catholicchurches-lowell-mi-15-0641

New Parish Mass Times (St. Anthony and St. Mary)

pastor@stmarylowell.org (Fr. Michael Goodwin) — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 20:27:46 GMT

Father's LETTER Explaining New WEEKEND MASS TIMES

Dear St. Anthony and St. Mary Parishioners,

Our Bishop has completed the Rooted in Christ Pastoral plan, and one of the big takeaways that has come through this process is that we need the parishes of our Diocese to become centers of evangelization and a place where Catholics are formed as missionary disciples of Jesus so they may become vibrant witnesses of His Gospel.

After reflecting on our current weekend schedules at our parishes, I do not believe that we are currently oriented in a way to fulfill these goals. We are in a unique situation as we are two parishes sharing one priest. This presents unique challenges and limitations. It is important to both identify these and mitigate them to such an extent that they have the least impact on our mission.

With the current schedule of Masses at each parish, this limits my ability as your pastor to be fully present to each community. When we try to have gatherings after morning Mass at St. Anthony, I am torn away to get to St. Mary in time for their Mass. I am also not able to be present at any of the Catechetical/Faith Formation experiences for our young people at both parishes. In addition, I have not been able to provide any adult faith formation opportunities on Sunday mornings while the children are in their classes. To address these limitations and maximize our potential to fulfill the mission of our parishes, I have consulted with the parish council, our staff and ministry leaders to update our weekend Mass schedule. After this consultation, we will implement the following weekend Mass schedule at St. Anthony and St. Mary:

St. Anthony: Sunday 8am (formerly 8:30am)

Implementation: August 24th. Parish Festival weekend

St. Mary: Saturday 4pm (formerly 5pm)

Confessions now offered at: 2:30-3:30pm

Sunday 10:30 am Mass remains the same.

Implementation: November 29/30. First Sunday of Advent

I am communicating this new schedule to both parishes both in this letter and in parish announcements. In each parish section of the bulletin, a rationale for how this new schedule aligns with our mission is provided. If you have any questions or feedback, please reach out to me.

You can reach me at: Phone: 616-897-9820

Email: pastor@stmarylowell.org or pastor@stanthonyofsaranac.org

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Michael

+JMJ+

Rationale for St. Anthony:

1. It gives a block of time from 9am-10am for Fr. Michael to be present more regularly after the St Anthony Mass and before the St Mary Mass for children/youth faith formation.

2. Starting in late September, we are already planning faith formation opportunities once a month at each parish for adults.

Rationale for St. Mary:

1. In the months with less daylight, people will have more daylight in their travels home after Mass.

2. This would also offer an alternate Mass time to our neighboring parishes: St Roberts in Ada is at 4:30pm and St Patrick in Parnell is at 5pm, giving people an earlier option in our region.

3. Finally, and most importantly, this earlier time opens up greater opportunities to host Saturday evening dinners, adult studies, and prayer and praise events following Mass during select dates throughout the year, which aligns with our parish’s values and vision.

Sacred Music within the Mass

pastor@stmarylowell.org (Fr. Michael Goodwin) — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 20:35:56 GMT

Sacred Music within the Mass

As some of you have noticed, the format of our Mass start has been different during both Advent and Lent. This is intentional. The idea behind it is actually very simple: People are supposed to be able to pray before, during, and after Mass.

Music within the liturgy is meant to support and magnify the liturgical prayer of the Mass. The way the reforms of Vatican II were intended to be implemented is that more of the Mass was to be vocally prayed and sung by the congregation with the priest.

Interestingly, the use of hymns during Mass actually began before the Vatican II reforms in Europe. Many Catholics noticed that protestant services were dominated by hymns as emphasis on the Eucharist and the Sacraments as a whole were deemphasized at protestant services. Some parishes began integrating hymns into the old form (pre-Vatican II) of the Mass so the people could remain engaged during Masses. (the hymns were being sung at times throughout the Mass while the priest was praying quietly.)

Before this time, hymns were mostly connected to the Liturgy of the Hours and for times outside of Mass during Eucharistic Adoration and processions. With the Second Vatican Council, there was a desire for the actual Mass to be prayed and sung more actively by the congregation. But, when many english speaking countries hastily translated the new form of the Mass into English, they lost a rich heritage of beautiful Mass compositions sung that were primarily written for the original Latin language. The council fathers envisioned the retention of the use of the Latin Language for the principal parts of the new form of the Mass, but in the 1970's this vision was lost.

Therefore, when the new form of the Mass was introduced in the early 1970's the Mass was not how Vatican II envisioned it. The Mass, instead of being actively sung in both Latin and the local language, was mostly spoken and hymns were written to "fill in" parts of the Mass to provide something that people could sing during the Mass. These hymns were almost exclusively in the local language, with the Latin being almost entirely discarded. In addition the tunes composed for these hymns were often mimicking very relatable tunes found in pop culture, instead of seeking to pass on the rich heritage of Gregorian chant that had been in place for nearly 1400 years.

Many of these hymns became very familiar to the generation that grew up with them and feeling of nostalgia was connected to them.

Today, there has been a desire to renew the original intention of Vatican II by forming beautiful compositions of the Mass where much more of the actual Mass parts can be sung. Source and Summit , a Catholic liturgy organization, is leading the way on this initiative. Just this past year, they were asked to prepare and provide the music for the Seek Conference geared toward college age Catholics. Over 20,000 young people (the largest gathering of this age group of Catholics in the western world) were at the conference and the reverent music of the Mass that was utilized received a strong positive response. See news report video below.)

So, what does this mean for our parishes? We have first of all begun to utilize more of these Mass compositions from Source and Summit. We will be looking at transitioning to their yearly pew Missal for the next liturgical year for both St. Anthony and St. Mary.

What does this mean for hymns for Mass? There are many beautiful hymns that we can still use during fitting parts of the Mass, but we need to consider using them more sparingly. We live in a culture of constant sound and noise and periods of silence have become more rare. The last two Popes (Francis and Benedict) have expressed great concern about the lack of silence provided during liturgies. They share how it is a fundamental spiritual principle that God comes and speaks to us during times of silence. Younger people especially need to experience something different at Mass than what they experience throughout the rest of their week of noise. At first the silence will feel strange and awkward. This is similar for someone who may have spent most of their week indoors and then when they attempt to go out in broad daylight, they react initially with discomfort. We will not seek to do anything abrupt or jarring. This is why we have sought during Advent and Lent to begin to introduce some of this liturgical renewal in small ways. For example:

1. Singing a gathering hymn as people come into Church and transition from the normal experiences of life. (10 minutes before Mass)

2. Then moving into announcements and an invitation to prepare our hearts for prayer (7 minutes before Mass).

3. A period of silence to allow people to enter into Mass as a time of communal prayer. (2-3 minutes before Mass)

4. Mass entrance procession is done with the experience of an antiphon (the people echoing the Word of the Lord in song, reminding us that it is God who gatherings us and calls us first and the Mass and all of our lives is meant to be a response).

5. Offertory Antiphon instead of a hymn. Again, the idea of our offerings are given in response to God's call and invitation. The people can sing in response or pray quietly and listen to the words sung by the choir or cantor.

6. Communion Antiphon- led by choir/responded to by the people if they so choose.

7. No need to move into a hymn, but to leave room for silence so people can express thanksgiving for the gift of the Eucharist.

8. Recession: a hymn can be used to express our thankfulness and joy but there is nothing in the Missal that calls for it. It has become just more of a custom in our culture to have a hymn at the end of Mass. The words of dismissal at the end of Mass is really the end of the celebration.

All of this doesn't even include all the parts of the Mass that are meant to be sung throughout: the dialogues (The Lord be with You/Let us Pray/Thanks be to God/Gloria/Alleluia/Preface of the Liturgy of the Eucharist/Sanctus/Mystery of Faith/Agnus Dei). It is envisioned that for Solemn celebrations, including Sundays, most of the Mass is to be sung by the priest and the people.

So, in these weeks and months ahead, I encourage you to look over this bigger vision and understanding of what is the Mass and what is meant to happen during the liturgy.

Here is a good overview of the approach Source and Summit takes with Music and the Liturgy: https://www.sourceandsummit.com/blog/liturgy-music-and-the-church-s-journey-from-source-to-summit

Here is the stories of parishes that began this renewal at their parishes and the effect it had: https://www.sourceandsummit.com/stories-source-summit

Holy Smoke! The use of Incense in the Catholic Church

pastor@stmarylowell.org (Fr. Michael Goodwin) — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 16:55:26 GMT

Holy Smoke! Incense in the Catholic Church

One of the unique elements of Catholic liturgies is the use of incense. Many wonder why the need for all that smoke? The use of incense in religious worship dates back thousands of years and it was integrated into the Church's liturgy very early on. Incense appears 170 times in the Bible. At. St. Anthony and St. Mary, incense is used during solemn exposition and benediction for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. It is also used during Masses related to solemn celebrations and special feast days. Some people have difficulty because of respiratory conditions. At both parishes we seek to offer certain Masses without incense and also provide certain areas in the Church that reduce the exposure to the incense smoke for those who still want to attend a Mass with incense but still have a health concern.

At St. Anthony , this area is in the entryway. There is limited seating here and doors and clear glass windows to aide in participation and reduce the exposure to incense smoke.

At. St. Mary , there are two areas. A chapel and cry room on the south side of the church (to the right as you look toward the sanctuary). There is also a narthex at the back of the church, but this is a standing area only with no seating.

Note: If you are attending a Mass with incense and do not believe you can come forward to receive Holy Communion, you can notify the priest or sacristan before Mass and one of us can bring the Eucharist to you at the back narthex of either church.

To further explore the history and significance of incense for Catholic liturgy, here are some additional resources to check out:

Article : The History of Incense and Why it is Used at Mass

Article: Holy Smoke: The Use of Incense in the Catholic Church

Videos:

CSA: Catholic Services Appeal

pastor@stmarylowell.org (Fr. Michael Goodwin) — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 19:58:12 GMT

Learn how your gifts to CSA each year goes to support vital ministries and the larger mission of our Grand Rapids Diocese by visiting their website. You can also pledge your gift on the site instead of using the CSA envelopes handed out at the parish:

Liturgical Options at Sts. Anthony & Mary

pastor@stmarylowell.org (Fr. Michael Goodwin) — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 18:34:55 GMT

Liturgical Options at Sts. Anthony & Mary

Are you new, returning or visiting the parish?

During the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter more people start showing up around the parish. Some are visiting or maybe returning to the Church. If that’s you, I wanted to first say welcome! We are glad you are here to encounter the transforming love of Christ with us.

This is also a good opportunity to share about some options we are utilizing in our liturgies at St. Mary’s and St. Anthony’s. During the past months I have written some articles on each of these topics in more detail.

Overview: Liturgical Options at St. Mary

For Further Exploration:

Latin in the Liturgy

Why Latin? (from the EWTN Library)

More on Ad Orientem (Priest Facing East/Toward the Tabernacle)

Emphasizing Eucharistic Reverence (use of patens and kneelers)