Dear Parishioners,

The passage of time is a strange thing. Sometimes it seems like time goes so quickly in life that it doesn’t seem possible that so much time has gone by. But then there are the times where time just seems to drag on. The last eight and a half months have been that way for me. My days went pretty fast with all the things that needed to be accomplished, but it’s been a long time since I lived at the rectory. None of us could have anticipated the severity of the tornado or even the storms that followed the tornado several weeks later. Everyone has been asking me for months if I have been given a date to move back into the rectory (and were shocked that it has taken so long). Like everyone else in our community recovering from these storms, we’ve felt time pass more slowly than usual. 

As I write this column ahead of the bulletin deadline for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, it looks promising that we can begin moving items back into the rectory, and I’m happy to report that the majority of the rebuilding is now complete. There are still going to be plenty of things that need to be done both inside and outside. When we finally reach Spring, we will have a lot of things to do, such as plant grass and put the sprinkler system back in. I am truly grateful for the insurance program that our Michigan Catholic Conference uses that has taken care of the majority of the things we need (including the construction and contents that were lost). Some of you have made donations to help with the restoration efforts and the things that were not covered. We did a few things to the rectory (to bring it up to code and replace worn out things) while construction was going on. I am thankful and feel blessed by all of these things. So, if you see some lights on at the rectory, it’s probably not construction workers anymore, but hopefully I will be in very soon. Fr. Joseph is going to have to wait a month (as he is leaving for India this week) before he can settle in. 

I also appreciate everyone’s patience in the past months as I have not been as available for appointments and other things as I normally would be. It’s going to take me a few weeks to settle in, but by the time Lent starts on the 1st Wednesday of March, I hope that we will be back to normal. We will also be working on having Bishop Lohse join us for an Open House and a blessing of the rebuilt rectory. More to come! 

Thanks for reading! 

Fr. Mark