The mission of Sacred Heart Academy is made possible through investment in our Annual Fund, and the extent of our work and service of families is directly proportional to your generosity. Every cent of the money invested in the Sacred Heart Academy Annual Fund goes to the formation of students at Sacred Heart Academy. Investment in the Annual Fund allows Sacred Heart to maintain a reasonable rate of tuition for families and to provide substantial financial assistance to those who need it each school year through our traditional Patronis Cordis scholarships. The realization of the SHA Annual Fund and its aims are necessary for the continued mission of Sacred Heart Academy. We cannot do this without you. Please contact Amber Hiske at ahiske@shgr.org if you would like to contribute to our Annual Fund and visit the Annual Fund website page.

The Sacred Heart Prayer Line would love to pray for you, those in our community or anyone in need. If you would like to submit a prayer request, please click here.  Interested in praying with us?  Join the group here.

Prayer Line Apostolate Leader Needed:
Interested in giving back to the Parish but can’t commit to coming in to volunteer? We are looking for someone to fill our Prayer Line Apostolate Leader position. Automated through Flocknote, you are notified of new requests and then responsible for using Flocknote to text the Prayer Line group. Interested or have further questions, please email Janet Brown ( QueenbeeMI@protonmail.com ) or Laureen Fish ( lfish@shgr.org ).

Ladies, did you know that we have had a beautiful and powerful apostolate here at Sacred Heart for the past several years? If you desire to be in a ministry that is behind the scenes in the parish but sitting at the feet of our Blessed Lord one hour a week, interceding for our pastor, Fr. Ron, then this is for you. Commitment is for at least one year. This year our Friday intercessor has decided to step down so we are in need of someone to fill her spot. If you desire to be on a substitute list to fill in for an occasional need, that would be great too.

To learn more about this apostolate see:

https://sevensistersapostolate.org

To become a part of Seven Sisters call the parish office at 616-459-8362.

If you currently have a subscription to the Magnificat magazine or would like to have a subscription, now is the time to renew or sign-up. We place a bulk order which gives us a 45% discount on the newsstand price. Delivery is to the church and pick-up is every month from near the handicap entrance of the church. These are not delivered to your home. You will be notified each month when your Magnificat is ready for pick up. If you would like to renew or subscribe for the first time, please send a check made out
to Sacred Heart Church for $29.00 per subscription and mail to the church office or drop it in the offering basket at Mass by June 8. Make sure to write “Magnificat” on the memo line. Please include your phone number and email address. New subscriptions start with the September issue. If you do not renew, your last issue will be in August. If you have questions, please email Noelle at ndivozzo@shgr.org.

Did you adore our Lord during our 40 Hours Devotion? Would you like to adore Him every First Friday? We are in need of those willing to commit to an hour of adoration every First Friday. We particularly need adorers for the 5:00pm and 10:00pm hours. If you would like to sign up or want more information, please call Noelle in the parish office at 616-459-8362.

Any young ladies in 7th – 12th grade are invited to join a prayer group called Rays of Hope. This group meets twice a month on the first and fourth Saturdays of the month, starting with morning Mass as 7:45AM. Following Mass, we pray the rosary, have breakfast, and have a discussion about how to follow in the footsteps of Mary more closely. Each meeting also includes an activity of assisting at the parish, for example doing an initial watering of the flowers for Christmas and Easter and reaching out to the community. We are always open to suggestions. We have taken on two charities at this time: Kids Food Basket and Help Pregnancy Aid. If you are interested you can just show up or if you have any questions please contact Sr. Jacinta Miryam at srjacintamiryam@shgr.org

Great news! Recent homilies are back up and available here. You also will find them at the Homilies tab in your myParish App.

Saint Faustina Choir – Sings for the 7:45am Mass every Sunday. Rehearsals: Sunday Morning at 7:15am in the belfry.

Saint Colombiere Choir – Sings for the 9:30 Mass every Sunday and Holy Days. Rehearsals: Wed nights from 7:30pm to 9:00pm in the choir room.

Saint Margaret Mary Singers – Sings for the 11:30am Traditional Latin Mass every Sunday and Holy Days. Rehearsals: Wed nights from 6:00pm-7:30pm in the choir room. 

For more information or to participate in any of these choirs, please contact: Mr. Jonathan Bading, Director of Sacred Music (musicdirector@shgr.org)

This Sunday, August 18, 2024, marks the last Mass at which Sacred Heart’s current pipe organ publicly performs. The instrument will be removed this week as the first of many preparatory steps in anticipation of our new Fratelli Ruffatti pipe organ which will arrive here from Italy next spring. And while the advent of the new organ is of immense liturgical, historical, and cultural import to our parish, diocese, and city, it is right and just to honor the end of this current era with a brief history of our soon-to-be former instrument.

Sacred Heart’s current organ was installed in 1962 by the Wicks organ company of Highland, Illinois, as the company’s 4,295th installation. Oral tradition has it that this instrument came secondhand to the parish from a music store in Kalamazoo where it served as a display organ for potential buyers to try out.

The Wicks replaced the church’s original organ, a small Kimball (of Chicago) instrument installed in 1925. There is no explanation as to why the Kimball was replaced, though I theorize that it was a cost-effective decision. The Kimball was most likely a tubular pneumatic organ, meaning that it maintained its wind pressure through lead tubing. After 30 years of use and inconsistent maintenance, the lead lines deteriorated, and the cost of restoring these lines outweighed the purchase of a new, more stable electro-pneumatic organ. In the spirit of continuity, Wicks did integrate one set of Kimball pipes into their organ, a lovely set of sub-bass wood pipes.

The 1962 Wicks was also rather small, an organ of only four ranks (1 rank= 61 pipes, a full keyboard’s worth). With the addition of the aforementioned Kimball rank and a three-rank mixture from a local builder (Mutchler), the organ’s 8 ranks seemed meager, especially in an acoustic as rich as ours. This was probably intentional; organ salesmen often offered parishes modest instruments that they could then expand in the future once more money had been raised. Wicks drafted a proposal for such an expansion (an additional 11 ranks) in 1987, 25 years after the original installation, but this was never completed. This is why only the right chamber contains pipes. (Note to the reader: the painted façade pipes that you see from the nave are truly a “façade;” they are decorative. The actual pipework sits enclosed behind them in the right chamber.)

However, the organ was “expanded” by a Rodgers digital system in 2001, supplementing the extant pipe- work with digital MIDI “ranks” produced through speakers. Rodgers also replaced the Wicks console with the current one, from which the organist could manipulate both real and digital ranks. This “new” organ, classified as a “Wicks-Rodgers hybrid,” was dedicated in honor of John A. Kamyszek, longtime parish organist at Sacred Heart, by Fr. (now Msgr.) Edward Hankiewicz in April 2001. It has remained more or less unchanged for the last quarter-century.

Next year, a century after the original Kimball organ was dedicated, we shall dedicate our new Ruffatti organ as the “Peter F. Secchia Memorial Organ” in memory of the late ambassador to Italy, whose family gifted the parish this state-of-the-art organ. Unlike the Kimball, the Ruffatti organ will not deteriorate in a quarter-century’s time. And unlike the Wicks, the Ruffatti consists of 39 ranks of pipework, an instrument which will finally satisfy the height and breadth and depth of our architecture. It is a severe privilege and honor to serve as organist during this historic moment in the life of our parish. What has taken a hundred years to come to fruition may God make flourish for a thousand more.

Jonathan Bading, Director of Sacred Music

Special thanks to Mr. Chad Boorsma of the Organ Historical Society for his excellent database work.