Category: Pastoral Blog

When we started our 5:30 PM Sunday Night Mass in May of last year (“A Mass for the Busy Catholic” as we used in our tagline), our plan was to […]

Even as we enter into these “dog days” of summer, our Faith Formation Team is hard at work preparing for the next school year. The members of the team are studying […]

We thank everyone who helped to make Strawberry Festival 2019 a huge success.  When it was announced at my former parish that I would be coming to St. Isidore, many […]

A CORPUS CHRISTI STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL? Yes folks, simultaneously this weekend, we have the yearly Liturgy of the Feast of Corpus Christi as well as the annual Strawberry Festival. What do […]

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Trinity, one of the few doctrinal feasts on the Church calendar.  As Chris Kozlowski’s reflection on this week’s Connecting Point makes clear, […]

What is the Green Team? In the Fall of 2018, the idea of a Green Team surfaced in a Leadership Team discussion. Shortly after the discussion occurred, Tony Kendzierski, St. […]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!Our St. Isidore family is awesome! On behalf of the entire Lenten Giving Tree Committee, Christian Services, Miracles in Action Magical Classroom, D.B.Peru – representing […]

Today’s Feast of Pentecost brings the Easter Season to a close.  The high points of our Easter celebration were the Baptism, Confirmation, and First Eucharist of our four neophytes and […]

Today (June 2) the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord.  In the past, the Ascension of the Lord was celebrated on Ascension Thursday, forty days after […]

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers of our parish, and to those who share motherly love with our young people, such as aunts, teachers, coaches, mentors, counselors, etc. In many […]

We congratulate our second graders who celebrated their First Eucharist with us over the past two weekends, and whose names have appeared on the front page of the Harvest News!  […]

Experience some the beauty from the Easter Vigil. Check out the entire gallery (155 photos) in our app!

“HE LORD IS RISEN!” “HE IS RISEN INDEED!” This is the traditional joyful greeting Christians share with each other on this Easter Day, celebrating the very heart of our faith.  […]

In this season of new life, we can realize how much we are dependent on the church through life stages. We begin with baptism, receive the sacraments, and celebrate marriage. […]

Consider becoming a part of the St. Isidore Parish Council. Here you have a voice to share feedback and help shape the direction of our Church so that we can […]

Our first Vicariate Lenten Communal Penance Service is here at St. Isidore this Monday night, April 8, at 7:00 PM.  Celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation is an essential part of […]

As I depart St. Isidore, my hope is that my Jesuit superiors will now allow me the time (and money) to pursue my own artwork. This is the direction in […]

As I come to the end of my tenure here at “Izzy’s,” I return to the theme of my very first “Musings,” namely Art (the visual arts). Last summer I […]

Fr. Ron takes pride in the fact that St. Isidore does the full liturgical cycle of the year. (Most parishes today do not have a Saturday morning Mass because priests […]

Lent begins this Wednesday! It is a time for us to go ever deeper into our spiritual life and experience spiritual renewal as we prepare to renew our Baptismal promises […]

Lent begins late this year. Ash Wednesday is March 6. But it is not too early to begin planning how you will keep the penitential season. As in the past, […]

Lent begins late this year: Ash Wednesday is March 6. But it is not too early to begin planning how you will keep the penitential season. As in the past, […]

Being a good speller is a curse. Mistakes that most people don’t notice stick out like a sore thumb to us—actually it’s more like fingernails on a chalkboard! In my […]

It is a long tradition in the Church of having special “intentions” for a Mass.  The special intention is usually a deceased loved one, or someone in special need of […]

Some of the most powerful prayers/reflections of the 20th Century have similar themes: serenity, patience, and humility.  Some of these prayers will be familiar to you, but others may not […]

Having celebrated an Advent season of joyful preparation, and the wonder-filled Christmas Season with its many bright feasts, we have now entered into “Ordinary Time” on the Church calendar.  The […]

There are so many themes in this Christmas season that comes to a close today. Light, gift, family, the humanity and divinity of Jesus (incarnation), etc. One that I had […]

Today’s Solemnity of the Epiphany is, liturgically,  the brightest feast of the entire Christmas Season.  Today we rejoice in our belief that Jesus is revealed as the Light for all […]

Mr. Matt Hunt, who has served as our Coordinator of Youth Ministry at St. Isidore for the past year, recently left  our Pastoral staff to serve as Pastoral Associate at […]

A few decades ago, as the commercialism of Christmas continued to grow, the phrase “put Christ back in Christmas” became popular. Back then I thought this was a very modern […]

I love the season of Advent.  It is a time of joyful anticipation of Christ’s Coming.  During these first few weeks of Advent we focus on Christ’s Second Coming, when […]

The entire Archdiocese of Detroit has a special focus for this Advent/Christmas season—especially for Christmas Eve/Day itself. We are calling it “Radical Hospitality.” Hospitality is an important virtue in our […]

Dear St. Isidore Parish: It is with a heavy heart that I recently gave my resignation as youth minister of St. Isidore. All this has happened in the last month: I formally gave my […]

A New Liturgical Year begins next Sunday, December 2, the First Sunday of Advent.  Today we celebrate the last Sunday in the current Liturgical Year, the Feast of Christ the […]

As some of you know, I have two homes really. Five days a week I live and work here at St. Isidore, and two days, usually Thursday and Friday, I […]

November is the month dedicated to remembering and praying for the Faithful Departed, our brothers and sisters who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. If you […]

Because I have a foot in both the Western and Eastern Churches, I am often asked this question:  “Can I go to an Eastern Church for mass, and if so, […]

DO NOT BE AFRAID… …to go out on the streets and into public places, like the first Apostles who preached Christ and the Good News of salvation in the squares […]

At 9:30 Mass this Sunday we celebrate the Rite of Acceptance into the Catechumenate. This is the second of four stages in the Right of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). […]

Last Sunday, Pope Francis canonized two saints, a pope and an archbishop who died within a couple of years of each other—Pope Paul VI in 1978, and Archbishop Oscar Romero […]

St. Isidore has recently been featured in a national podcast; the “Ministry Moment” Monday podcast offered weekly via the National Pastoral Musicians Association. The podcast includes a discussion between St. […]

 My name is Jeff Loeb and I was ordained a permeant deacon of the Archdiocese of Detroit on October 6th, 2018.  I will be serving and praying with you starting […]

St. Isidore faithful, We have all been affected, in one way or another, by the horrible sexual abuse scandals of the Catholic Church.  The news is disturbing, and for many […]

 We will be celebrating the Sacrament of the Sick at the 4:30 Mass next Saturday, October 13.  Celebrating this sacrament at a parish weekend liturgy allows the parish community to […]

Today, I will share with you some of my thoughts and practices regarding liturgy. There are three main influences in my liturgical theology: my interest in language, my Maronite (Eastern […]

 I am sure you have noticed the improvements made to our parking lot.  New LED lighting has been installed, cracks in asphalt have been filled in, and the surface has […]

September 7-9 was an “all-hands on deck” weekend that showcased the generosity of our parishioners and staff in serving God’s people. Even the many unchurched people who came here for […]

In many ways, a parish’s “calendar” follows the school year.  Thus, many exciting things are starting up in the parish in the next couple of weeks.  Faith Formation begins for […]

Fr. Mark’s Musings for Sept 2 As some of you have noticed, I have some very definite ideas about politics, and as far as I can tell, most of my […]

I, like perhaps many of you, am angry, disgusted, and horrified at the news and recent stories in the media regarding the sexual abuse of minors by members of the […]