Dear Parish Family,
CONGRATULATIONS to our graduates from all the high schools in the Jackson area! We are recognizing this significant moment in their lives at the 10:00 a.m. Mass this weekend, followed by a special catered brunch for them and their families. Our very own John Slough gave a wonderful farewell address at the Commencement. Part of it was “slam poetry,” and I thought I would print an excerpt of it here:
Thank you Lumen Christi, you’ve given all the opportunities that I see.
And I don’t mean to use hyperbole, but in actuality, I can’t thank you enough.
Though you’ve given me the ability to take my own strides.
I’m nervous about the world without a structured guide.
Where will I find my meaning? Will I spend my whole life seeking a greater me?
Searching for greater things in myself, putting oneself on a higher shelf?
I think that’s the biggest lie in life we’ve been told.
The world is so bold so as to tempt us with something that we already hold.
We already have meaning; it just needs some cleaning to finds its gleam.
By practicing, hearing, and trusting our feelings
we can find the One who is doing the redeeming.
The lives we’ve been leading have some higher needing
to believe in the deed that saved us all from bleeding.
The search for our future will be at a loss
unless we fix our eyes on the cross.
Way to go, John Slough! The class valedictorian will be attending Central Michigan this fall.
“I thought we had a real pipe organ?”
Guess again. Some of you know, however, that our deficient piecemeal pipe organ was replaced about eight years ago with an electronic digital organ. The pipes you see in the choir loft are simply decorative; the organ music we currently hear are computer-generated sounds coming from speakers. Our Choir Director and Organist, Dominic Kryst, has brought to the attention of both the Worship Commission and Finance Council the issues we have been having with our current organ. You can see his letter later in this bulletin, where he briefly explains why our church should have a real pipe organ, given its gothic style and historic stature. Dominic has been involved in installing the real pipe organs at St. Catherine in Concord and Our Lady of Fatima in Michigan Center.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Chas