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Brothers and Sisters:
Grace and Peace to you in Jesus our Lord.

I have not written one of these of these pastoral letters in a few weeks. We have had a brother priest (Fr. Jim) and a brother deacon (now Fr. David) leave us; we have had a brother priest (Fr. Clifford Hennings) and a brother deacon (Deacon Bob Voilland) join us. Blessed be the name of the Lord. The following is a summary of some of the latest news.

This coming Saturday July 18 we will resume our weekly 4:30 Saturday mass. We need ushers for this mass as well as a few folks to stay after for about twenty minutes to get the church ready for the 6:30 Spanish mass. We pray that this mass will provide a few more parishioners a comfortable opportunity to return to attending mass and receiving the Eucharist.

We are restoring our historic parish contribution of 8% to Christian Service. And this is in a fiscal year that included an economic downturn and months of no public masses. Our fiscal year ended June 30. A few years ago our contribution to Christian Service was 6 ½ %.  We made a commitment that each year we met our budget for offertory giving we would raise the % by ½%.  I did not expect that we would make our goal for this year. Our offertory giving goal was $1,150,000. We came within $3,200! Close enough. This is fabulous.  Astonishing. I believe there is a very strong connection between God’s blessing and generosity. Holy Family parishioners should be very proud. God is never outdone in generosity.

Next Tuesday July 21 at 7pm Santiago will lead us in a time of Praise and Worship on our parish YouTube channel. Mark your calendars and invite your friends. These have proven to be very popular events with great refreshment and inspiration.

On Saturday July 25 Dr. Ralph Martin will visit Holy Family and speak at a Saturday breakfast for The Men of Fire.  Dr. Martin is one of the most influential Catholic laymen in the world. He is a longstanding Catholic TV host, best-selling spiritual author, and influential Catholic evangelist and teacher. Breakfast will be at 7:30am. Ralph will speak at 8am on the topic of "Prophetic Warnings and The Current Unrest." We are very fortunate to have him with us. We will have both a breakfast with an in-person presentation and the event will also be Livestreamed. Reservations are necessary for breakfast. You can do this by going to our parish website: holyfamilynovi.org. Please pray about whom you can invite to come with you.

Praying as a Couple, a free webinar series, is another great opportunity for Holy Family parishioners. This webinar is from 8:30 – 9:30pm on Mondays July 20 (next Monday), July 27 & August 3. We know that strengthening the family is one of God’s top priorities for the Church today. And that was well before the pandemic forced families to spend much more time together. The consistent witness of those who have heard this teaching is that it has had a powerful effect on their marriage. I highly recommend this for all our married and engaged couples.

There are lots of other things going on. Christian Service has started seeing clients again. And they are now accepting donations for summer clothing and small household items. Our tremendous Religious Education team is preparing for the fall with plans for in-person, on-line, and a combination of the two, as options from which parents can choose. Pray for them. It is very hard to plan for school in the fall when it is so uncertain what the fall will look like.
Our parish YouTube channel has a very rich menu of inspiring choices. If you haven’t visited, then go to YouTube and search Holy Family Novi. Also check out our parish website and Facebook pages.

God is blessing us brothers and sisters. Let us continue to seek God with all our hearts and yield our wills to the grace God imparts.

Your Brother
Fr. Bob