Missionaries of the Holy Spirit in the Family

Dear Parishioners,

Firstly, a special welcome to all those visiting St. Joseph Parish, and thank you to everyone generously helping with our annual Roast Beef Dinner! We are blessed by your presence and grateful for the time, talent, and effort that make this event possible. This dinner is more than a meal; it is an opportunity to build fellowship, strengthen our parish community, and, especially, serve Christ in our neighbor. May God bless all who join us today and all who serve!

Secondly, our parishes are blessed with so many incredible men and women who desire to go deeper with the Lord and respond to His promptings. Before we formally adopted our new mission statement—“To foster Sacrament-nurtured disciples of Christ who live a bold and extraordinary faith, first in the family, then flowing out into our community”—I had already felt a strong prompting from the Lord to invest more deeply in the married couples of our parishes. I believe the Lord is also stirring in the hearts of our people a desire for deeper communion with Him and with one another.

One of the most important ways we can strengthen our parishes and the Church is by strengthening our marriages and families. The family, after all, is the domestic Church, where faith is first lived, nurtured, and handed on to the next generation. The holiness of a family bears fruit not only within the home but throughout the Church and the world. We see this beautifully in St. Louis and St. Zélie Martin, whose faithful marriage and family life helped foster the vocation of their daughter, St. Thérèse of Lisieux. Their example reminds us that the daily work of married life, rooted in prayer, sacrifice, and love, can be a path to holiness.

With this in mind, I invite our married couples to prayerfully discern joining the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit in the Family (MHSF). MHSF is a Catholic apostolate dedicated to helping couples recognize their vocation to holiness through marriage and family life. Its purpose is to equip husbands and wives to live their faith intentionally, strengthen their sacramental marriage, and make their homes places where Christ is known, loved, and served. By forming couples in faith and building a community of mutual support, MHSF seeks to help families become missionary witnesses of the Gospel in everyday life.

MHSF offers formation through four pillars: human, intellectual, spiritual, and apostolic. Monthly gatherings include a meal, teaching, Eucharistic Adoration, and Confession. These gatherings give couples time to deepen their relationship with God, grow in their understanding of the faith, strengthen their marriage, and discern how to serve others as a family.

The commitment is two years, with gatherings on the first Wednesday of each month from 6:00–9:00 p.m. I encourage you and your spouse to review the enclosed flyers, pray together, and discuss whether MHSF might help your family grow in faith and holiness.

To learn more, contact Brandon and Nicole Henkel at 402-443-6575 or nikkichmelka@gmail.com, and complete the interest form using the QR code on the flyer.

May the Holy Spirit strengthen our marriages and sanctify our families, so that our homes become places where a bold and extraordinary faith is lived and shared with our community. St. Louis and St. Zélie Martin, pray for us!

In Christ,

Fr. Luke Fleck