The Mystery of the Incarnation: the Holy Family
One of the most astonishing things about Christmas is that the mystery of the incarnation, when God became one of us, happens in a family. The family is God’s creation and gift. The family has been subject to a lot of challenges and attacks lately; society and governments who try to redefine the family or force their agenda on it. As a result, the family, and society suffers and many families are broken. Only God holds the plan that will make the family thrive, flourish and find peace.
 
I’m grateful that as a parish we are learning to be more and more a family of God. This is not easy. We use this term “family” frequently when we speak of the parish or the church, but sometimes we’re not so good at it. We need to learn from the Lord how to become the family He has chosen us to be.
 
This Sunday, the Feast of the Holy Family, which falls within the Octave of Christmas, focuses our attention on the mystery of God with us, through the lens of the family. I’ve asked a few families to share their struggles, journey, joys and blessings with us. I pray that every family in this parish can experience grace and healing.
God bless,   Fr. Dennis
 
When Father Dennis asked us to share our story, we were happy to do so. My husband and I have experienced struggles with infertility. We know personally that infertility can feel very lonely. Although so many couples experience it, most don’t talk about it. We want people to know that there is hope and there are resources that can help which align with our Catholic faith.
 
After experiencing a few years of unexplained infertility, we made an appointment to talk with Father Dennis and it was the best thing we could have done. At that point we had hit a dead end because all the doctors we had been seeing said there was nothing more they could do and the only thing left was to stop trying or to begin treatments which we knew were against our faith and its teachings. These were treatments we already knew we weren’t comfortable with.
 
Fortunately, there was more we could do. Father Dennis put us in touch with a Creighton Model Fertility Care Practitioner in the area. She helped us learn this simple and easy way of charting and then identified some red flags. She provided us with a list of NaProTechnology (Natural Procreative Technology) doctors. There are only a handful in the state. Our very first visit with our NaProTechnology doctor was unlike any other experience because his approach respected the Catholic faith. With the charting we had done, and his checklist of possible issues known to cause infertility, he was able to diagnose our problem and provide treatment. Without his diagnosis, any other treatment we could have tried would have failed.
 
We are now blessed with a beautiful baby boy! Although our infertility journey was a difficult one, it strengthened our relationship with God and with each other. We are happy to talk with anyone who would like more information about our infertility journey and the resources that are available.
- Katie & Ryan Pung
 
I am blessed to have been born and raised in a good strong Catholic family whose parents believed in the power of prayer. There was a sign placed prominently on our living room wall which read: “the family that prays together, stays together”. My mother and dad would make sure that every night of the week, except Sunday, we would sit down as a family and pray the rosary, which truthfully at that time seemed so redundant. Praying together certainly did not solve all of our family’s problems, because the Lord knows we still have many. It certainly taught me discipline and patience (because 15 minutes seemed like forever to a kid). It taught me obedience (very necessary as the child Jesus demonstrated), it taught me persistence (because some things like “dying for our sins” is so important it needs to be repeated over and over). It taught me about God’s Time (because my praying isn’t so much about changing everyone else, as it is about changing me), and it taught me about a Father’s Love. (I thought my dad displayed tough love, but how about watching your Son get mocked, whipped to shreds, thorns pushed into His head, nailed to a cross hanging for hours and then finally dying on that cross). Praying the rosary with my family has helped me understand more clearly Our Father’s sacrificial love for me and for Jesus His son and loving Him in return.
- Jerome Pohl
 
Being third oldest of ten siblings, I remember our family didn’t go to church together very often for various reasons. To provide food for our large family, my dad would take the boys fishing or hunting after 6:30 am mass and mom took whomever wanted to go to 8:30 mass and be up in the choir loft as she sang in the adult choir. From my view from the choir loft, I remember watching other families walking into our beautiful church and sitting together as a family. I made a promise to God my Father, that when I got married and had children, that we would go to mass together and sit as a family unit, like Jesus, Mary and Joseph were. As a young mom of 5 children, I found out really quick how hard it was to get the kids ready for mass at the same time. There were many Sundays and Holy Days that I thought how easy it would be to just let them stay home and not listen to the complaining about having to go to mass “again”. Over the years, the kids learned to enjoy mass and all of them joined choir when they attended Most Holy Trinity School.  Now when I am at Mass, and hear the babies fussing or youngsters trying to behave, I think back how I felt bringing my family to mass and smile. I know what these young couples are going through and am thankful they are attending mass as a family! My faith, lots of prayers and love of the Holy Family has gotten me through a lot of hills and valleys. And I thank God every day for the blessings He’s given me and my family
- Ann Marie Pohl
 
 
As we reflect on our blessings of the past year, we know we have been blessed. In fact, we like to say “Embarrassingly blessed.” The priest who presided at our wedding, said this phrase to us, and it still holds true today. Our blessings of this past year aren’t necessarily huge things, but rather seemingly minor things that have and will continue to be blessings for us.
 
Our oldest son Isaiah began school at MHT this year in the
first grade and has been surrounded by a culture that promotes the faith. He is learning about feast days, praying the rosary, participating in mass among other things. He comes home and shares these experiences with us and his siblings. As a “big” brother, his excitement about these events encourages his younger siblings to be excited about the faith. They can’t wait to shake Father Dennis’s hand at the end of Mass! We know we need to encourage the faith at home (and do!), but him being surrounded by people and having our faith tied into each school day is invaluable.
 
Also, the opportunities to go to adoration, prayer services, weekday Mass, retreats, etc., and having our children participate with us in these events is a great blessing. These activities are becoming the norm for them. As we hope and pray we are leading them towards a faith filled life, being present and a participant of these activities is important. We feel very lucky MHT has these opportunities to educate and expose our children to the Catholic faith.
 
Another blessing, of course, was our newest son’s baptism into the church and even more special, during Advent. During this time of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus, we, too, get to hold our newborn. We’ve always thought it was extra special to have a new baby around Christmas time.
 
Even though we can take school, Mass, and Advent for granted as they can seemingly be on a check off list in our busy lives, we know these have been great blessings for us and our children. Doing these “little” things are a good reason of why we feel embarrassingly blessed.
- Matt and Jenna Epkey
 
 

So far, this semester has been flying by and the Lord has been doing incredible things in my life. One of the biggest blessings of the semester is being able to go to a nursing home and bring the residents communion. They have such great faith and it is an incredible honor to be able to walk with them through the last stages of life. Another blessing has been being able to start taking more of a leadership role within the seminary. I have been in seminary for three years, so I have the experience to be able to walk with the new guys and help them adjust to way of life of the seminary. I can remember when I was a new at the seminary and looking up to the older guys, so it is cool to be on the other side of that divide. This semester has also been challenging because I have been taking five classes instead of the normal four. But the Lord has even used this experience to draw me closer to him by teaching me to remain rooted in him especially when life is busy. This lesson has not always been easy to live out, but it has made a great difference in my life. The Lord has done a lot for me so far this semester and I am looking forward to seeing what else he has in store, especially next semester since I will be spending the semester studying abroad in Rome. Please pray for me and I will keep all of you in my prayers.                                               ~Randy Koenigsknecht
 

 
Throughout the semester, the Lord has been showing me the little ways he is calling me to martyrdom. This process started when a priest at seminary gave a homily about this topic and encouraged us to accept the union that Christ desires for us through our suffering. I started to pray about this, and it has been in the back of my mind ever since. At random times throughout the day, when something irritating or disappointing happens, I hear the Lord’s invitation to me to pick up my cross and follow him. I have a greater sense of how Jesus wants to accompany me through my struggles and the joy my little crosses can bring when they are united to the Cross of Jesus Christ. Before this new perspective, I would simply see these situations as a useless burden and avoid them at all costs. Now when these situations present themselves, I do my best to embrace them as Jesus embraced his cross and thank God for my dependence on him. I do not do this perfectly by any means, but I have been blessed this semester to grow in my ability to see my crosses in a new way and enter into the union that Christ desires for me through them.                         ~Josh Luttig
 

 
Overall, this has been a difficult semester. One thing which has contributed to this is the academics. The four classes I’m taking this semester are among the hardest that I will take while at college seminary. A lot of the material is very abstract, which has been tough to comprehend at times. In addition to this, until recently, I hadn’t experienced much consolation in prayer this semester. Through these challenges, the Lord has been calling me to lean more on him, especially when I am weak. A special grace I have recently received is simply knowing that God loves me. Yeah, I know, this sounds like some canned, overused sentiment, but for one of the first times in my life, the Lord has shown me not only the reality of his love for me, but also how much he has freely blessed me throughout my life without me earning any of it. It is amazing how far-reaching his love is for me, and how far it is beyond my understanding. This insight into God’s love has definitely been the highlight of my semester. We want to thank everyone for all the ways you support us as we discern our vocations in the seminary, especially for those who pray for us!! Without people interceding for us, we could never grow to become the men God is calling us to be! Know of our prayers for you.
God bless!     ~Brian Arbrustmacher
 

 
Hello from the Motherhouse of the Religious Sisters of Mercy (RSM) of Alma, Michigan! Since entering the community on August 1st, I have met multiple priests and religious who know our Fowler faith community – one Sister referred to the area of Fowler, Pewamo, and Westphalia as the “trifecta Holy Land of Michigan!” There are ~100 RSMs in our community with seven of us new Postulants (aka “first years”) – 3 from Michigan, 1 from Washington DC, 1 from Seattle area, 1 from Germany, and 1 from Australia. They are absolutely beautiful women, and I feel so blessed that the Lord chose the seven of us to enter together.
 
As RSMs, every moment is consecrated to our Lord as an expression of prayer and praise. We rise at 4:30am most mornings, so that we may pray the Liturgy of the Hours, meditate on Scripture, and have daily mass before breakfast. Many of the perpetually professed Sisters then depart for their apolostates, which is in healthcare and/or teaching for most RSMs. In the morning, we Postulants typically have a work project (i.e. cleaning, mowing, weeding, etc.), and then the Postulants and Canonical Novices (“second years”) have an additional silent Holy Hour. After lunch, we either have a work project or class on theology, philosophy, and/or Scripture – all of which I absolutely love! Stretching my mind to learn more about our Lord truly deepens my prayer life and relationship with Him. We then have a community Holy Hour, which includes Adoration, praying the rosary, and the Liturgy of the Hours. After dinner, we have community recreation, and then end the day with Compline (aka night prayer). Our time in prayer grounds and fuels us to live in complete surrender to God’s Will each day.
 
I am amazed by how natural it feels to be here; it feels like this is what I was made for! So much strength comes from our prayer – it is the most important thing we do as brides of Christ. On Saturdays, we Postulants do not have our additional Holy Hour before lunch, and I definitely notice its absence – I long for that extra time with our Lord. Our lives are rooted in prayer, and everything else flows from that.
 
Before entering, I knew the amount of time we dedicate to prayer would be a jump for me, but I trusted that if this is where God is calling me, He would continually provide the graces needed and more. When we trust in the Lord, His plans are way more amazing than anything we could plan for ourselves, and He is full of such great sweetness that nothing else compares. I recently read that our very pulse proclaims God’s sustaining presence with us, and the beauty on earth is but a shadow of His glory and His beauty. God has been pouring His graces into my heart to grasp these as the truths they are.
 
There is so much joy in knowing, loving, and following our Lord – He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and He alone can satisfy the thirsting and longing in our hearts. A few weeks ago, I checked in on one of our elderly Sisters who was sleep-talking while napping – she was praying Hail Mary’s aloud while sound asleep! That is how I hope to be someday. Our baptism as Catholic Christians is both a privilege and a responsibility – let us not waste this short and transitory life on earth. Thank you for your continued prayers, and please know that you remain in mine!                        ~Sister Brianne Feldpausch
 

 
Thanks be to God for all the young people entering religious life/seminary from our parish! In September I completed four years living in Europe as a missionary Sister in the Institute Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará. First I was in Italy, then in the Netherlands for two years, and I am about to start my third year in Ireland. It has truly been an adventure that I never dared to dream of even as a teenager when I was picturing myself back packing across Europe. Sitting in Fowler High senior year I would often find myself day dreaming of Old Europe and I wanted to get to know it from the inside. I knew that my desire was rather unrealistic and that, at most, I would be able to see it as a tourist if I could save up enough money. Little did I know that God was planning exactly how to fulfill my longings and I can attest that His plans are always better than ours. Not only have I gotten to know other cultures, languages, customs, and landscapes, but I have had the best lens to look through: the faith. In Christian Europe I have seen much of the unspeakable beauty that made St. Elizabeth Ann Seaton abandon her American Protestantism and dedicate herself to God in His Catholic Church. Although Europe is suffering through a trial of faith right now I truly believe that Christ wants His Kingdom to have a renaissance in the hearts of these peoples. The Missionaries who have come here with Hope and Love are returning the favor done for us so many years ago when those holy missionaries came from Europe to bring the Good News to the New World. I am so blessed to have been called here to play my small part in the salvation of these beautiful souls. I thank you all for your prayers and support.                                      ~Sr. Holy Family

​Dear parishioners of MHT,
 
I want to take this opportunity to share with you how our parish has been doing this past year and give you a sense of what this year and next holds. Since October of 2018, we’ve had 36 Baptisms, 37 Confirmations and 13 weddings. We had 3 adults enter the Church through the RCIA (one catechumen and 2 candidates) and 22 funerals. We can also say that we have had an additional young woman enter religious life and continue to have three young men in the seminary.
 
Our financial picture is looking good. We ended our 2019 fiscal year in June with a fund balance of $586,839. This represents a slight decrease from last year but overall is a healthy number for our parish. The biggest reason for this loss has been a combination of the rising cost of health insurance and staff salaries. The average member of our staff has been here for over five years. I feel strongly that we have a great team here at Most Holy Trinity and I think it’s a priority to keep them here.
 
I am grateful that both the Finance Council and Pastoral Council has supported me with this vision. I’m grateful that you have all supported this as well as we continue to see our Sunday collection increase each year.
 
At the same time though, I want to ask every family in our parish to prayerfully consider if the Lord is calling you to give more. Our Finance Council projects that our slight loss this past year will grow this next year as our basic costs continue to rise. We are always looking for ways to cut costs in our budget, and can do that if needed, but as you will read below, we are excited about the direction our parish is going and feel like all of our expenses are necessary to continue our success.
 
I rarely speak about money and I’m very gratified and amazed by the generosity of so many parishioners during the Witness to Hope Campaign. But I am, at this time, going to ask you to pray about increasing your giving. If each family considered giving 3-5% more, that could provide us with an additional $20,000 - $30,000 for our budget and would be a huge help moving forward. So if your family gives $100 a month, that would be an additional $3-5 a month. I ask you to pray about this. 
 
Our financial picture clearly shows us that, despite the trends, there is a committed group of people here at the parish supporting the work of the Gospel. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI predicted, the future right now may be a smaller, but more committed church.
 
What have we accomplished this year? This past year, as always, was a very busy year. Of course our Witness to Hope Campaign contributions continue to flow in. I want to remind everyone that we are almost 3.5 years into our 5 year campaign. We have currently received 70% of the pledges so we are making pretty good progress. You will remember that we resurfaced the parking lot, and now are well through our second goal, a new parish office. The cost of the new building is slightly higher than we had originally forecast. This is quite common with building projects. We had originally budgeted $150,000 but we will probably end up spending closer to $180,000. Our third goal is the reworking of the Activity Center. Our committee has been discussing plans and as this third project approaches, we will be providing information and images of what we hope to accomplish.
 
School Renovation Project: I’m sure most people are aware that we are doing some renovations at the school. We put in new windows this summer and began transforming our old computer lab into more office space. The cost of the renovations are being covered by school savings (donations over the years), approximately the first $75,000 and ETF reserves are covering the rest (estimated to be about $35,000).  Estimated completion date is January 6, 2020.
 
It is also worth noting that our school enrollment has increased to above 100 students this year. I’m grateful to Anne Hufnagel and our school staff for all their hard work.  We have an excellent school staff and I know our parents are pleased with the quality of education and faith formation our school provides.
 
Where are we heading/our vision for the parish? Scripture tells us: Where there is no vision, the people perish.”  (Proverbs 29:18) Our purpose for existence is to assist the faithful on their way to eternal life. We are called by Our Lord to invite people into a deeper relationship with Him and His Church. This is done by equipping the faithful. Through the Holy Spirit Encounters (with parishioners, young people and grade school students from our Catholic school and Religious Education program), Adult Retreats, Kerygma Retreats, and our youth ministry we’ve seen a lot of graces and fruits from these efforts as more people each year are growing in their relationship with Christ and experiencing His love.
 
As always, I want to thank everyone who has generously supported the parish this past year financially, with your time and gifts, and pray that you will continue to partner with us so that the Gospel can be proclaimed to our brothers and sisters.
 
God bless,
Fr. Dennis Howard, Pastor

​Mary in the Immaculate Conception and this Advent Season:
 
As Catholics we love and hold Mary, the Mother of God, in a special place in our hearts. The truth be told, left to her own power, Mary would be a sinner. Her holiness is the result of God's grace alone, a special gift from God. Does this mean that Mary did not need to be redeemed? No, she was redeemed or saved, in a special way – in the womb. We call it the Immaculate Conception. Why did God work this special act of grace in Mary? Her being kept from sin is about Christ. Mary always points to her Son Jesus, no matter what feast day of Mary we celebrate.
 
So Mary's Immaculate Conception is not an attempt to give honor to Mary for Mary's sake. It is actually necessity in order to maintain the teaching of the sinlessness of Jesus, the Incarnate Word. In the language of the church’s theology, Mary is kept from sin through the merit of the Cross her Son will bear, since the benefits of the Cross go out through history both forward and backward through time. How is this possible? God’s saving power has no limits. His grace is not limited to our human frailty or our human understanding of time and space.
 
When we look at the Preface (the prayer before the Eucharistic Prayer), of the feast we find two themes. I’m going to chop up the Preface to point them out:
 
1.  Mary points to who Jesus is:
“You allowed no stain of Adam’s sin to touch the Virgin Mary. Full of grace she was to be a worthy mother of your Son. Purest of virgins, she was to bring forth your Son, the innocent Lamb who takes away our sins.”
 
It would have been completely inappropriate for the Mother of the Second Person of the Trinity to have been under the reign of sin. In our time we have lost both a sense of sin and a sense of holiness, so that we may not feel or appreciate the urgency of sinlessness in the Mother of God.  Darkness and light cannot dwell together. By God’s grace, Mary was then to have been “a worthy mother of your Son.” In being the mother of God she was to be “purest of virgins to bring forth your Son.”
 
2. And second, the Preface says that Mary symbolizes what the Church is to become:
“[she is] Your sign of favor to the Church at its beginning, and the promise of its perfection as the bride of Christ, radiant in beauty. You chose her from all women to be our advocate with you and our pattern in holiness.”
 
Mary’s relationship to the Church, reminds us that the world that has no hope apart from God. The Immaculate Conception affirms that sin can be overcome, that the sin that weighs down the Church will be conquered by Jesus Christ, and the Church will one day be radiant in beauty. Mary is a pattern of the Church. What we see in Mary, is the perfection of the Church that is to come – when Jesus returns again, the Church and all Her members will be transformed by the power of the Resurrection. We will, as St. Paul tells us: “be like Him..” God’s plan is already visible in Mary; we wait for God’s salvation to clothe us perfectly too.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates what God has done for the Church by giving it Mary as advocate and model of holiness, as well as the perfect holiness and beauty that God will eventually give to all the members of the Church.
 
On March 25th, 1858 the twelve-year old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous felt drawn to the grotto where a beautiful lady had been appearing to her frequently since February 11th that year. Bernadette asked her who she was, and the lady in white said in the local dialect, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The barely literate Bernadette did not completely understand what Mary said, but the local clergy knew its significance. Only four years earlier Pius IX had defined the Immaculate Conception as a dogma of faith and clearly Mary herself was confirming this truth.
 
But we can go one step further. Given Mary’s total love of God, surely one of the gifts that she treasured most was to have always been in God’s love, never, even for an instant being separated from His love and grace. To have been sinless is not an achievement but pure gift. A gift of perfect love for the God she loved so perfectly is surely one of Mary’s deepest joys, and ours as well. And that’s our destiny in heaven, we will, like Mary experience the purest and most complete love of all, which will not longer be hindered by sin. Mary, Mother of God, who loves us with the purest love, pray for us. Make us love God and our brothers and sisters like you.
 
God bless, Fr. Dennis