cgadDear Parish Family,

Discover your giftedness, and you will discover your calling!  A huge part of our happiness and sense of fulfillment is the conviction that “I am doing what I was created and called to do!”  Do you fully know what that calling is?

Many of you have been called to the sacrament of marriage and know that you are to give of yourself to the salvation and well-being of your family.  But we can grow in our knowledge of everything that entails and our capacity to fulfill that calling well.

Moreover, as central as marriage and family life is to our calling, it is not the only aspect of living a full and abundant life.  We know that’s the case, which is why we may be pursuing the things the world is offering, and a lot of it is not too healthy for our soul and puts our eternal salvation at risk.  We eventually find out, hopefully not too late, that the world’s bill of goods do not deliver.  We may find it pleasurable, but it is fleeting.

So what can make both our marriage and family life and our life in the world more satisfying?
Enter Called and Gifted, which is a workshop that kicks off the adventure of discovering our God-given
giftedness!  Did you know that God has given each and every one of us a unique set of charisms, or gifts, that we are to use for the benefit and building up of the Church and the humanity?  These special gifts are not our natural talents or developed skills.  These charisms are God’s way to act supernaturally through you and me.  Do you know what your charisms are?

When you act out of your charisms, you feel alive!  You sense that God’s hand is upon you, and you sense the Holy Spirit working in and through you.  These charisms can be as ordinary as the gifts of
administration, hospitality, craftsmanship, music, and service.  We can be good at those things on a natural level, but if those things are charisms in our life, they are acting on a different plane and producing a
fruitfulness that is beyond what natural talents can effect.  The reason for this is because charisms are the Holy Spirit acting in and through your person.

I encourage you to discover your giftedness.  In doing so, you’ll discover your calling and how to fulfill that calling in extraordinary ways!  The Called & Gifted Workshop is coming right to our parish starting on Friday evening, February 3 and then at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.  Register by emailing or calling Todd Gale at the parish office.

The Man Event
Please invite all the men in your life over 14 years of age to the Diocese of Lansing’s “The Man Event.”  We are fortunate that it is so close, as it will be held at Our Lady of Fatima in Michigan Center on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Catholic Schools Week
Finally, celebrate the blessing of Catholic education by taking part in some aspect of Catholic Schools Week that kicks off this very Sunday!

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Chas