517-447-3500 St. Alphonsus Church 222 Carey st., Deerfield, MI 49238 www.lightofchristparish.com St. Peter The Apostle Church 309 S. Lane st., Blissfield, MI 49228 [email protected]

PARISH OFFICE HOURS PARISH STAFF 2, 2021 Closed to the public. Please phone or email staff. PASTOR Fifth Sunday of Rev. Jeff Poll OPEN YOUR HEART! DAILY SCHEDULE [email protected] God calls us daily into an intimate union. St. Alphonsus Today's readings remind us of this and that our Wednesday and Friday: 9:00 AM DIRECTOR OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION souls thirst for God's love. God is the only St. Peter Deanna Burke: [email protected] source of eternal life, and apart from God we Tuesday and Thursday: 9:00 AM will never be satisfied. WEEKEND MASS SCHEDULE MUSIC DIRECTOR Karen Nevins: [email protected] St. Alphonsus 734-730-0007 Sunday: 8:00 AM St. Peter Sunday: 11:00 AM SECRETARIAL STAFF Bookkeeper Saturday Mass alternates sites at 4:30 PM. (See Susan Cousino: [email protected] website for schedule.)

Weekend masses will be live streamed. Go to Sacramental Records & Parish Data YouTube and enter light of christ church Deanna Burke: [email protected] blissfield-deerfield. Click on “Subscribe” for easy access later, then look for the green circle with an L in the middle and click on it. Bulletin Editor and Ministry Scheduling Leanne Goodin: [email protected] Saturday, Sunday ✠Private Individual Prayer✠ St. Alphonsus & St. Peter the Apostle Bulletin Deadline: Tuesday at noon. Please Churches email material to: [email protected] In this Easter Season, we rejoice in the Lord's 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM resurrection, and we continue to reflect on his unfailing and everlasting love for us. Today, we BAPTISM - Contact the parish office. MAINTENANCE STAFF are called to go deeper in our relationship with Kim Diver - Director Jesus and surrender our live to him so we can be who we were created to be. As the branch SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION needs to be attached to the vine, we need to be Saturdays, 3:00-4:00 PM, at the location of the PASTORAL COUNCIL attached to Jesus to produce fruit. As we grow Saturday mass. Please call the parish office for contact info. in faith and love for others, God will prune us so we can produce more fruit. SACRAMENT OF THE SICK Please call the office if someone is in the hospital, PARISH COMMISSIONS The more time we spend with Jesus, the more sick or homebound and would like to be visited and Finance Commission we will learn to love others and ourselves as he receive the Eucharist or the Sacrament of the Sick. Education Commission does. We will be faithful to his commandments Social Ministry Commission and abide in him. Today, let us open our hearts SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE New Evangelization Commission to receive Jesus and his love. Let's take today's Please contact the pastor 9-12 months before readings home and meditate on them----- preferred date. especially the gospel. PARISH ORGANIZATIONS PRAYER CHAIN Altar Rosary Society Contact Person - Rose Forgiel 517-447-3868 Knights of Columbus Heritage Garden Club Women of Prayer DAILY MASS CANCELLATION POLICY Walking With Purpose

When schools in either Blissfield or Deerfield (Britton-Deerfield) are on a 2-hour delay or FOOD PANTRY canceled, daily mass and any evening parish Open the 2nd Wednesday of the month from 1-3 events will be canceled as well. Please be aware PM at the Parish Center in Deerfield. Food will be of the possibilities of inclement weather (fog, ice, delivered to vehicles parked in the church parking snow, etc.) and check for school postings before lot. venturing out. Stay safe! 2021 KNIGHTS’ NEWS WELCOME BACK TO SUNDAY MASS with Bishop Earl Boyea O God, by the Resurrection of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021, will see Bishop Earl Boyea’s dispensation from the obligation to Christ, You brought joy to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days expire across the Diocese of Lansing. “Come home, come on the world. Grant that back,” says Bishop Boyea, April 23, “first of all, because it is Pentecost, the feast to the birthday of the through the intercession of the Church. So, it's a great day to encourage all of our people to come back to church. This is part of our Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may attain the obligation to God: to worship God and to worship God as a community.” joy of eternal life. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. “The other issue is: When, if not now? Things are never going to get perfect. So, we might as well, at some point, choose a date and say this is when we have to start getting back to church. Obviously, those Blessings and Congratulations to all the who have perfect excuses for not being in church, they should continue to use them – and that's fine, children receiving First Holy Eucharist there’s no problem with that.” To encourage the lay faithful to prayerfully return to Sunday Mass, Bishop Boyea is gifting every family in the diocese a blessed candle representing the Light of the during May. Jesus will be your best friend World, Jesus Christ. Each candle is made to burn for one hour each day over the eight days of the and constant companion. All Knights are octave of Pentecost. “There's a problem with the darkness that is in our world and there's no other light asked to pray a rosary for you and your that can break that darkness except Christ -- but it's not just that Christ is the light, he wants us to be families. light as well,” says Bishop Boyea who suggests gifting a candle to friends, family and neighbors while also praying that they also return to Sunday Mass. “So, it is a time really for us to pray for the gifts of Congratulations and Blessings to all the the Holy Spirit upon ourselves but also the gifts of the Holy Spirit on those that we know and love and teens receiving Confirmation during May! who we want to come back to church and are not, at this present moment, doing so.” The Holy Spirit wants you to be happy and to enjoy this world and the life He gave you. * Below is the text of a memo expanding upon this topic sent Friday, April 23, by Bishop Boyea to With His gifts, Wisdom, Knowledge, those who subscribe to his Friday Memo. It reads: Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Piety, Dear Friend, and Fear of the Lord, you have all you need A year ago, we were afflicted with a great scourge, the COVID-19 virus. Our lives were upturned. This to accomplish this. He will speak to your included our spiritual lives. So as to ease our consciences, I, as your bishop, dispensed all in the thoughts. All Knights are asked to pray a Diocese of Lansing from the obligation to participate in Sunday and Holy Day Mass. This kind of rosary for you and your families. dispensation prevailed throughout our country and the world. The primary aim of all our safety precautions was to “flatten the curve.” It was never to get rid of the virus. That will remain with us for Scrap Metal Wanted! Our "Metal Into years. Rather, it was to make sure that our hospitals were not overwhelmed. In fact, hospitalizations are Meals" Scrap Metal Drive is Saturday, May now down. And those most likely to be hospitalized, the 65 and older, are now vaccinated or able to be 22, 8:00AM to Noon, at the St. Peter parking vaccinated. It is time for our believing community to gather again. Thus, as some of you will already lot. All metals are needed including brass, know, as of Pentecost 2021, May 22-23, 2021, I am lifting the dispensation for the Diocese of Lansing. We are all now obliged to participate in Mass on Sundays and Holy Days. Over these next few copper, aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, weeks, let me offer some reflections on this for our meditation. bronze, steel, iron, and carbide. Auto, truck, tractor, marine, and lawn mower batteries are The first precept of the Church is “You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and accepted. No donation is too small. St. rest from servile labor” (Catechism #2042; see Canon 1247). This is a call for us to sanctify the Lord’s Joseph the Worker pray for us. Day by worshiping God in the Christian assembly and by resting “from those works and activities which could impede such a sanctification of these days” (Catechism #2042). This is a serious The Holy Father's Intention: The world of responsibility on the part of all the Faithful People of God “unless excused for a serious reason (for finance - Let us pray that those in charge of example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor” (Catechism #2181; see Canon finance will work with governments to #1245). Obviously, if it is impossible to fulfill this obligation, then it is not binding. When in doubt, regulate the financial sphere and protect speak with your pastor. citizens from its dangers. Further, it is fascinating that the real obligation of Sunday Mass is that we worship God. To worship God is to “acknowledge [the Lord] as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists,” and so “to praise and exalt [God] and to humble oneself” in his presence (Catechism #s 2096, 2097). Even as Jesus told the devil who was tempting him, “The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve” (Matthew 4:10). Our Sunday Mass is not primarily about receiving the Eucharist though that is obviously a very important reason for participating in that Mass.

Some may say that they can worship God on their own. Certainly, there is truth to this. However, hear If you have not made a gift or a pledge, I these words of Pope St. John Paul II, “it is not enough that the disciples of Christ pray individually and invite you to do so today. Gift envelopes commemorate the death and Resurrection of Christ inwardly, in the secrecy of their hearts. Those who are available in church or the parish office. have received the grace of Baptism are not saved as individuals alone, but as members of the Mystical Or you may submit your gift online at this Body, having become part of the People of God. It is important therefore that they come together to link to the DSA online gift page https:// express fully the very identity of the Church” (Dies Domini #31). Furthermore, we assemble as one because the Lord calls us to gather together. It is in obedience to his summons that we join publicly in donate.dioceseoflansing.org/ the celebration of his death and Resurrection. DSAdonations. Your DSA gift will support the vital services and ministries Assuring you of my prayers, I am sincerely yours in Christ, that help bring the love of Christ to all we encounter. + Earl DSA UPDATE: Bishop of Lansing Goal $27,938.00 Total Pledges $25,432.00 P.S. To welcome you and your loved ones back to Holy Mass, I am sending each family a blessed Percent of Goal 91.03% candle representing, as it does, the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. Watch this video below to find out Estimated Donors 125 more: https://dioceseoflansing.flocknote.com/note/11986251/video/485583555 Estimated Participation Rate 24.24% MASS INTENTIONS FIRST EUCHARIST FOR THE WEEK CONFIRMATION 2021 “GIFTED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT” CELEBRATION MAY 2021 Tuesday, May 4 - 9:00am, St. Peter ✞ Fr. Thomas Butler Please pray for the following teens that are being confirmed throughout this spring: Congratulations to the following children as by the Poll family they receive their First Holy Communion this spring: Wed., May 5 - 9:00am, St. Alphonsus Owen Denniss Gabriel (Gabe) Jones ✞ Bob Shettleroe Sophia Bieber by John & Joan Witt Lilli Kastel Abigail (Abbey) Molaro Elle Franzen Claire Molnar Griffin Gust Thur., May 6 - 9:00am, St. Peter Adam Lambrix ✞ the People of the Parish Brock Papenhagen Joscelyn Yape Georgia Waggoner Landen Walentowski Fri., May 7 - 9:00am, St. Alphonsus Gwen Westhoven ✞ Fr. Thomas Butler Jude Westhoven by the Poll family

Sat., May 8 - 4:30pm, St. Alphonsus Vigil ✞ Tom Komon by Millie Okapal This is not the end, but the beginning of their new identity as an adult of the May God, who brought you to Sunday, May 9 - . They are called to this special day continue to 8:00am, St. Alphonsus continue living a Christian life through direct your life in His perfect way. ✞ Doug Scholl service and discovering and sharing their by the DeNome family unique gifts and talents. When you see these new members of our parish, please WORSHIP AIDS ONLINE 11:00am, St. Peter welcome them! Congratulations and God ✞ Bill Ludolph, Jr. Bless You! A weekly worship aid with liturgical music is by Carole Ludolph available on our parish website, www.lightofchristparish.com, for you to follow “METAL FOR MEALS” along during mass on your smartphone or tablet. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let Saturday, May 22, 8am-12pm (please silence the ringer) The worship aid can perpetual light shine upon him. be found under the “Bulletins/Aids” tab at the The Knights of Columbus will be having a top of the homepage. These weekly aids can Ronald D. “Coop” Coopshaw of Blissfield Scrap Metal Drive at also be found on our parish Facebook page. passed away on April 26 and his funeral Light of Christ in was April 30. Please keep Ron and his Blissfield parking lot family in your thoughts and prayers. on May 22. This is a LET US PRAY FOR OUR SICK AND SHUT-INS major fundraiser for AND THEIR CAREGIVERS their Holiday Food distribution and Basket Rita Bausman Donna LaMonde program. Ella Borowski JoAnn McKelvey Ginger Borowski Emily Martinez All metals are needed including brass, Becky Branscum Shelly Molaro copper, aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, Raymond Busby Joseph Mueller Isabelle DeLaCruz John Musielewicz bronze, steel, iron, and carbide. Auto, Ann DeNudt Bev Pifer truck, tractor, marine, and lawn mower Webb Drew Dan Reed batteries are accepted. No donation is too Carmen Garcia Eva Ricker small. Your generosity is appreciated!! Katy Goodman Mary Rowe Carmen Graham Jerry Sekulski Dale Graham Jim Sheldon -STEWARDSHIP REPORT- Makenzie Greer Becky Shusta April 25, 2021 Joan Hamilton Lena Silva Carrie Hartley Alice Van Staveren ~READINGS FOR THE WEEK~ Sunday- $2,728.00 Kristie Horkey Norman Suydam Loose- $75.00 Ed Jacobson Christopher Warner Easter- $330.00 Fifth Sunday of Easter Susan Johnson Kristine Wells Mercy Fund- $34.00 May 2, 2021 Norma Kelly Flo Wentworth Acts 9:26-31 Marie Kieplinski Mark Willaert Total Collection- $3,167.00 1 John 3:18-24 Jonah Kornberg Marie Woodbury Envelopes- 75 John 15:4a, 5b Gale LaVoy Rita Woods Online Giving- Sixth Sunday of Easter Sunday- $1,686.00 Please call the parish office if you would like to May 9, 2021 Mercy Fund- $10.00 receive the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 Monthly Pledge- $7.50 which can be done before/after mass, at your 1 John 4:7-10 Total- $1,703.50 home or in the hospital. Also, if you or someone John 15:9-17 you know is on the above list and no longer Envelopes- 30 needs to be, please contact the office. !"#$%&'()*%+"$',-.%/'0"#1-$2'34"5%$' !"#$%&'()*%+"$',-.%' Wagley Funeral>#!$,&$F(2+$,-0++- Home, Tagsold$ Chapel Wagley!"#!$%&$'()*++$,-& Funeral $Home GA1HHI1+A/3$'14516(2$7899J301 S. Lane Street $ ./01(23$'14516(2$7899!1501 W. Maumee Street$ :;$"!<&7J=&9!>>$ Blissfield, Michigan 49228 Adrian,:;$"!<&9=>&!7## Michigan$ 49221 ?K)6$:(6HKA/3$'(2(6+0$ ?(@1/$%&$%(6A+B3$CD2+0E'(2(6+0$ .012$L)//3$M)2+0(A$?10+4-K0517.486.2133 $ 517.263.1400 Doug Tagsold!"#$#%&'()*+%,'*-#.%('//#$David% W. Wagley WHERE FAMILY VALUES MATTER Parishioners Parishione Papenhagen 214 E. Adrian Street CONSTRUCTION Blissfield (517) 486-4385vv “Your Start-to-Finish Contractor” Parishioners Parishioner LICENSED • INSURED Jeff & Sharon Scott & Steve Papenhagen Simpson 8411 E. U.S. 223 Blissfield, MI 49228 (5 17) 486-4624 (5 17) 486-6312 FAX “We Donʼt Cut Corners, We Clean Them!” Office: 517-424-7047 Cell: 734-368-4124 [email protected] Parishioners Dusseau’s Flower Depot & Farm Market 1 mile West of Blissfield on US-223 -- (517) 206-6254 Parishioners Flower Depot Open May-June Farm Market Open July-October Hanging Baskets Sweet Corn Bedding Flowers Tomatoes Vegetable Flats Melons Planters Blueberries & Much More! Peaches & Much More!

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?+.+(&0'(@$8$ABA$<)32%+$<.5$ 7)40+(.6233+$8$9::;$<.+(%&$=>5$ C32&&-2+3>$8$DEAF$G)&.$H5<5$II9$$ 17655 Albain Road ()**+,-)+)./, ()**+,-)+)./- )**+,-)+)./0 Petersburg, MI 49270 www.demeacres.com !"##$!%&'()%*+$*)%$,--+($./+$0+&.$1,&&203+$1(+42'4&55562&2.$!"##$%&'$ “Bolster Family Golf” Parishioners