Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Feast of Saints Maurice and Companions, Martyrs
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Thank you for joining me for this week’s installment of our Year of the Family. So far, we’ve looked at ways to grow in holiness within our own homes. But this week we’re taking that out to the streets. Or rather, the pews!
Bishop Boyea's Year of the Family: Week 3 | Service to the Parish
All of us belong to a nuclear family: our parents and any siblings. But in the Catholic Church, we also belong to a larger family… what you might call our family of faith. When we worship together every Sunday, we join with the entire Body of Christ as one family of believers. If you think about it, that makes our parishes “other” homes of ours! And as every homeowner knows, maintaining the home is a constant labor of love. That means we are all called actively to engage with our parishes, participate in our parish ministries, and generally be contributing members of the “home” as it were.
Just ask the Angus family of Holy Family parish in Grand Blanc. Since joining the parish during COVID, they have made it their personal mission to get involved and help where they can. Let’s watch and see how that’s helped them grow as a family.
I think we could all stand to score a little more “Jesus points” in our lives, couldn’t we? Some of the truest words come from the mouths of babes. Thank you to Father Joe Krupp for establishing this most important form of currency up there in Grand Blanc!
I particularly enjoyed Laura’s insight about how our parishes can only feel like “home” to us if we make a conscientious effort to make it so. It’s very easy to treat the parish as just a place we show up to once a week to fulfill our Sunday obligation. Pick up the bulletin and go home. But how much fuller could our lives be if we started treating our parishes like we do our homes? When there’s a need for volunteers to work the fish fry, instead of just assuming someone else will pick up the slack, we ourselves can answer that call.
A recent study from the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate surveyed families who reported having adult children still actively practicing the Faith. The study found that, among those families, many reported that doing service work and charity together as a family was a core pillar in helping children remain active in their faith as adults.
This practice of stewardship should start internally and bloom outward. Start with acts of charity in the home, then branch out to works of service in the parish and/or school, and eventually work your way up to general community service. Only then can we see these good works as being truly rooted in Christ, as a grateful response to all the many gifts that God has given us. We can never truly repay those blessings because our God is unmatched in giving! The fact that I woke up this morning, the fact that I got to work in one piece, the fact I had my favorite lunch today… all of this is pure gift. How we respond to that gift is what our children will see and, hopefully, internalize as they grow into adults.
So my challenge for you this week is this: Sometime over the next month, contact someone at your parish and ask how you can get more involved at the parish. Perhaps find one thing you could volunteer to do, and see how giving of your time and talent to the parish moves you. That doesn’t have to happen immediately, and we shouldn’t treat it as a penitential act, but rather as a means of “housekeeping” and of giving back to God’s Church, our forever home.
Until next week, may God bless you,
+ Earl Boyea
Bishop of Lansing
P.S. Please do try to invite at least one friend or family member to join us in our Year of the Family. Thank you. God bless you.