On behalf of the entire St. Casimir Parish Community I welcome you. Whether you have recently moved into our neighborhood or are traveling some distance to worship and celebrate with us we welcome you! St. Casimir has always been a very family friendly parish and we're happy to add you to our family. As you will notice in the following pages we are a busy family and we have many ways of witnessing the Gospel of Jesus Christ here in the city of Lansing . We hope that as you get to know us and we get to know you, we can develop your gifts and talents to help us witness Jesus' Gospel.

Nestled in the tree lined neighborhood south of the Grand River, St. Casimir Parish is noted for family oriented educational programs, outreach ministries and worship. We place high values on our community aspect of living the Gospel. We are all in this together. We want you to feel a part of our community and share in the many joys that enrich and enliven our parish community each year.

Whether it's our annual parish Corn Roast Festival each summer or the packing of over 100 baskets of food and clothing for our less fortunate sisters and brothers over the holiday season, we need your gifts and talents to continue these various ministries here in our parish. If you are a Tenor or Soprano, a Bass or an Alto, and want to join us in praising God through song, we need YOU!! If you love to cook, plan or decorate, we need YOU throughout the year. If you love to pray the rosary, take Communion to the Sick or visit the sick in our area hospitals, we’re just the place for YOU. If you have a keen eye for finance, love to teach or work with your hands, St. Casimir needs YOU!

In short, we exist because of YOU. St. Casimir Parish thrives because many, many gifted people use the gifts and talents that God has given them to build God's Kingdom here on earth. We hope you do the same. We are here to help you develop those gifts and talents.

We will gladly answer any questions you have. Most of all, we want you to know that YOU matter. As you join us on this great journey toward the Kingdom of God known as life, we here at St. Casimir Parish want you to know that you are not alone in this journey. You are with us...and we are with you. I hope that the names and ministries in the following pages will help you to realize that these people are your brothers and sisters in faith.

We welcome you with great joy to our parish family. As I end my column each week in our parish bulletin...pray for me...I'll pray for you.

Fr. Bill Lugger, pastor