St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church

04/03/2026

Good Friday at St Anthony: 6:00pm Stations, 6:30pm Good Friday Liturgy. 7:45pm Confessions

“Jesus, how necessary your Passion was. How necessary it was that your adorable heart should be pierced for me. O Jesus! O Jesus! Your sorrowful and bleeding heart tells me not to be afraid and to have confidence, it tells me so so insistently. You know, O Creator of all things, what a living heart is, a heart of flesh and blood where earth and heaven battle. You know that the human heart which seeks you has to suffer, to die a thousand deaths, in order to find you.
And if you are all torn and bleeding it is not only because you suffer for our sins…. You have also wished, in your infinite mercy, to show us that you have a heart like ours so that we can go to you with confidence, and that we can have faith in the Faith which you came to bring by your Word and testify to by your death. That is why I open my heart to you without any fear. I cry out to you with all the strength of my being and I would rather die than offend you. I abandon my heart to you, ready to suffer it to be wholly consumed in a faithful holocaust until the fire of divine charity, inextinguishable, soars above the cinders of all my earthly forces.
I have an inexpressible confidence under your gaze, my Lord—and not because my heart is pure! But because your gaze is good; because your compassion is great; because your mercy is all powerful, O Jesus!”
Raïssa Maritain
Raïssa Maritain († 1960), born in Russia, was a convert to Catholicism and the wife of philosopher Jacques Maritain.

03/21/2026

03/08/2026

This Saturday's (3/14) FREE St.Mary Church of Lowell, MI Lenten parish dinner & mission is quickly filling up. By end of today, invitations will open up to those outside our parishes. I am including in this post the link you can click to sign up you and any family or guests you intend to bring. Last day to sign up is this Wednesday, March 11th by 5pm. There will be no walk ups accepted, as dinner food will be ordered for the number of sign ups and prepared over a couple of days. Of the 200 available seats that we can host, we have had over 110 sign ups as of this weekend.
(Special note: Deacon Harold is the keynote speaker at the Kepha Men's conference that has sold out their 900 seats. The Kepha conference is happening the morning of our evening Mission. If you were not able to get a ticket to Kepha and want to experience a free event with a home cooked pork loin dinner included, this do not delay in signing up)
https://tinyurl.com/stmarylentenmission

02/20/2026

02/20/2026

Meet Deacon-to-be Matthew Schmitz!

Matthew Schmitz and his wife, Georgia, have been married for 23 years. They are parents to seven children: Chiara (22), Anasophia (19), Dominic (18), Anthony (16), Jayna (14), Victor (12) and Nathanael (10). The family belongs to St. Mary Parish in Lowell. He completed his pastoral internship under the guidance of Father Tony Russo at St. Robert of Newminster Catholic Church in Ada. Deacon Matthew has been assigned to St.Mary Church of Lowell, MI and St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church in Saranac.

Matthew Schmitz y su esposa, Georgia, llevan casados 23 años. Son padres de siete hijos: Chiara (22), Anasophia (19), Dominic (18), Anthony (16), Jayna (14), Victor (12) y Nathanael (10). La familia pertenece a la Parroquia de Santa María en Lowell. Matthew completó su práctica pastoral bajo la guía del padre Tony Russo en la Parroquia de St. Robert of Newminster en Ada y él ha sido asignado a St. Mary en Lowell y St. Anthony en Saranac.

02/06/2026

One of our very own parishioners at St. Mary, Mr. Matthew Schmitz, will be ordained a permanent Deacon next Saturday, February 14 at the Cathedral of St. Andrew at 10am. He will be preaching at all the weekend Masses at both St Mary and St Anthony. We are also happy to announce that upon ordination, Deacon Matthew is assigned to the parishes of St Mary and St Anthony. He will be a great help in proclaiming the Gospel, ministering to those most in need, and assisting Fr. Michael at the Altar of Jesus’ Eucharistic feast, the Holy Mass. Please support Matthew with your prayers and join us in congratulating him!

Matthew Schmitz, Christian Cifuentes, Jose Angel Saucedo and Juan Carlos Perez Bedolla will be ordained permanent deacons on February 14! Please join us in praying for them on the days leading up to their ordination by praying the novena to St. Stephen posted in our stories daily!

12/21/2025

Two of the most memorable Bible passages in Advent and during Christmastide are Luke 1:26-38 and Matt. 1:18-25, tracing the angel’s message of the Incarnation to the Virgin Mary and Joseph, respectively. Yet, as familiar as these passages are to most of us, many of us can scarcely understand what’s going on in either passage.

For example, were Mary and Joseph married at the time of the Annunciation? Why does Matthew refer to Joseph as Mary’s “husband,” yet common translations of Luke have Mary saying to the angel, “I have no husband” (Matt. 1:19, Luke 1:34)? What does it mean that Joseph “took his wife,” or that Joseph “knew her not until she had borne a son” (Matt. 1:24-25)?

To answer these questions, as we approach Christmas, we need to learn to read these Scripture passages through Jewish eyes.

Jewish weddings have two distinct stages: kiddushin and nisuin. After the first stage, there is a legal marriage that only death or divorce can break. These days, the two stages typically occur in a single ceremony, but because “bachelor pads” weren’t really a thing in antiquity, a first-century husband had some time (upwards of a year) after the wedding to prepare a home for his new wife. When he brought his wife into the home and they began married life together (nisuin), the marriage process was completed.

This unlocks the mystery for us: Mary and Joseph were in between the first and second stage. But the implications of this go far beyond just the nativity story.

Read more here: https://bit.ly/4oTYoWQ

12/20/2025

"Want to go to Mass with me?"
The question someone asked me 15 years ago would change the course of my life. Find the whole store here: http://easterpeople.me

11/29/2025

Cancelled: Friendsgiving Brunch at St. Anthony on November 30th at 9am, due to the forecasted winter storm.