A resident there for five years now, she greets whomever she meets with a smile, and even hands out mint candies.
She’ll talk about her five grown children – they all went to college – and her many grandchildren. About the view from her fifth-floor window. And even about her nightly a rosary “for everybody in the world.”
But high on the list of the blessings she counts at Marquette House is the presence of another resident – archdiocesan priest Fr. J. Walter Stanievich.
“We are blessed to have him here,” she said. “He’s a wonderful man… and he gives us a blessing every time he sees us.”
Fr. Stanievich has been at Marquette House for two years. Every Saturday morning, about two-dozen residents gather in a lobby on the third floor of the building – each one in a wheelchair or with a walker – and he celebrates Mass.
The altar is a table in the corner. The first pew is a curved couch that sits in front of a television screen. And ambient noise from elsewhere in the residence can be heard during the liturgy.
But those who gather know that they are, indeed, in a holy place.
“This is one way to build community with one another,” Fr. Stanievich said following Mass on June 5. “It’s nice to have that association and build community.”
A priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit for 65 years, Fr. Stanievich has served at a number of parishes – and although Marquette house isn’t a formally established church, a parish is what the community essentially is, he said.
On the celebration of the Ascension, Fr. Stanievich talked to his neighbors in his homily about the importance of knowing Christ’s presence through the Mass.
“He promised the Apostles that he would be with them always,” he said. “The ‘always’ by which this would take place is through the Mass.”
Even as people go through change in their lives – as the Apostles did when they no longer were able to see Jesus following the Ascension – the presence of the Lord is consistent, he said.
He called it a “wonderful, wonderful gift” to have Christ present in the Eucharist.
Further, he added that any Christian in need – whether it be from illness, loneliness, or any other type of affliction – can call on Christ for assistance.
“Let’s rejoice with that, and know that when we are in any kind of need that we have Him not only in the Eucharist…we can petition our Blessed Lord time and time again,” he said.
Those present at the Mass said they are grateful to have the chance to attend each Sunday. Without Fr. Stanievich, they wouldn’t be able to get to a church.
“It’s just like old times, in the old neighborhood,” says resident Olga Sochacki, who’s been a resident for a year and a half, but who was a longtime parishioner of St. Albert the Great Parish in Dearborn Heights before that.
And Fr. Stanievich said he does, indeed, have a lot of friends at Marquette House. And while they have the same challenges many have in assisted living – including battling loneliness and the occasional argument with fellow residents – he said bringing Christ’s presence as a priest into Marquette House has worked.
“They’re kind of pleased,” he said. “And I’m pleased, too.”
