4413 Morrish Rd. Swartz Creek, MI
PHONE: (810) 635-3240 FAX: (810) 630-1630 INFO@SMQA.NET FACEBOOK
MASS SCHEDULETUESDAY: 7:00pm
WEDNESDAY: 7:30am THURSDAY: 7:30am FRIDAY: 7:30am SATURDAY: 7:30am SATURDAY: 4:30pm, Vigil SUNDAY: 8am, 11am |
SACRAMENTSEUCHARISTIC ADORATION:
Tuesday: 7:30pm - 8:30pm Friday: 8am - 6pm CONFESSION: Tuesday: 7:30pm - 8:30pm Saturday: After 7:30am Mass & 3:30 p.m. |
DEVOTIONSPERPETUAL HELP: Tuesday 6:30pm
FULL ROSARY: First Saturdays after the Vigil Mass |
ST. MARY QUEEN OF ANGELS Bulletin. Bulletins are in the third tab, click on the image to download a PDF.
discovermass.com/church/st-mary-queen-of-angels-swartz-creek-mi/
discovermass.com/church/st-mary-queen-of-angels-swartz-creek-mi/
What will it take to keep young people in the church?
Katie Prejean McGrady August 14, 2019
The photos covered my Facebook newsfeed: pictures of teenagers donning bright red robes, smiles upon their faces, foreheads shiny with the fresh chrism.
The captions for the photos were all similar: “Confirmed in Christ!” or “He did it! A full-grown Catholic, choosing his own faith.”
It was nice to see photos of happy families celebrating a sacrament. Far better than any of the political posturing that usually occupies Facebook.
But as I went to bed that night, continuing to scroll mindlessly through social media, a thought kept running around my mind: “I hope all those teens stay Catholic.”
Perhaps because of my profession as a Catholic speaker and writer and practitioner of ministry or because I taught many of those young people just a few years before or because I am a mom or even just because I am a faithful Catholic, in the midst of being so happy that so many in my diocese were newly confirmed, I had a feeling of fear in the pit of my stomach that many, if not most, of those young people will disaffiliate from the faith and walk away from the church in the next few years.
The reasons for their disaffiliation will be varied. Some will leave because they will not find a good faith community when they go to college. Others will walk away because their parents are not there to encourage faith in their lives. Some will get hung up on intellectual challenges, unable to reconcile reason with faith. Still others will leave because they never truly believed in the first place, having no real relationship with Christ or love of the Eucharist.
How do we keep them, or anyone really, Catholic? To keep them, we have to stop asking that question in the first place.
Tweet this
How do we keep them, or anyone really, Catholic? To keep them, we have to stop asking that question in the first place.
I could not fall asleep that night as I kept thinking, “I hope they stay,” because I was bothered by my fundamentally flawed question. I should not start with the question, “What will make young people stay Catholic?” I should first be asking, “How can I engender a love of Jesus within their hearts?” Because it is that love of Jesus that will make them stay—it is what keeps any of us here.
Confused and scared, two believers once wandered on the road to Emmaus, away from Jerusalem and away from what they did not understand, perhaps seeking solace in a place less chaotic and noisy and scary than where they were coming from. On that road they meet Jesus, who listens to them, teaches them, shares a meal with them and inspires them to rush off to tell others of their encounter with him. They cannot help but proclaim the Gospel with their very lives.
When a young person is introduced to Jesus by someone who knows him themselves, they come to realize that Jesus is someone who loves them.
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When a young person is introduced to Jesus by someone who knows him themselves, they come to realize that Jesus is someone who loves them, longs for them and is close to them, and they become captivated by him. Their hearts will and do begin to burn. Disciples grow; they are not born. They are befriended, listened to, valued and encouraged by those who have been befriended and heard themselves.
The faith is caught, not taught. It is witnessed to, not merely explained. They stay and we stay because friendships were formed with others, and that friendship and intimacy with believers leads to friendship and intimacy with Jesus himself.
To keep our young people Catholic, we have to grow close to them and help them become close to Jesus. There is no more important work at this moment. There is nothing more essential to the work of the church. There is nothing more pressing than to be companions along the journey with our young people so that they stay in the church and stay in love with Jesus.
I hope they stay. I hope we do, too.
Katie Prejean McGrady was a U.S. delegate sent by the U.S.C.C.B. to the Vatican’s pre-synod gathering of young people. She is a Catholic speaker and the author of Follow: Your Lifelong Adventure with Jesus (Ave Maria Press, $13.95). She lives in Lake Charles, La., with her husband and daughter.
@KatiePrejean
Katie Prejean McGrady August 14, 2019
The photos covered my Facebook newsfeed: pictures of teenagers donning bright red robes, smiles upon their faces, foreheads shiny with the fresh chrism.
The captions for the photos were all similar: “Confirmed in Christ!” or “He did it! A full-grown Catholic, choosing his own faith.”
It was nice to see photos of happy families celebrating a sacrament. Far better than any of the political posturing that usually occupies Facebook.
But as I went to bed that night, continuing to scroll mindlessly through social media, a thought kept running around my mind: “I hope all those teens stay Catholic.”
Perhaps because of my profession as a Catholic speaker and writer and practitioner of ministry or because I taught many of those young people just a few years before or because I am a mom or even just because I am a faithful Catholic, in the midst of being so happy that so many in my diocese were newly confirmed, I had a feeling of fear in the pit of my stomach that many, if not most, of those young people will disaffiliate from the faith and walk away from the church in the next few years.
The reasons for their disaffiliation will be varied. Some will leave because they will not find a good faith community when they go to college. Others will walk away because their parents are not there to encourage faith in their lives. Some will get hung up on intellectual challenges, unable to reconcile reason with faith. Still others will leave because they never truly believed in the first place, having no real relationship with Christ or love of the Eucharist.
How do we keep them, or anyone really, Catholic? To keep them, we have to stop asking that question in the first place.
Tweet this
How do we keep them, or anyone really, Catholic? To keep them, we have to stop asking that question in the first place.
I could not fall asleep that night as I kept thinking, “I hope they stay,” because I was bothered by my fundamentally flawed question. I should not start with the question, “What will make young people stay Catholic?” I should first be asking, “How can I engender a love of Jesus within their hearts?” Because it is that love of Jesus that will make them stay—it is what keeps any of us here.
Confused and scared, two believers once wandered on the road to Emmaus, away from Jerusalem and away from what they did not understand, perhaps seeking solace in a place less chaotic and noisy and scary than where they were coming from. On that road they meet Jesus, who listens to them, teaches them, shares a meal with them and inspires them to rush off to tell others of their encounter with him. They cannot help but proclaim the Gospel with their very lives.
When a young person is introduced to Jesus by someone who knows him themselves, they come to realize that Jesus is someone who loves them.
Tweet this
When a young person is introduced to Jesus by someone who knows him themselves, they come to realize that Jesus is someone who loves them, longs for them and is close to them, and they become captivated by him. Their hearts will and do begin to burn. Disciples grow; they are not born. They are befriended, listened to, valued and encouraged by those who have been befriended and heard themselves.
The faith is caught, not taught. It is witnessed to, not merely explained. They stay and we stay because friendships were formed with others, and that friendship and intimacy with believers leads to friendship and intimacy with Jesus himself.
To keep our young people Catholic, we have to grow close to them and help them become close to Jesus. There is no more important work at this moment. There is nothing more essential to the work of the church. There is nothing more pressing than to be companions along the journey with our young people so that they stay in the church and stay in love with Jesus.
I hope they stay. I hope we do, too.
Katie Prejean McGrady was a U.S. delegate sent by the U.S.C.C.B. to the Vatican’s pre-synod gathering of young people. She is a Catholic speaker and the author of Follow: Your Lifelong Adventure with Jesus (Ave Maria Press, $13.95). She lives in Lake Charles, La., with her husband and daughter.
@KatiePrejean
Mission Flint 2019 recap
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Saint Mary Queen of Angels parish now has access to an awesome resource.
Formed.org Watch the short video to the left for an overview of the resources this site provides. The website for Formed is https://formed.org/. To register go to the above linked. Click on Enter Code below the video at the top of the page. Enter code ZZQZMY for Saint Mary Queen of Angels. Standard registration protocol. Enjoy. |
Download our new app! Check out our new faith buttons
St. Mary Queen of Angels now has our own app for iPhone and Android smart phones. This will allow us to better communicate with you throughout the week and keep you updated with relevant parish news or updates. The app is very well designed and very intuitive. It will be a great resource for parishioners by providing daily Mass readings, Catholic news and prayers, convenient prayer and Confession reminders, our bulletins and more.
You may know of an app we released in the past. We will no longer be using that app and have instead switched to MyParish App. We hope for our new app to be a tool for fostering stronger parish life at St. Mary Queen of Angels and better engaging the New Evangelization.
You may know of an app we released in the past. We will no longer be using that app and have instead switched to MyParish App. We hope for our new app to be a tool for fostering stronger parish life at St. Mary Queen of Angels and better engaging the New Evangelization.
RESOURCES
Check out the new offerings that our available in the church entrance way.
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