Friday, January 15, 2010

Father Mike Figler

My blog statistics indicated that Father Mike Figler is a hot topic, so I thought I would revisit him.

I first encountered Father Mike when he became pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Riverton, NJ. I believe that was in 2003.

He's a very devout, young, funny priest and the parishioners loved him.

We were very saddened when he announced, in June of 2009, that he was being transferred to a new church in Atlantic Highlands, NJ. Atlantic Highlands is a sea shore town that is just about as far north on the Jersey coast that you can get.

Fahter Mike is now the pastor of two parishes in New Jersey

St. Agnes
http://www.stagnesnj.com/

Our Lady Of Perpetual Help
http://www.jewelbythesea.org/

He is also in charge of a school

Mother Theresa Regional School
http://www.mtregional.com/mtr/

I have several email addresses for Father Mike:
figlerm@stagnesnj.com
frfigler@yahoo.com

Father Mike wrote to a local newspaper upon his arrival in North Jersey---here is the link

http://www.ahherald.com/index.php/Atlantic-Highlands/new-pastor-at-st-agnes-and-olph-churches.html

In July, he sent out a letter to his former parishioners at Sacred Heart telling us he missed us, and that he was doing well in his new assignment. I answered him, and told him a priest as popular as he is needs a Facebook page, or at least a Facebook Fan Page. I don't think he has one (let me check...no, not yet).

Father Mike showed up on the Internet Radar in December of 2009

http://www.trentonmonitor.com/main.asp?SectionID=5&SubSectionID=42&ArticleID=494

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Network Evangelization Team (NET). Father Mike was a member for 3 years before entering the Seminary, and while at Sacred Heart, he always invited one of the teams to do a retreat for our young people. Here are a couple of links to NET which picture Father Mike...

1992-1993
http://www.netusa.org/alumniarchive/?c=13

1993-1994
http://www.netusa.org/alumniarchive/?c=14

Finally, for those of you who didn't know, Father Mike's sister had Sextuplets several years ago and she, her husband and the kids are the stars of the Learning Channel's Table of 12 show.

http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/table-for-12/table-for-12.html

If you watch carefully, you can see Father Mike in one of the episodes.

Here are two articles about the family...

http://www.dioceseoftrenton.org/department/news_detail_print.asp?newsid=1016

http://www.catholiccampusministry.org/KEAN/KEANSantoraArticle.html

I hope you find this short article worthwhile, and if you contact him because of it, please be sure to let him know I said hello.

He is truly a devout and holy priest, and an exemplary example of Jesus on earth.

1 comment:

Gary D. said...

He is an amazing man. He blessed my home when I moved into it, as was a long-standing tradition, but what made it truly incredible was that Fr. Mike had been up most of the night in the hospital with a sick patient in the hospital. When he came over, he was, understandably, a sleep-deprived zombie physically, but spiritually and personally the incredible guy you and I have known. He is fantastic and he was at St. Joseph's in Toms River at the time, and every bit as wonderful with that assignment as he is with any other. Kudos to him. One of the best people I've ever seen and I ain't no spring chicken.