Father Mike was installed as our Pastor on December 31, 2000, and remained so until late June, 2007. During his time with us he managed the parish in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan, an extraordinary accomplishment. From time to time, Fr. Mike keeps in touch and this page will keep you up-to-date in case you do not see his messages.

20th December 2007: Dear Family and Friends; I would like to wish all of you a very Blessed and Merry Christmas and that the New Year will be filled with lots of Good Things for you all. I saw my Oncology Doctor today at Henry Ford Hospital and my Radiology Doctor earlier this week.    Both were very pleased with the Chemo and the Radiation Therapies.   With the last CT Scan they can find no trace of the cancerous tumors that were in my left lung.   They were happy and to say the least so was I.    I now just have to go every 4 months for a ct scan and a check up to make sure none comes back.    Hopefully, having quit smoking will make the chances great that it will not come back. I want to again thank you all for your prayers and well wishes.    You can take me off any prayer lists you may have had going, but that does not mean you have to stop praying for me.    I can always use all the prayers I can get.    I will be saying my Christmas masses in remembrance of all of you and pray that Mary, our mother in heaven, will continue to guide us and keep us close to the love of her Son, Jesus. Very joyfully yours, Fr. Mike

24th November 2007: Hi to all and once again thank you for your prayers.   I have now finished with all my treatments with Chemo and radiation.    My last chemo session was this past week.    That was a total of 4 chemo sessions of 3 days each and 30 days of radiation.    Now I have to wait the 3 to 4 weeks for all the treatments to settle down and then go in for Ct scan and MRI scan and see if they can find any cancer.    So sometime in December I should have a good idea of whether I need to go through any more treatments.    I have come out of all these fairly healthy.    I have had only a few side effects from the radiation and chemo - I have trouble swallowing because my esophagus has become inflamed from the treatments - they tell me this will only last for a week or two more.    Beyond that I did very well in not getting sick.    I have also lost all my dark hair on my head and was left with just the gray hairs that probably will fall out this coming week also.    My family tends to think I look like Yoda from Star Wars.   HA HA.    I am sure that all our prayers have made this as good as it has been.    I know that the Lord has been with me throughout this time, giving me strength and understanding to know that this is all a part of life and that we have to have the courage to accept the good with the difficult in our lives and that with Him we can over come all the difficulties.    I look forward to this coming Advent season when we share in the joys and the struggles that Mary encountered in accepting the birth of the Son of God and sharing this special child with all whom she encountered.   I have felt the comfort and gentleness of the Mother of God throughout this whole process and am quite certain that Mary has interceded for me to take away all the cancer in my lung.     May your generosity in prayer for me continue to guide us through this Advent season to share in the joy of the presence of the Lord in our world. Fr. Mike

15th November 2007: HI ALL, I saw my doctor yesterday and saw some CT scan results and an MRI result.   All are good.   The CT scan shows that the tumor that was in the lung is no longer visible but probably there in a very small way and the MRI showed all my brain scan to be normal, whatever that is?   So that is all very good news.    The doctor seems to be very pleased with what the chemo and radiation has done.    I am finished with radiation and I have one more chemo treatment left on this coming Monday thru Wednesday at Henry Ford Hospital downtown Detroit.    At this moment it seems my blood counts are at a level that they can do the chemo so I should be there on Monday morning.    After this is finished it is just a few more CT scans and MRI's to make sure nothing is left and then I should be free to do a bit of traveling before I take off for a sabbatical in mid February.    Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes and keep me in prayer that this final set of Chemo will take care of anything that is left there. Fr. Mike

2nd November 2007: Hi All. I have finished another 3 days of chemo at the hospital and all went well.   No side effects so far.   But this coming week I have to give myself a shot of neupogen so that my white blood cells do not go down too low for the next time that I will be here.    That will be the week of Thanksgiving Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving.    Just in time to go home and enjoy a big turkey dinner.   Looks Like I will have Thanksgiving at my place this year.   Then I will be scheduled for an MRI sometime in December and hopefully know how this all worked out before Christmas.   Maybe get a Good present that it is all in remission or even gone.   Who knows.   But I am also done with radiation now but it takes 4 weeks after radiation for them to see what has happened with that so I will have a CT scan done the first week of December to see how that all went.    Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes they have really done me good and kept me in good spirits.    Even though this is only a few months, since the beginning of September, it seems that it has been going on forever and it will be good to have it all done.    Hopefully that will be the end of it.   Only God knows.   I am planning a trip to Cayman sometime in January and hope that it will be possible to get there to warm up again and get a little sun.    Even though there is sun up here it is not so warm.   Keep the prayers going, Love, Fr. Mike

9th September 2007: Dear Family and friends - A note to let you know that all your prayers have worked well so far. I have finished my first hospital stay for 3 days of Chemo Therapy and have come out feeling very good. They give me an IV when I get in the hospital and have a saline salution 24hours and then put in the Chemo along with it. I receive 2 forms of Chemo, etoposide which is given all 3 days and cisplatin which is given on the second day I am there. While in the hospital there is not a lot to do. I can have visitors and take phone calls on my cell phone, which sometimes works but not all the time while in the hospital, watch TV, and walk around with my IV stand only in the section of the hospital for oncology. But the time goes by fast especially when there are visitors. I did not feel sick this time and when I got out of the hospital I went to the health club and walked on the treadmill for 3 miles and swam 4 laps in the pool. If all the sessions go as well as this one then things should be pretty good. Thanks again for the prayers and keep the prayers going. I do not go back to the hospital until the 26th of September for my second of 4 sessions of Chemo. - Fr. Mike

2nd September 2007: I pray that all is going well with the parish as I saw that you had a close encounter with Hurricane Dean. That surely is the best way to have a hurricane, when it passes by 100 miles to the South. That truly was a blessing from God. Many of you have been praying for me over the last few weeks and may not know why. I am very grateful for your prayers. I had a cough during the last month when I was in Cayman and had it checked out when I got up here to Michigan. After a CAT scan my doctor was concerned that there was a growth in my left lung so he sent me to pulmonary doctors who did tests that revealed
that I have limited small cell lung cancer in my left lung. I was given this diagnosis last week, the 21st of August. I have now met with an oncologist that I have great confidence in and I will start a program of Chemo and Radiation therapy beginning next Wednesday, the 5th of September. That will be a 12 week program in all, 4 sessions of chemo and 3 sessions of radiation. My doctor is very positive that we can control this cancer and reduce it to a point that it will not bother me. I am told that it will never totally go away and that I will always have to have CAT scans to make sure that it does not recur, but that this early intervention is good. He believes that I can have a long and healthy life ahead of me. However I will need to have you keep me in your prayers. This will take some energy out of me and Chemo and Radiation is never a simple thing to go through. Plus we can always pray that a miracle will happen and the Chemo and Radiation will take it all away. I know many of you may be shocked about this but I believe that I will be well enough to come down for a visit as a healthy person in January. Keep me in your prayers and know that I keep you and all in the Islands in my prayers each day. - Fr. Mike

Fri 11/2/2007 10:25 AM: