocese, people who not only love Christ and the Church, but who also have the gifts and charisms necessary to implement the bishop’s vision. I have gotten to know some of the diocesan staff really well and they have been a fantastic resource for me for the ministries I help lead here at the parish.
Recently, Bishop Boyea has really stood out as a leader in the midst of all the scandal in the American Church. Bishop published a letter on September 11th saying, among other things, that he is going to invite an external agency of lay professionals to audit how the diocese has responded to abuse allegations. I really believe that this statement, and the proposed plan of action, is a model for how bishops across the country need to address and lead their flock through this scandal.
All this brings me to the Made for Happiness event last weekend. It was the third and final diocesan assembly. But instead of being limited to parish staff and volunteers it was opened up to anyone. 15,000 people came out to this event that included a four-mile long Eucharistic procession, amazing speakers, and Mass with the bishop that nearly filled the Breslin Center.
Kristina and I, along with nearly 200 other MHT parishioners, were at the assembly. We brought our red wagon and walked with the kids for the last half of the procession and then somehow kept the kids entertained throughout the afternoon so that we could attend the closing Mass. The whole event was powerful. The Holy Spirit was definitely moving through the Breslin Center. We ran into so many familiar faces, some that we hadn’t seen in years. We were prayed over by the diocesan prayer team. In some ways in felt like a giant family reunion.
I’m excited for the future of our Church and diocese. Bishop has asked us to devote the next year to praying as a community and as individuals. I don’t know what he has planned for us after that, but I know the Holy Spirit is moving and working. I’m proud to be a part of the Diocese of Lansing and I’m looking forward to what God wants to do with us next. - Paul Fahey

I’ve been to several large gatherings of Catholics throughout the last 10 years. The SEEK conference had over 10,000 young adults, the Father Solanus Casey Beatification had almost 70,000 people in attendance, and World Youth Day in Poland had nearly 3 million people. Gatherings like that have been instrumental to my faith journey, but it’s hard to remember just how impactful it is to be surrounded by so many Catholics until you’re in the middle of that experience again. The Made for Happiness conference did that for me. It’s incredible how the sound of 13,000 people praising God in the Mass can bring me back to my first Steubenville experience, where I was floored by the sound of 2,000 high school students singing together. I remember thinking “this is what heaven’s going to sound like. Just a sea of people praising God together.” The sensation of having this tiny taste of heaven is new and moving every time. I had the privilege of singing in the choir for the Made for Happiness assembly, and from my place by the stage, I was surrounded by the sound of the thousands gathered there. If the assembly had only been that Mass, it would still have been an impactful day for me just because of the power of gathering together to praise and receive Jesus in the Eucharist. - Kayla Feldpausch

“Wow! Just wow!” Those are the best words that I can use to describe the Made for Happiness conference on Saturday at the Breslin Center. The Lord just keeps raising the bar with these events and they can be easy to take for granted because they just keep getting better and better! I remember having a similar feeling after the previous two assemblies. Both were great experiences that left me speechless on a lot of levels. I have been to World Youth Days which are a much larger scale and have people from all over the world in attendance but it’s hard to share with others when you get back home. Saturday was an event where many from our parish were also able to attend and experience for themselves. If I had to pick one part that was the most powerful to me I would have to say the time we all prayed together for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Lord has blessed us greatly through these experiences and I look forward to seeing all of the fruits that are yet to come! - Adam Halfman
Amen! Alleluia! Glory to God! If those words sound familiar then you might have been listening to Deacon Oney at the Made for Happiness Assembly on Saturday, September 22. He had that place loud and on fire. In particular, I loved how he challenged the way we think we are supposed to act regarding our faith. He went so far as to tell us that he got permission from the Bishop for us to get excited and loud. Did we really need permission? Being loud, clapping, and screaming about God is not easy for me. I grew up like many of you - prayer is a time for silent reflection. But Deacon Oney pushed me out of my comfort zone and I found myself screaming at the top of my lungs along with thousands of other people.
Amen! Alleluia! Glory to God! - Anne Hufnagel
The Made for Happiness Assembly was definitely a historical event! Participating in the Eucharistic Procession, listening to the speakers, and attending a diocesan wide Mass at the Breslin were all memorable parts of this amazing event. One part of the day that still sticks out in my mind is Fr. Mike Schmitz’s talk. His talk on our pursuit to happiness was really relatable! He spoke such truth in such a way that spoke to the hearts of all who were present. He ended his talk with a story about the hymnist Horatio Spafford who wrote the song “It is Well With My Soul.” It was a really moving story that lead right into everyone joining in the song. It was truly an unexplainable atmosphere in the Breslin when everyone sang from their heart. That moment, singing, holding nothing back from the Lord, was something I will hold on to and always remember! “It is well, it is well with my soul” - Andrea Schneider
I've been to quite a few large conferences in my time, but nothing was quite like the “Made for Happiness” assembly this past weekend. The other large conferences I have been to have made a big impact on my faith journey, but this felt so uniquely important because of the people that we had gathered! A gathering like this hasn't happened in the diocese in 80 years, and so being apart of a historical event and seeing the space of the Breslin filled up by our diocese, our community, was jaw dropping! I couldn't go a couple steps without seeing parishioners, friends from ministry, friends and youth from different retreats I have been apart of. That feeling of community and the Lord guiding us and leading us together as a diocese kept coming up for me every part of the day, but especially during mass. The fact that almost a quarter of our diocese could be together, united, and worshipping our God, was a testament to what the Lord is doing in the heart of our diocese and I really can't wait to see what the next step for the diocese of Lansing is. -Corey Luna

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