Welcome to Week Seven in our Year of the Family. Today, we explore one of the greatest partnerships you can strike up as you attempt to raise your children or grandchildren to be the happy, holy people that God desires them to be. Who is that partner? Watch and find out.

“Love in a man who preaches the Word of God is like fire in a musket. If a man were to throw a bullet with his hands, he would hardly make a dent in anything; but if he takes this same bullet and ignites some gunpowder behind it, it can kill. It is much the same with the Word of God. If God’s Word is spoken only naturally, it does very little; but if it is spoken…filled with the fire of charity - the fire of love of God and neighbor - it will wound voices, kills sins, converts sinners, and works wonders.” Saint Anthony Mary Claret (1807 – 70)

"Those who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and blameless life. They must completely remove from their lives the filth and uncleanness of vice. Their upright lives must make them like the salt of the earth for themselves and for the rest of mankind. The brightness of their wisdom must make them like the light of the world that brings light to others." Saint John of Capistrano (1386-1456)

"As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live," Pope Saint John Paul II. For more of the Diocese of Lansing's Year of the Family, go to: dioceseoflansing.org/family

"The Cross is the way to Paradise, but only when it is borne willingly," Saint Paul of the Cross (1694 – 1775). More: dioceseoflansing.org/news/re…

While the Jesuit priest, Isaac Jogues was killed by the Iroquois near present-day Albany, New York, on October 18, 1646, it is the story of his brother Jesuit, Jean de Brebeuf, which interests me more. ⁣ Every few years, we take our seminarians on pilgrimage to Midland, Ontario, to the site where Jesuits in the mid-1600s welcomed native Hurons into the Church. The first Jesuit mission to the Hurons in present-day Canada, 1626-1629, was interrupted by English settlers from the south. The Jesuits’ second mission from 1632 to 1649 was one of the most successful evangelizing efforts by the Church. ⁣ These French Jesuits sought to live with and like their communities. They learned the local languages and tried to find similarities between Christianity and the local customs. One Jesuit wrote: “In winter we are careful to have fireplaces full of burning coals in several parts of the chapel, to provide against the discomforts that might arise from the cold and their nakedness. This so pleases them that some often remain, of their own free will whole hours after the service, to converse about our mysteries, and to become better and better instructed.” ⁣ The Jesuit missionaries recorded their activities in letters and annual reports back to France, mostly to stimulate support for the missions and to recruit more missionaries. These reports became known as the Jesuit Relations (1632-1673). They record the many trying years of missionary work finally reaching some real success and acceptance by the Huron in about 1644. ⁣ Brébeuf’s 1635 Relation is a masterpiece of the situation in Huronia. This priest became a master of their language teaching it to his French colleagues. It was often the sick, no doubt affected by European diseases, who were the objects of the Jesuit kindness, preaching and baptism. “On the 27th of November [1634], Martin Tsicok, already a very old man of a very kindly disposition, was baptized. This good man continually called upon Jesus and Mary from his baptism to his death on the 15th of December.” The recipients chose heaven over hell at the urging of the missionaries. ⁣ Father Jean de Brébeuf served there from 1626 to his martyrdom in 1649. In that year, on March 16, the Iroquois attacked the mission of Ste. Marie. The first Iroquois attack in 1648 saw Fr. Antoine Daniel martyred but it was in the next year that the Huron villages were destroyed. This attack against the Huron people, of whom about 15% were converts to the faith, destroyed the Huron missions. These Iroquois also herded Brébeuf and his companions, including Gabriel Lalemont, along a path, which our seminarians and I then follow, to his gruesome torture and death. I very much enjoy taking our seminarians up to those mission sites to pray for the guidance of Fr. de Brebeuf in our own formation as priests. ⁣ Father Paul Ragueneau wrote of the martyrs after visiting the sites, seeing the bodies, and talking to witnesses. Ragueneau’s 1650 Relation recorded the deaths of the Jesuits at the hands of the Iroquois based on witness accounts. Stripped naked, they were beaten, finger nails torn from their hands, while Brébeuf continually preached till his tongue was cut. He was baptized with hot water, was made to wear a collar of hot hatchets, with resin set his body afire, and stripped his flesh. Due to his bravery, the torturers dug out his heart and drank his courageous blood. The next day Ragueneau went to the site and viewed the two bodies, finding verification of the tortures inflicted on the men. As a result of this attack, the Hurons were dispersed, some eventually settling into our own state of Michigan, where their Christian heritage is a continued blessing to all of us.

"Keep your heart in peace and let nothing trouble you, not even your faults," Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690). More: dioceseoflansing.org/news/re…

I like this! Watch this short film capturing the lives of four men from the Diocese of Lansing who are privileged to live, work, and study in Rome. The film is produced, shot, and edited by the Diocese of Lansing’s award-winning Senior Multimedia Producer, Matthew Riedl. Thank you Matthew!

Thank you to the 1,200 women from across the state who gathered in Lansing on Saturday for this year’s Michigan Catholic Women’s Conference. It was a privilege to spend some time with you and to offer Holy Mass. This year’s theme was “The Heart of Feminine Holiness,” based on Pope Saint John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic letter, Mulieris Dignitatem.

Upon the Feast of Pope Saint Callistus I, my prayers are very much with our present Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, following his surgery for lung cancer. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies. Amen.

Friends, this week in our Year of the Family, I have a simple message: If you’re too busy to pray, then you’re just too busy! Hence, to help us appreciate the necessity and practicality of incorporating a daily rhythm of prayer into our domestic life, let me introduce the Cella family from Saint Joseph Parish in Ypsilanti. That’s dad Joseph, mom Kristen, and their seven children. I hope you enjoy the film!

Jeremiah 1:4-5: The word of the Lord came to me: before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you

“If knowledge is to remain in the mind, it must not be passively received, but actually and actively entered into, embraced, and mastered. The mind must go half-way to meet what comes to it from without,” Saint John Henry Newman (1801 – 90). More: dioceseoflansing.org/news/re…

Congratulations to Ann Arbor-based attorney Paul Fransway who this week received the 2026 Saint Thomas More Award from the Catholic Lawyers Guild of the Diocese of Lansing for distinguished service to the law over the past 40 years.

Friends, here's a question: Who are the first teachers of children? The school? The parish? The state? No. It's the parents. Watch as I explain further, with the help of the Maloney family from Lansing. Viewer Advisory: Have a big box of Kleenex at the ready!

Always amazed at today's Office of Readings: I Tim 3:1: Whoever wants to be a bishop aspires to a noble task.

“My child, all your sins have not wounded My Heart as painfully as your present lack of trust does, that after so many efforts of My love and mercy, you should still doubt My goodness.” Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905 - 38), Diary, 1486.