Reservations for Masses January 24, 2021 Second Sunday Ordinary Time
can be made at the links below. All Masses will be held in Church.
- Instructions for sign up -
4:30PM Saturday - January 23
9:00AM Sunday - January 24
THERE WILL BE NO SIGN UP REQUIRED FOR THE 11:30 MASS
SOCIAL DISTANCING/LIMITED SEATING STILL IN EFFECT
FACE MASK REQUIRED
11:30AM Sunday - January 24
Mask is required for all Masses
(Please read the Safety and Hygiene Protocols to be observed at Public Masses.
Sunday Mass with Catholic Extension, live at 10 a.m. - recording available all day
Archdiocese of Detroit:Online Giving
Give, Serve, Pray while you're away. Online giving helps sustain our parish. Online giving allows you to make donations, payments, and pledges via your smart device or computer to your parish back home. Set up your gift today or consider an additional gift via our app on your smart device. Click the image to set up your online giving Technical support can be reach by calling 800-348-2886
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When you give to the Bishop’s Annual Appeal, you make possible the more than 70 spiritual, pastoral, educational, and charitable programs and services provided through the diocese. Your gift makes a difference. Pledge envelopes can be found in pews, pledge and pay online at the Diocese of Kalamazoo, or call the parish office 968-6645. The annual appeal for 2020 Is underway, please pledge today.
Donations can also be made to St. Philip by mail. Send your check made out to St. Philip Roman Catholic Church to the parish office at 112 NE Capital Ave. Battle Creek, MI, 49017
Dear friends of St. Philip,
Arriving in the midst of a pandemic and the curtailed activity that have come with it is becoming something of a specialty of mine. After serving five years as pastor of St. Mary’s in Kalamazoo, which is my adopted home parish in Michigan, I was asked to serve as pastor of St. Ann, Augusta right after Easter. My seven months there were certainly shorter than I expected, but fruitful and rewarding. Now, with mask in place, I have been called again to a new flock.
But I get ahead of myself. I should tell you who I am and why I am now writing the pastor’s note for St. Philip’s bulletin. I was born and raised in the Southern Illinois town of Belleville, in the East suburbs of St. Louis. Missouri, just across the Mississippi. To teach my parents patience, God gave them thirteen children, of which I am the eleventh. I like to tell people I am a typical eleventh child! In college I wandered among various majors (political science, history, math, engineering, education) before stepping away from school. At 26, I applied to the seminary and eventually obtained my Philosophy degree from Loyola University in Chicago. After graduation, I moved to Michigan and Bishop Murray sent me to the North American College in Rome to complete my studies. Fr. John Fleckenstein came home from Rome the Summer I went to Rome.
I was ordained a priest in Kalamazoo on May 13, 2006. In the intervening years, I have served at St. Augustine Cathedral, St. Thomas More Student Parish, Hackett High School, and St. Monica. For a few years, I was given permission to serve out-side the diocese and served as pastor at Sacred Heart of Jesus, Grand Rapids, and administrator of a parish in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, closer to family. In 2015, I returned to Kalamazoo to serve as pastor of St. Mary’s in Kalamazoo. There I was particularly pleased to help develop the liturgical and devotional life of the parish in both the newer and more ancient forms of the Mass. We also transformed the music program into one of the best in the diocese.
I enjoy traveling when possible, as well as woodworking and general puttering. Ask me sometime about the boat I’m building! I’m currently shopping for a space to set up my woodshop.
As pastor of St. Philip, I am excited to be coming to a community of proud heritage and vibrant outreach to the greater community. The work that has been accomplished in bringing forward our Catholic schools and transforming our parish campus shows vision and hope for the future. There is always plenty more to be done, but I am happy to say the momentum in this parish gives cause for excitement about the work we face together. I look forward to getting to know each of you in the coming years, and working as your shepherd to lead lives of faithful discipleship, following the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rev. James Richardson
Dear Parishioners,
Greetings of love and peace from your Associate Pastor Fr. Pangiraj Jabamalai Nathan (Fr. Raj). First of all I
personally wish you all compliments of the season of Christmas and grace-filled New Year. I pray that the baby
Jesus, born for us, may bless you all with sound health of mind and body and keep you safe from all the
sicknesses (especially from Covid-19) throughout the 2021 year. As you all know, on December16th, Rev.
Bishop Paul Bradley called me and with a due consultation has appointed me as the Pastor of the collaborative of
Our Lady of the Lake parish at Edwardsburg and St. Ann parish at Cassopolis. This will take effect on January
11th to cater to the spiritual needs of that parish. Indeed it gives me happiness to be elevated to pastor of a parish
for the first time in my life as a priest and a lot of challenges and undivided commitments definitely await me.
But at the same time, I feel sad to leave St. Philip’s parish-the parish I refer to as the mother parish which
nurtured me as a mother. No doubt that I am a foreigner to the United States of America (USA),but when I
arrived here on October 7th, 2019, people of this parish gave me a warm welcome, through which, you all
accepted me as one among you and that gave me confidence to feel that this is my “home away from home.”
Thereafter, I had some difficulties of communicative language, but you all supported and encouraged me with
your generosity, which was all the more an incentive for me to learn the language better. Everyone's presence in
the church with utmost attention encouraged me to preach the Word of God as inspired by the Holy Spirit. I
would indeed write volumes of my experiences here at St. Philip's in Battle Creek.
For everything, thank you would not be sufficient, but all the same I remain grateful to all of you. I also
acknowledge all those persons who showed your love for me through your greetings and gifts at different
occasions. Be assured that you are remembered in my holy Mass every day. And definitely in the near future I
will reach out to you through my personal mail.
I don't forget and a few words would not be enough to express my gratefulness for the important role played by
Fr. John Fleckenstein as pastor in my life. He was a true guide who always motivated me with regard to the
parish work and taught me to be more responsible. I would also like to thank Fr. James Richardson, even though
we have had a very short time of acquaintance, in this short while he was so gentle and humane whenever I
approached him for any help. I thank all the staff of St. Philip parish for your support and being an inspiration
to me through your work and I am so much edified by your commitment you show in the parish activities. Once
again, thank you one and all! I also ask your forgiveness, for if I have done anything wrong or have hurt you in
any way through my words and deeds.
Though I may leave this parish, I will remain connected to you in love and prayers. May God bless you
and your families.
Thank you,
Father Raj
If you would like to contact me:
Our Lady of the Lake
24832 US 12 East
Edwardsburg, MI 49112
Phone: 269-699-5870
"I remember, as a young boy of nine, cutting little round circles out of white fish food squares to use as 'hosts' in my 'play mass.' My study desk would daily become my 'altar,' where I would 'celebrate mass' every day before beginning my homework. Being the oldest of seven brothers and five sisters, I always had a ready congregation. At ten I was serving as an Altar Boy, at St. Joseph Church. I was the MC for our high school parish, St. Monica Church.
After attending Hackett Catholic High School, I entered St. Meinrad Seminary in 1967. Shortly after I began my Theology studies, in the Fall of 1971, my father met with sudden death. Over the decades of helping mother, siblings, nieces, and nephews, I never lost the desire for the priesthood. I was accepted back into Formation in 2017. I was ordained to the priesthood on December 19, 2020, for the Diocese of Kalamazoo
My priesthood is a witness in two essential ways. A priest's first act is always to bless; that is the essence and the solemn obligation of anyone who would minister for Christ. In the case of the priest that obligation extends to the second aspect of priesthood; offering of sacrifice. It is in the greatest prayer of creation and evolution in which the Eucharistic Offering brings earth and heaven together and makes them one. What other greater sharing of grace in the sanctification of others is there?
To all who have helped me on my journey, I thank you. To all who have been with me from the beginning, through the 'Desert Years' and the last several years of Formation, I will always hold you in the closeness of my heart.
Whenever I celebrate Mass, who will always be a part of that offering. May the Lord always guide and protect you. May He make His Light shine upon you. Amen" Father David Pinto
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