From the Desk of Fr. Andrew December 25, 2018 Merry a Year at a Glance the Apostles Series on Thursday Christmas! Nights Which Beautifully Let Me Tell You a Story …
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From the Desk of Fr. Andrew December 25, 2018 Merry A Year at a glance the Apostles series on Thursday Christmas! nights which beautifully Let me tell you a story …. unfolded the workings of the first Welcome to And it is a true story, and this Christian communities. The St. Clare time it did happen at St. Clare. evangelization effort brought us Parish on this It is a wonderful story, it started the Unleash the Gospel efforts very special in our parish with our children. to our parish ministries, as well as day. With We celebrated many baptisms programs like: Eucharist, Walk prayers, this past year; our children through the Mass, and the readings and celebrated the Sacraments of healing series. Together with our music; with our Christmas tree, neighboring faith communities decorations and little manger, we took to the streets of Grosse we rejoice at the coming of Pointe with the Stations of the Christ in our midst. Today we Cross on Good Friday. We celebrate the birth of our Lord launched the Stephen Ministry and Savior, whose mere in our parish to assist anyone on presence brings a special the journey of life marked with message of hope, peace and difficulty. the gift of love. This message permeates the fabric of our lives During the summer we held our reaching our families, schools, annual 5K and Pray initiative to churches, neighborhoods and offer support and prayer to the entire country. I hope your those sick and suffering with experience here this Christmas cancer. The Name Tag Sundays will be one that sparks a desire became a great way to get to to re-engage in our Catholic know each other. We offered faith and our St. Clare our support to our Seminarians community. I hope the book, preparing to enter priestly and along with our parish event religious life. Our Young Adult bookmark that we are sharing Ministry for the children at 9 am group participated in great with you today, will kindle that Mass. Together our young altar projects throughout the year. desire to grow. servers learned new things It was also a year marked by about the liturgy and even As you celebrate the presence the closure of St. Philomena. enjoyed going to watch our of Emmanuel – God with us – After 60 years serving the Detroit Tigers in action. with your family and friends, community the parish and may the Lord bless you richly in Our adult faith journey in the church closed on the Feast of every way. parish was supported by various Christ the King. The closing Mass initiatives. Thursday Faith was presided over by Bishop On behalf of the St. Clare Parish Formation evenings became Fisher as current and former and School Staff, much love our parish feature, along with parishioners gathered one last and prayers, Monday and Friday mornings. time together. Fr. Andrew We started the year with Acts of Continued on page 2 From the Desk of Fr. Andrew Fr. Andrew continued from page 1 The year at St. Clare was marked funerals. That care continued Beautification Award for our by several celebrations, a few throughout the year by staying in campus grounds. highlights: we celebrated 65 years touch and inviting them to our in our current church building. To Bereavement Dinner and honoring In the fall we boarded the bus for mark the occasion, we hosted a their loved ones at the All Souls our annual pilgrimage to London wonderful Opera Concert along Mass in November. We continued Ontario to celebrate the Feast of with an uplifting and faith filled the tradition as a parish of St. Michael with our Canadian thanksgiving Mass with Bishop participating in the Corporal Act of Michaelite parishes, then off to Fisher presiding. Also in April, I gave Mercy to bury the dead, by Europe on the Marian Pilgrimage to thanks for the 25th anniversary of providing a funeral service to an Lourdes, Fatima and Santiago in my ordination. May was special indigent person. We continue to October. when we rejoiced with the Muer assist numerous individuals and family as their son Christopher, who families through our Christian Finally, no doubt I have missed grew up in our parish was ordained Service and St. Vincent de Paul something, we are a truly active to the priesthood, and offered his ministries. and vibrant parish. But that really is first Mass at St. Clare. In July we the beauty of St. Clare all of you welcomed Fr. Tom Quirk, also Our annual traditions continue to that participate in these events, newly ordained in Arizona, to thrive and to provide great social whether it is one or all of them, it is celebrate his homecoming Mass at gatherings for our parishioners to about being together in faith, St. Clare. In September the school enjoy, from the Golf Outing, Book having fun, but also supporting bell rang as we welcomed our Sale, School Auction, Super Bowl each other through the difficult students back to the first day of and St. Patrick’s Day Parties, to the times. So I thank each and every school. The tradition of our Book Winterfest… the list continues to one of you for being part of what Sale continued, but above all in grow. All were fun filled and well makes us St. Clare. September we rejoiced with the attended providing that sense of Servite Community with a Mass of community we love here at St Please read the news from our four Thanksgiving for 125 years of Clare. new ministries: Little Lambs, Young ministry. Adults, Steven Ministry and I would be remiss not to recognize Preschool. Also, see the pictures We celebrated the life of those the Knights for their work on the from 2018 inside of the bulletin who passed on to eternal life. Our new Chapel of St. Michael and our Bereavement Ministry was present Garden Club for being recognized Thanks for the memories. to assist the grieving families at the by the State of Michigan with a Statistics 2018 As we reminiscence this passing year, I would like to share with you some of the numbers of 2018: • Baptisms: 32 • First Communion: 17 • Confirmation: 15 • Weddings: 7 • Funerals: 29 • Registered families: 51 • Average Sunday collection: $10,213 • Students of our school who went to a Catholic High school: 12 Christmas Day Page 2 December 25, 2018 Our Parish Community Being Grateful for the gift that is St. Clare Athletics St. Clare Parish St. Clare Athletics has a rich history in the Catholic Youth Organization and offers a variety of sports. At this time of year it is normal to think about the gifts we have given and those that have been received. We St. Clare Sports are open to St. Clare School stop and count our blessings for all the good in our lives. students, St. Clare Religious Education students and Now is also a time to give thanks to God for the gift of St. Ambrose Religious Education students. We are our parish community. currently in the midst of 3rd-8th grade basketball. We are looking forward to the K-2 Basketball Whether it’s reaching out a hand of welcome at Mass, season, which is open to everyone, and to Track & visiting the homebound, contributing financially, sharing Field, and Baseball. your faith with others, or serving in one of our many ministries; your gift to St. Clare matters. When we work We offer the following programs: together and practice our faith together, we become • Boys and Girls Basketball, Grades 5-8 (October) part of something greater than ourselves. We have a • Girls Volleyball, Grades 4-8 (August) chance to connect with God and with each other as • Boys Soccer, Grades 4-8 (August) we strive to become missionary disciples, while • Girls Soccer, Grades 4-8 (August) Unleashing the Gospel in our faith community and • Boys and Girls Track & Field, Grades 3-8 (March) beyond. • Boys Baseball, Grades 7-8 (March) • Boys and Girls Instructional League Basketball, Thank you very much for your continued support of our Grades 3-4 (December and open to all) St. Clare community. Merry Christmas and many • Boys and Girls Beginner League Basketball, blessings in 2019. May you continue to Be Bold, Be Holy Grades K-2 (March and open to all) and Be Catholic! Please stop by the gym for our remaining home What Do You Want for Christmas? th th “What do you want for games for 5 -8 grade St. Clare Basketball: Christmas?” This is a question we ask each other often before • Saturday, January 5th Christmas. Yet how many of us • Saturday, January 26th actually take a few minutes to • Saturday, February 16th kneel before the infant Jesus and ask Him what He wants from us Our largest fundraiser and 10th Annual Golf Outing this Christmas. will be held on Friday, July 19, 2019. Please mark When we kneel before the your calendar and plan on joining us. All are manger and ask Jesus what He invited. wants, it is very possible that we If you have any questions, please reach out to will hear Him whisper that He wants us to share a little more of Athletic Director Bob Conway at (313) 882-6369 or our time with Him. Maybe each of us could make a email [email protected]. New Year’s resolution to spend more time with God. • Go to Mass more frequently • Find some time for prayer in the morning • End our day with spiritual reading • Pray the rosary while we drive to work • Participate in Eucharistic Adoration • Stop into church occasionally for a quiet visit The gift of time with God could be the very best gift we could give this year, not only to Jesus but also to ourselves.