WHEN TIM CONSTANTINO started college, he had a difficult time finding friends with similar faith-based interests — until he found campus ministry at Macomb Community College, and then Wayne State University.

"Young adult ministry brought me back to my faith by allowing me to organize and participate in religious and spiritual events that appealed to my generation," says Tim, 30, a member of SS. Cyril and Methodius Parish in Sterling Heights.

The archdiocesan Office for Young Adult and Campus Ministry sponsors activities and programs that minister to the faith life of young adults and students at colleges and universities. As a student, Tim participated in retreats, discussion groups, holy day prayer services and Masses. He also performed volunteer service projects and participated in alternative spring break events, helping to renovate houses for low-income families and working as a summer camp counselor for foster children in Kentucky's Appalachia.

These experiences inspired Tim to become a volunteer missionary with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur during 2007. He traveled to Kenya to serve in physical therapy at a center for disabled children.

Although he now works in video and television production, Tim remains involved in young adult ministry. "Each person I have met through young adult ministry has touched my life in some way and has strengthened my faith just a little bit more," he says.

WEEKENDS WHEN ALBINA DELAURA is unable to attend Mass with a family member, friend or neighbor, she simply rises a little earlier on Sunday for the 6 a.m. broadcast of the Mass for Shut-ins on WJBK-TV (Channel 2).

"I love watching the Mass in the morning," says Albina, 87, a member of St. Veronica Parish in Eastpointe. "I sit here calmly and hum along with the songs."

The Archdiocese of Detroit began broadcasting a Mass for Shut-Ins on the radio in 1921, and on television in 1949. The Office of Christian Worship organizes the weekly Mass and provides missalettes to home worshippers. Parishes from across the archdiocese are invited to participate in the Mass, which is celebrated by a different archdiocesan priest, auxiliary bishop or Cardinal Maida. "I love it," Albina says. "It could be on just a little later, but I'm willing to sacrifice."

AFTER DATING FOR A FEW YEARS, NATHAN AND SARAH OLSON thought they knew everything about each other. But during their Covenant Love marriage preparation retreat, they discovered more, as well as new ways of looking at issues and strengthening their relationship.

"I felt as though we were on the same page and ready for marriage," says Sarah, who married Nathan last August at St. Michael Parish in Monroe. "You always think you are, but it was so nice to be around a Catholic community and confirm this."

The Covenant Love retreat, held overnight at The Retreat Center at St. John's, gives couples time away together from the normal rush of their lives to reflect on their pending nuptials. During the weekend, which emphasizes marriage as a sacramental covenant with God, couples learn communication skills, natural family planning techniques and how to manage family finances and share prayer as a couple.

"We had so much to talk about when we left," says Sarah. "Although we had already addressed Please take a moment to read how misistries funded by gifts to the Catholic Services Appeal have made a difference in the lives of some of our neighbors.

many of the issues presented, like our financials, children and their faith involvement, and conflict resolution, we were given different ways to look at these issues to strengthen our confidence." The archdiocesan Office for Family Ministry helps couples prepare for their pending nuptials by coordinating Covenant Love and other marriage preparation programs sanctioned by the Archdiocese of Detroit. They also offer programs to enrich and nurture marriages in other stages, whether it be through marriage encounters, prayer series or groups for the widowed, separated and divorced.

"I learned that couples who are successful in their marriage have great communication and God at the center of their life," Nathan says. "I felt great after the weekend. I felt closer than I had ever been with my fiancée."

AT 23, FATHER ANTHONY CAMILLERI found himself discerning a vocation to the diocesan priesthood while eating pizza, watching Michigan State basketball and visiting with seminarians at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

The archdiocesan Vocations Office sponsors discernment weekends to allow men aged 16 or older to experience Sacred Heart Major Seminary firsthand. They are able to worship with the seminary community, meet students and faculty members, sit in on classes, and spend time in prayer.

"That weekend changed my life," says Father Camilleri. "These were normal guys discerning to be a priest — just like me."

Father Camilleri first considered a vocation at age 14, at the prompting of his religion teacher at St. Mary's Preparatory in Orchard Lake. During his final year at Central Michigan University, Father Camilleri began seriously considering the priesthood. A call to the archdiocesan director of vocations led to months of reflection over discernment materials and, oftentimes, biweekly conversations. And then to that fateful discernment weekend.

Cardinal Maida ordained Father Camilleri to the priesthood at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament on May 26, 2007. He celebrated his first Mass at the Shrine Chapel at Orchard Lake Schools, where her first felt an inkling of a vocation.

Now an associate pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Lake Orion, Father Camilleri most enjoys being in the parish, baptizing babies, meeting with parishioners and talking with them about their sacramental life.

"It's just great being a priest — all of it," says Father Camilleri, now 31. "It's awesome. It's what God called me to do."

AFTER 22 YEARS AS A REGISTERED NURSE, Patti Moore decided she wanted to care for both the physical and spiritual sides of her patients.

"I thought there had to be something that would combine all aspects of nursing through God," says Patti. She found that parish nursing allowed her to promote the Gospel of Life through the ministries of health and healing within the parish and its community.

"I saw that the example of Jesus is clearly demonstrated through this health ministry," she notes. "Jesus never delineated the spiritual from the physical body, and the two together are integral in our care for one another's needs."

Now a parish nurse at St. Daniel Parish in Clarkston, Patti makes home visits, provides monthly blood pressure screenings and coordinates health fairs, which often include health screenings, a kid zone and a flu clinic. She teaches yearly CPR and AED training, and maintains the parish's automated external defibrillator (AED). She also gives presentations, such as on proper hand washing to Vacation Bible school participants and on sun safety at the parish picnic. A bulletin board Patti maintains throughout the year focuses on disseminating valuable information on various health issues during awareness months, such as the heart during February and stroke during May.

Last year, a parishioner asked for a hospice referral for her mother, which Patti provided along with informational materials. She also took time to answer the woman's questions.

"I hadn't thought that I did that much, but she sent me the most heartfelt 'thank you' I have ever received," Patti says. "She shared that in the end, the hospice experience was the most peaceful experience of her life. She said it was such a blessing to have her mother at home, surrounded by the love of her family."

The archdiocesan Department of Parish Life and Services oversees the parish nursing program through its Parish Nurse Advisory Board.

"I am humbled that I can serve the Lord in this way," Patti says.

WHEN MONSIGNOR DON HANCHON decided to embark on a stewardship awareness effort at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in 2005, he called upon the archdiocesan Department of Development, which offers presentations and a comprehensive approach to Christian stewardship education.

A stewardship commitment weekend was scheduled for that autumn. Parishioners were given a bilingual sign-up sheet that emphasized parish registration and envelope use as well as participation in the annual Catholic Services Appeal. Holy Redeemer uses the appeal as a means of fund-raising, asking each family to donate $100 monthly or quarterly so the parish can exceed its target and have the exceeded amount returned for its own use, Monsignor Hanchon explains.

On the weekend prior to the stewardship commitment weekend, volunteers offered witness around their personal stewardship of time, talent and treasure at all weekend Masses. On stewardship commitment weekend, Monsignor Hanchon led parishioners in an in-pew solicitation of their time, talent and treasure, in the form of volunteering for parish ministries and activities as well as a weekly or monthly pledge toward parish support.

"Listing parish opportunities for time and talent stewardship resulted in the revitalization of liturgical ministries, as well as additional volunteers in the area of Christian service and other parish activities, such as the annual celebration of Las Posadas, a pre-Christmas novena that features parish celebrations," Monsignor Hanchon notes. "The annual packing and distribution of baskets for the needy at Thanksgiving and Christmas received significant commitments of 'new' volunteers."

Three years and three stewardship commitment weekends later, the southwest Detroit parish has seen an increase in Mass attendance, volunteers and gifts to the weekly offertory and annual Catholic Services Appeal.

"The assistance from the archdiocesan Development Office in achieving a greater understanding of Christian stewardship, and commitments of time, talents and treasure — difficult to achieve in any parish, but particularly in our urban, mostly Hispanic, setting — has been significant," Monsignor Hanchon says. "With their help, we have made stewardship commitment the centerpiece of the parish Stewardship Commission's efforts, and we are on our way to becoming a stewardship parish."

PENNY STROBBE IS THANKFUL for the religious education her two sons, ages 13 and 14, receive at Holy Trinity Parish in Port Huron.

"Religious education supplements what we do at home," says Penny, 41. "It reinforces the values my husband and I are trying to instill in them."

Her sons have become more active in their parish because of religious education, she adds. One has become an altar server to earn service hours for the sacrament of Confirmation. "He looks forward to serving on the altar," she notes. "It helps him pay more attention at Mass, stay focused."

Although she and her husband read the Bible at home, Penny does not feel that they are able to interpret it for their sons at an age-appropriate level like a religious education instructor can. The archdiocesan Office for Faith Formation/Catechetics supports the work of catechists — the men, women and young people who teach the faith in parishes and Catholic schools throughout the archdiocese of Detroit. The office provides consultation concerning policy, curriculum guidelines and text selection, as well as professional growth opportunities and certification for teachers.

AS A GIRL GROWING UP in the Detroit neighborhood surrounding Marygrove College, Vivian Bottger felt drawn to a statue of Mary on the college grounds "I would sneak off and go out to our Blessed Mother," she recalls. "The kids would be playing, and I was always going in there and looking up at her. I was a child. … All my life, I wanted to be a Catholic."

At age 61, her dream finally came true. Vivian was one of 1,598 new Catholics welcomed into our Church at the 2007 Easter Vigil. The experience was "incredible," she notes. "I wish I could relive it over and over and over again."

All prepared to take on the life of a disciple of Christ through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The archdiocesan Office of Worship coordinates the RCIA process, which involves the study of the Catholic faith and the nurturing and growth of one's own faith.

"It's the most wonderful, beautiful thing that's ever happened to me," says Vivian, now a member of Immaculate Conception Parish in Lapeer. It's changed my life."

WANDA HUBERT NO LONGER SENDS HER SON OFF TO SCHOOL.  Instead, she joins him for studies at the Institute for Ministry at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

Hubert Jr., 33, is working toward a master's degree in theology while Wanda, 56, pursues studies toward a diploma in pastoral ministry. Both have received scholarships from the Parish Empowerment Fund (PEF), which is administered by the archdiocesan Department of Parish Life and Services. Besides providing scholarships to lay people for training and certification in all aspects of pastoral ministry through the Institute for Ministry, PEF offers grants for evangelization efforts in parishes that could not otherwise afford to do so.

"My experience there has just been truly incredible, as far as my spiritual growth," says Hubert, who along with his mother is involved at Detroit's Presentation/Our Lady of Victory Parish, where his father is a deacon. "It reminds me of the most important things, which is my relationship with the Lord. Everything flows through that. It's a tremendous blessing."

Also a blessing is the help he receives from the Parish Empowerment Fund. Without it, "I wouldn't be able to attend," says Hubert.

"It's enriching, and I'm learning more about the faith," says Wanda of her classes at the Institute for Ministry. "You practice and live it your whole life, but you can see why you do things as you go through the studies."

FORMER PARISHIONERS at Detroit's St. Rita and St. Bartholomew parishes came together last November for a unity Mass to acknowledge the two parishes becoming one.

The unity Mass was the work of the archdiocesan Office of Christian Worship, which consults with parishes on liturgical issues, such as preparing liturgies for the merging, closing and opening of parishes.

In addition, staff members work with the Archdiocesan Architectural Committee when parishes begin plans for the building and/or renovation of worship spaces.

A parish closing can understandably be a painful experience, says Father Ronald Borg, CSB, pastor of the new St. Bartholomew/St. Rita Parish. He observes, however, "I think parishioners are happy they've found a new spiritual home."