Beginning on September 27th from 7pm - 8:30 pm we will begin a five part "short-course" on St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body. John Paul II developed this teaching as a means of proclaiming anew the beauty of God's plan for the human person created in His Image and Likeness. The course will be held at the Diocesan Center and broadcast to participating parishes around the diocese. This is a great opportunity for anyone working with families, in marriage preparation, teachers, parents, or simply those who would like more exposure to this profound teaching! Please consider promoting this in your various communications! For more information, a sample bulletin announcement, etc click here.

The Catholic's Divorce Survival Guide is a program designed to help individuals find healing and a way forward after divorce. This fall we are holding this program at four locations throughout the diocese. Some classes have just started, some will be starting in the next few weeks. For more information on locations and times click here. If you would like to bring this program to your parish in the future please call or email me for information on how to do so!

The Diocese of Lansing invites any practicing Catholic in our 10-county diocese to this special, two-day conference. If you're an active parishioner at any of our 81 parishes and you'd like to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ, this conference is for you. The focus will be learning how to talk about your faith in a way that reflects your personality and conveys your personal experiences of God's love in your life. The goal is to prepare you for opportunities to share the joy of your faith with family and friends who have left the Church, and ultimately to invite them to come back. You don't have to be invited by your pastor. If you feel called 

(get it?), register and attend! For more information, check out calledbyname2016.org!

I just finished reading this great little book on the family. It is a short interview style book with Cardinal Muller who is currently the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in some ways the Pope's right-hand man when it comes to theology. It was easy to read and offered some real nuggets on the Church's understanding of the pastoral needs and role of marriage and family life in the world today. Here is a taste:

We must show young families a way of living and acting again as Christians in our times: not only during Mass, when receiving the sacraments, or acting in the public life of the Church, but also in the formation and organization of the family structure itself. After that it will be necessary to put into practice, mainly with the help offered by the witnesses of many, many families who regularly follow the practice of their Christian faith: morning or night prayer, periodic examination of conscience, meditation together, visits to shrines, participation in associations or in popular devotions. Isn't this precisely the beginning of a new evangelization of the family?

You can pick it up at Amazon.