Fr. Chas Canoy, Pastor | St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church | Jackson, Michigan
Discover pastoral reflections and homilies from Fr. Chas Canoy, Pastor of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Jackson, MI. Stay rooted in faith and parish life.
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Our 10 Stephen Ministers Are Ready to Go!
Dear Parish Family, Are you or someone you know in our community going through a tough time? Maybe he or she has lost a loved one or having trouble coping with one who is terminal. Maybe he or she is suffering through the pain of divorce or loss of employment or home. Or maybe he
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Pentecost Holy Hour and Healing Service
St. John the Evangelist Parish Sunday, May 15th 6:30pm “When the time of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place” Acts 2:1 Through His Holy Spirit and the Sacraments, God continues to bring comfort, strength, and healing in powerful ways to all who gather in His name. This powerful Pentecost service
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The Catholic Hospitality Training Institute
Dear Parish Family, Our Catholic faith is not just about encountering Christ in the sacraments, but also about encountering Christ in one another. That is what it means for us to live the Church’s identity as the “Body of Christ.” Do we and the visitors of our parish recognize Jesus in us, the members of
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Fr. Kurian Moving to Adrian
Dear Parish Family, The diocese just announced that our dear Fr. Kurian will become the Administrator at St. Joseph in Adrian as of July 1. As many of you know, Fr. Kurian is part of the religious order, Missionaries of St. Francis de Sales (M.S.F.S.), and was planning on returning to his home province of
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To be a sheepdog or shepherd
How often we hear the sad news of young people risking their lives, attempting suicide, getting duped to the drug abusers, or alcohol abusers’ groups. Home schooled as well as church schooled or public schooled, all are easily drawn away from the morally upright behaviors. The symptoms are very identical in everyone’s case. Both teenage
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Dcn. Brian Lenz Coming to St. John!
Dear Parish Family, As you may know, July to June is the fiscal year for the Diocese of Lansing and also the time when any new priest assignments take effect. Those are often made known in the month of April. I am very pleased to announce that Deacon Brian Lenz, who will be ordained to
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Happy Easter!
Dear Parish Family, HAPPY EASTER to you and yours! This Divine Mercy Sunday is the last day of the “Easter Octave,” which is eight straight days of solemnities to celebrate the kickoff of the Easter season. We had a beautiful Easter Triduum that saw 25 people receive at least one of the sacraments of initiation
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Happy Easter
Dear Parishioners & Guests, The great celebration of Holy Week and the Easter Triduum often brings visitors to our parish. If you are one of them, I extend to you a warm welcome on behalf of all the parishioners of St. John, “the Mother Church of Jackson.” For over 150 years, the steeples of this church
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Holy Week Begins!
Dear Parish Family, Today, “Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord,” begins the holiest week of the year! Do you observe it as such, or is it about the same as every other week? If it is, it’s not too late to make this year’s different. Carve out the time necessary to enter into
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Serving at the Lord’s Altar
Dear Parish Family, You will notice something a little bit different with our altar servers. Do you remember when Mark Martin, our seminarian intern, was here last year before he went into his first year of sem-inary? A number of you commented how good he was in helping the other younger servers in guiding them
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The Lenten Practice of Almsgiving
Dear Parish Family, A major part of Lent is almsgiving. At the Masses I celebrated last Sunday, I explained our parish Lenten project in further depth, explaining the specific ways we are endeavoring to “welcome the stranger,” “comfort the afflicted,” and “feed the hungry” with the alms placed in our “House of Mercy” by the
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The new life
The parable of the prodigal son is called “the greatest short story in the world” (Charles Dickens), “the gospel of the gospels”, “the gospel of the outcasts,” and the “parable of the prodigal Father.” The prodigal son story has moved great artists like Rembrandt; composers like John Newton (amazing grace) the golden voiced man Ted
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Holy Hour of Adoration – Tomorrow Night!
Twice each year – during Advent and Lent – Father Chas leads our parish in a Holy Hour of Adoration. Our next event is on Friday, March 4, 2016. There is no cost and everyone is welcome! If you haven’t had the chance to attend in the past, I assure you this is an event
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Come, Let Us Adore!
Dear Parish Family, How is your Lent going? Have you been able to take time away from everything and be with the Lord? This Friday’s “Come, Let Us Adore!” evening of adoration is the perfect time to do that as Friday, March 4 marks the halfway point of Lent this year. Begin this second half
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Pastor’s Sunday Bulletin Article – “House of Mercy” – Part 2
Dear Parish Family, It was a packed week with our staff retreat this past Tuesday and Wednesday. Friends allowed us to use their cottage on Pleasant Lake, and there we worked on team unity and better communication, as well the pastoral vision for the parish we discussed with interested parishioners last Thursday. Then on Thursday
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“The House of Mercy” – Feb. 14 Bulletin Article
Dear Parish Family, With this past Ash Wednesday and today’s First Sunday of Lent, we have begun this holy season of repentance and conversion. We open up our lives to God’s transforming work, and it takes an active denial of the things that get in the way of receiving God’s grace and power. Not denying
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How will you spend your Lent?
Ash Wednesday has come and passed, with over 500 in attendance for Mass throughout the day, many of us were able to wear our “ashtag”, or as Father Chas mentioned in his homily, our “pricetag” which shows our infinite value as Sons and Daughters of God. For parishioners that could not come to Mass, many
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LENT BEGINS FEB. 10, ASH WEDNESDAY!
Dear Parish Family, Can you believe we already begin the Lenten Season next week?! Ash Wednesday is February 10. As you ponder “what to give up,” may each of us focus on sacrificing those things in our lives that get in the way of deepening our relationship with Jesus our Lord and taking advantage of
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What’s the Gamma Group?
Dear Parish Family, We had a joint pastoral council and finance council meeting last week on January 12 to discuss a few things that pertained to both groups. There was unanimous agreement on going ahead with plans to hire an architect who can give us more accurate cost estimates and a better scope of what
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Join us in a Day of Prayer
Tomorrow – Friday January 22, 2016 – is the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, Roe vs. Wade (1973). All dioceses in the United States observe a Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. Our parish has prepared for this in several ways: with our youth, in Mass, and in Eucharistic Adoration.
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What Will you Do on January 22?
Dear Parish Family, Have you signed up to get your free 8X10 portrait and parish/school directory? We’ve had a great response in this first week of signups for our Church and School Directory. Signups continue after Mass this weekend. The first week of photo sessions are almost all filled up! There are still many spots
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Get Your Free Portrait Taken!
Dear Parish Family, Do you wonder who those families are that sit close to you at church week in and week out? Do you wonder who all the other families are that don’t frequent the same Mass you do, but belong to our parish? Do you wonder about all the various activities that go on
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Happy Epiphany!
Dear Parish Family, Due to the bulletin publishers’ deadlines for the holy days, I am writing this to you on Dec. 23, even before the Christmas season begins. Thank you in advance to all our parishioners who have volunteered for the special hospitality we extended to all those attending our Christmas Masses. By being attentive
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A Message from our Pastor
A Message from our Pastor, Fr. Chas Canoy Merry Christmas! On behalf of the whole parish family of St. John, I welcome you and wish you a blessed and merry celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord. We are overjoyed that you have joined us for this special Mass. Our church may be fuller and