Saint Patrick Parish - Parnell

09/04/2026

From the desk of Father Tom:

“Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sports…”
This was how one of my favorite shows began. When I was a kid, my family regularly watched the ABC Wild World of Sports. One show, in May of 1975, featured Evel Knievel attempting to jump 13 double-decker buses in Wembley Stadium. Evel lost his balance on the landing and violently crashed. Three years later I remember watching the great Karl Wallenda fall to his death while attempting to tightrope between two condo towers in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Seeing these events left me shaken.

Both of these men lost their balance which resulted in a tragic outcome. Balance is essential in so much of what we do every day. There is the practical reality that we need to master physical balance so we don’t fall. We also need balance in our lives in other ways. As we grow up, we must balance our desire for autonomy with our parents’ need to guide us and provide boundaries. Kids flourish when raised within a two parent home that provides guidance based on the parents authority. When the parents do not accept their role as the proper authority with their children, the kids will not learn how to respect others – kids that are used to thinking they are the rightful authority may have a difficult time learning how to be humble.

It is also essential to balance our faith with other areas of life. There are times that we will be called upon to speak out. If we have never learned how to be humble, we might be tempted to think that we are the final authority on all things and speak out harshly against others. We are expected to defend our faith. However, we must balance our responsibility to speak out with the call to do so with charity. Truth and charity must always accompany one another. Without this balance, defending the Truth (Jesus Christ) could cause damage when not conducted with love. Conversely, an attitude of loving any action whatsoever is not in balance with honoring the deposit of faith established by Jesus Christ. There simply must be balance.

There are many other examples of where balance is essential in our lives. Give some thought to how well you are balancing all the demands of life with the understanding that we are all called to first and foremost honor God. If we fall out of balance with our responsibility to extol God and follow his will, we will be setting ourselves up for a spiritual fall. Oremus pro invicem.

09/02/2026

08/28/2026

Congratulations to our neighbor Don on this wonderful honor!

🎉 Hi Friends! Please join us next Friday, August 28, at 6 PM at Calder Plaza in Grand Rapids!

We’re incredibly proud to celebrate Don Kurylowicz, who has been named the 2026 Citizen of the Year by the Polish Heritage Society of Grand Rapids. 🇵🇱❤️

Since 1977, the Polish Heritage Society has presented this special honor annually to recognize an individual in the Grand Rapids area who embodies the spirit of community service and carries on the Polish tradition.

This recognition means so much to Don. For more than 40 years, he has owned and operated Cannonsburg Village and Honey Creek Inn. While Honey Creek Inn proudly carries its Irish pub traditions, it is also proudly Polish-owned! Each year, we celebrate Don’s heritage by bringing Polish traditions to the pub with a full Polish menu featuring traditional recipes made from scratch daily.

We would love for our friends, family, and community to come out and show Don your support as he receives this incredible honor. Following the ceremony, the VIP tent will be open for everyone to celebrate with Don!

🇵🇱 Come celebrate this very special night with us! We would love to see you there!

08/28/2026

From the desk of Father Tom:

I climbed Mount Saint Helens and Mount Rainier on the unlikely invitation of a co-worker who was establishing his goals for 1998. Since that time I have successfully summited every mountain I ever attempted and all but two (in Guatemala) have been under the leadership of my dear friend David Marchinda. Climbing with David became a great analogy of how we must also prepare and tirelessly desire to ascend in heart and spirit to God. Both climbing mountains and loving God with all my heart, mind, and soul has come with many challenges.

One of the most important lessons I learned climbing, and the one I struggled with the most, was that I needed to check my pride and allow another to lead. There is a time and place for dynamic leadership. There is also a time and a place to recognize when to keep quiet and follow. David has the most uncanny ability to lead in the mountains. His experience in the mountains and his strong leadership is the reason that I was successful on all the climbs I attempted with him. When I set my pride in check and humbly followed, it was an absolute joy cooperating with David – especially helping him with meal preparation. We had a riot in the camp kitchens!

Our faith life requires us to check our pride and humbly follow Jesus. The gospel this weekend demonstrates this truth when Peter forgets his proper place. Immediately after Peter stuns the others with the divine revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, he rebukes Jesus. Peter did not like it when Jesus told them he would suffer and be crucified in Jerusalem. Jesus responded by saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (Matthew 16:23).

Just as it was necessary for me to follow David as we attempted to summit a mountain, it is incumbent for us to get behind Jesus and follow. We have to set aside our pride and not get distracted by the common temptations of seeking personal pleasure, honor, power, and money. It takes a great deal of humility to remain in the disposition of following. Peter needed the public rebuking, the invitation to get into the posture of following (humbly) so that he could continue to grow in holiness. We must strive to remain humble as we follow the will of God.

I enjoyed looking over all my many pictures as I thought about this article. The picture I chose is one of David on top of a mountain looking into the beauty of God’s creation. I imagine myself standing behind him ready to follow him as the great adventure continues. My prayer is that we can all be filled with the grace that allows us to follow the Lamb of God, to follow Jesus Christ and to allow him to lead us to our everlasting joy in heaven. Oremus pro invicem.

08/25/2026

Starting September 1st at 7:30PM.

08/21/2026

From the desk of Father Tom:

Since my assignment began in July of 2018, my staff and I have been working very hard to provide a culture that values family gatherings. We are blessed to have our Masses packed with kids! However, it isn’t only at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that we see great family involvement. Over the years the number of kids enjoying our Parish festival and Wild Game Dinner has skyrocketed. You have no idea how much this means to me.

Families are the cornerstone of our society. Pope Saint John Paul II said
during a homily in Perth, Australia; “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.” Healthy families will lead to a healthy community and this takes intentionality. It will not happen by accident. With this in mind, we have transformed our annual Parish Festival to be abundantly friendly to families. Our Wild Game Dinner is likewise geared to be an event that families can come and enjoy together. The more that parents keep their families together, the better they can lead in passing on the essential lessons that keep our society healthy – manners, basic morality, learning how to act around adults….

This past Saturday, we just wrapped up our summer golf outing which was another event that provides families the opportunity to be together. I just love seeing little kids together with their parents participating in our golf outing. The time spent playing 18 holes of golf with your kids is precious. Those memories will be cherished for a lifetime.

Our society is working so hard to fracture family unity. It happens in very subtle ways. Consider the explosion of kids engaging in extracurricular activities. These activities are important opportunities for kids to learn so many positive lessons. However, I have noticed since my childhood that kids are being pulled in so many different directions that it makes it almost impossible for a family to even share a meal together. It is also happening to us adults through use of cellphones and social media. We spend WAY too much time scrolling. We are being fed an algorithm that is working overtime to keep us occupied and to keep us ever more isolated with a narrow view of the world. It is our responsibility as the ‘adults in the room’ to begin to fight back and safeguard our families. This is why events like our Festival, Wild Game Dinner, and Golf Outing are so important. This is also the brilliance of being involved with the Youth Fair as I wrote about last week.

Please consider how you might be able to slow down the pace at home and focus on spending more time together as a family. My staff and I will
promise to keep providing opportunities for community gatherings that are friendly for the entire family. Oremus pro invicem.

08/20/2026

Thanks to your generosity, we assembled all 600 bags for our Migrant Ministry. These bags were delivered this week and will be distributed throughout our local community. We couldn't have made this happen without the incredible support and donations from Impact Church. What a true blessing it is when our community works together!

08/19/2026

We offer our prayers and condolences to the family of Larry Stoffer, who passed away on August 15. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace.

Celebrate the life of Lawrence Stoffer, leave a kind word or memory and get funeral service information care of Reyers North Valley Chapel.

08/17/2026

08/14/2026

From the desk of Father Tom:

The 2026 Kent County Youth Fair has wrapped up another successful week. I want to express how proud I am of all the kids who participated in this incredible fair. I was not ever exposed to this kind of event as a child. My family did not come from a farming background. As many of you know, I spent a lot of my childhood hanging out at Blythefield Country Club. When I wasn’t there, I was outside playing in the neighborhood, or down at the Rouge River. I swam a bunch, fished, learned how to dive, play tennis, and golf. When I got older, I started working at Mr. Fables and spent my summers learning the restaurant business. I had never even attended a Youth Fair until being assigned to St. Patrick Parnell.

I loved seeing how comfortable the kids were around their large animals. I had never seen anything like this before. Little kids walking huge pigs. Little kids showing giant steer. I couldn’t help but think, “how are these kids so comfortable interacting with these exotic beasts?” I also appreciated how free the kids were during fair week. It was so refreshing to not see many kids with cell phones, to see kids running free, to see kids together and having fun.

I also appreciate the level of discipline on display at the Youth Fair. These kids had a huge responsibility to care for their animals, to feed them, to clean them, and to be prepared to show them. The kids demonstrated an immense level of respect towards their individual goals regarding their chosen projects. Seeing respectful kids was such a breath of fresh air. More and more kids are being allowed to openly disrespect their parents and their elders. I did not see any of that during my time at the fair. I saw respectful kids who happily accepted the responsibilities associated with the culmination of raising an animal for market sale. I am in absolute awe of these amazing kids. The lessons learned by participating in this Youth Fair will stay with these kids for a lifetime. For the many adults who spent so much time and energy making sure the events ran so smoothly, I want to say, well done! You are such a blessing to these kids.

I can’t wait until next year. I will plan to keep that week free so that I can be present with the kids from our Catholic community and watch them enjoy the delight of participating in the Youth Fair. I am also excited to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass again on the first Sunday of Fair Week. It was such an honor to be on the fair grounds to give those present the opportunity to attend Mass. As long as I am the pastor of St. Patrick Parnell, I will be involved with the Youth Fair. In the meantime, let us keep praying for one another.
Oremus pro invicem.