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Marycrest Manor residents have their home blessed

by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
Published January 30, 2009

Fr. Tom Heier, CMM, officiates a morning Mass at Marycrest Manor in Livonia. The home, which houses 55 residents and has Mass seven mornings a week, was blessed Jan. 23.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. Tom Heier, CMM, officiates a morning Mass at Marycrest Manor in Livonia. The home, which houses 55 residents and has Mass seven mornings a week, was blessed Jan. 23.

Livonia — Marycrest Manor, a Catholic skilled nursing home started by the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Joseph in 1962, was formally blessed last week.

Marianhill Fr. Tom Heier — who with other priests from his order celebrate Mass seven mornings a week in the home's chapel — prayed the blessing, and performed a sprinkling rite throughout the building the morning of Jan. 23. The blessing was "for the protection through the intercession of St. Michael the Archangel, St. Benedict and the Immaculate Conception, for all who live, work and visit" Marycrest.

Formally Marycrest Manor Skilled Nursing & Rehabilitation, 55 people of different faiths live at the residence.

Fr. Tom Heier, followed by the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph and Marycrest administrators, walks the halls of Marycrest Manor during the sprinkling rite of the home's blessing.

Joe Kohn | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. Tom Heier, followed by the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph and Marycrest administrators, walks the halls of Marycrest Manor during the sprinkling rite of the home's blessing.

"It wasn't blessed for a long time, so I think we needed it," said Sr. Mary Alexine Machowicz, FSSJ, pastoral minister at the nursing home. She's one of four Franciscan Sisters of Saint Joseph who live at a convent in the Marycrest facility.

Jim Butler, administrator of Marycrest, called it "awesome" to have the home finally blessed.

"It helps give us the strength to keep doing the great work that we do," said Butler.

Marycrest Manor was built 47 years ago to replace St. Mary's Convalescence Center in Detroit, which was closed for the expansion of the I-96 expressway. Currently, Butler says the administration has plans to expand the Marycrest facilities and accommodate more residents on its 10-acre campus on Middlebelt Road.