Week of May 5, 2024

1) Honoring our Moms and Grandmothers

To honor our moms and grandmothers next weekend, we would like to produce a video with a picture of your mom or grandmother. The video will be played in Church before all the masses and will be available online. To submit a picture, please click the button below. Please submit ONE picture only. The picture may be a family picture with your mom or grandmother.

Thanks.

2) Outreach to the Unaffiliated and Those who Have Left the Church

As part of Spirit Juice Studies' 52 Stories program, I started watching a 24-minute video sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis about outreach to the unaffiliated and those who left the Church. I found it fascinating, and I wanted to encourage you to watch it as well. We all know of people who have walked away from the Church or who now claim to be unaffiliated with any religion.

Here's the synopsis of the video:

This piece from the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis explores the question of the religiously unaffiliated and those who have stepped away from the Church. Through interviews with various experts, this video investigates why some have left the Church and how we can encourage them to return to a more profound relationship with Christ.

3) Bishop Battersby's Farewell Message to the People of the Archdiocese of Detroit

DETROIT — On March 19, Pope Francis appointed Detroit's Bishop Gerard W. Battersby as the 11th bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis.

As the former Detroit auxiliary bishop — a lifelong Detroit native — prepares for his installation May 20 at the Cathedral of St. Joseph the Workman in La Crosse, he sat down with Detroit Catholic one final time to reflect upon his love for Detroit, his formation as a bishop, and how he looks forward with confidence in the Holy Spirit to serving his new flock.

4) Why Series: Why Register as a Parishioner?

Belonging to a parish is about much more than finding a place to attend Mass each Sunday. It’s about finding community, a place to plant spiritual roots, and to commit ourselves to being involved. Learn why belonging to your parish is so important in our current culture and choose to commit to your parish today!

5) Ascension's Bible and Catechism App

6) Holy Hour on Thursdays

7) This Sunday's Readings: May 5, 2024 - The Sixth Sunday of Easter

8) Sunday Reflections by Jeff Cavins

Sixth Sunday of Easter

In this week’s Encountering the Word video for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Jeff Cavins shows us how this Sunday’s readings teach us to imitate God in the way he loves, because only in this way can we become Christ’s disciples.

The readings are:

Reading 1: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 98:1, 2-3, 3-4

Reading 2: 1 John 4:7-10

Alleluia: John 14:23

Gospel: John 15:9-17

9) Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

Hints of the Holy Spirit



Friends, we’re getting very close to Pentecost, the great feast of the descent of the Spirit. And on this Sixth Sunday of Easter, the Church gives us three readings that are hinting at the Holy Spirit—a kind of foretaste of that descent.

10) Grow+Go

11) Giving to SJA:

I'm truly grateful for all of your support of SJA. Your support means so much. The increase in electronic giving has been tremendous. Giving electronically, whether on a one-time or recurring basis is pretty simple. For more information on online giving, please click on the following button.

12) TALLer Tales

Working Around the “NEW” Me: This aging stuff is for the birds! I had a little incident a couple of weeks ago that I’m so grateful I didn’t break or bruise anything. Some know we’ve had issues with the main church electronic door locks lately. So, some work had to be done on them. It happened to be a Thursday, a day we had one of our 85+ Dinners. The guys who work on all this stuff for me were doing some of the wiring, and I happened to be talking to them just outside the entrance to the Sr. Carol Center. I was paying attention to some work that was taking place at school and started to walk backyards to get a better visual of what was happening. As I stepped backward, I fell over the planters that were situated in front of the pillar. I went entirely backward and landed on my back and elbows. Chris, who was working on the door, came over right away and started to help pick me up. At the same time, a parent yelled across the parking lot to ask if I was okay. I remember telling Chris I needed a minute to see if anything was broken. I wasn’t in pain, so I figured everything must have been okay. Chris then bear-hugged me to help me up because the “new” me can’t get up easily anymore once on the ground. I paused a moment and realized all seemed fine. My elbows hurt, as did my tailbone. I went home, took some Tylenol, made sure I didn’t rip any holes in my suit, and then walked right back over to party with the 85+ group! No one but Chris and that parent knew anything had happened. By the grace of God, I didn’t break anything. Imagine the new stories that would have been circulating around the parish about the old Monsignor if something had happened that day! I was so lucky!

But the reality of being unable to stand back up again from being on the ground takes some work to get used to! Even the littlest things I took for granted become a chore. I now have to sit in a chair and lower myself onto the ground with my arms to get down on the ground. To get back up from the ground, I position myself close to a chair, raise myself unto the chair, and from there, I can stand back up again. It’s a bit annoying but also humorous at the same time!

The other day, a freeze warning popped up on my phone. It happened to be the day we had confirmations. The freeze warning concerned me as I had already “de-winterized” my mom’s RV. It’s a Sprinter Van that was converted into an RV. Given that my mom’s Crohn’s and colitis have gotten worse since COVID, the traveling bathroom has been a Godsend in allowing her to travel without much worrying. We call the RV “Daisy Loo.” I always say I’m driving “Ms. Daisy,” hence the “Daisy” part. Father Andrew helped with the “Loo” part because Loo is a British word for toilet! So, we call her Daisy Loo.

Given the freeze warning, I had to re-winterize Daisy Loo. It’s a relatively straightforward process, but it takes about 2 hours and requires you to get on the ground. Since we had confirmation that night, I could only attack this project well after confirmation. After everything was cleaned up after confirmation, I went back to my house and gathered all my supplies. It was now about 11:00 p.m. I had two dilemmas, though. The first dilemma was that with the Ring cameras, I would get “caught” for having done this so late and would have gotten chewed out by many. The second dilemma was that I had to get on the ground to accomplish many of my tasks.

The first dilemma was solved relatively quickly. I decided to go onto the Ring camera system and turn off all motion recording and motion detection on all the cameras and lights outside my house. That was a very “James Bond” move on my part, and I was pretty delighted with my stealthy move! So now, I could do what needed to be done without any evidence. I loved that part of this project. The second dilemma was more challenging. I bought a low-profile mechanic’s “creeper” / bed to lie on and move around near the bottom of the RV’s carriage. But getting onto and up from this mechanic’s creeper was my issue. I also bought a rolling mechanic’s chair, but I had ONE problem: it rolls. Whenever I would position myself to get on the ground, the crazy chair rolled, and I didn’t want to risk landing on the ground and hitting my tailbone again. So, I decided to wedge the rolling chair up against the side of my house and leverage my feet against the van so the chair wouldn’t roll. With this acrobatic move, I could lower myself onto the rolling creeper. It took a few tries, but it worked, and I was able to re-winterize Daisy Loo. Thankfully, my little escapades were relatively unknown until now, so few could yell at me. But I found a clever way to work around the “new” me! I was pretty proud of my antics that night!

Congratulations First Communicants: I wish to congratulate all our young people who are celebrating their First Communion this weekend. This annual celebration is always a highlight in the life of a parish. I want to thank the parents, our Faith and Family Formation staff, teachers, catechists, and all those who helped prepare these young people for this beautiful day. Your witness and example inspire these young people, and at the same time, your witness and example enrich their faith journey more than you will ever know.

Now, more than ever, we need to teach our young people the importance of the Eucharist in their daily lives. We live in such a complex world, and we need to help these young people to be people of prayer and people who know they are disciples of Jesus Christ. They need to be a people of the Eucharist! We have come to celebrate with these children and have placed significant emphasis on this great and holy day. Now, we must continue our catechesis and show them in our own words and examples of the importance of the Eucharist in our daily lives.

One of the clearest ways to show these young people the importance of the Eucharist is to make the Eucharist and weekend participation at Mass an absolute priority in our lives, even beyond all the activities that occupy the weekend!

The second graders making their first communion this weekend have incredible faith, yet their faith is only in its infancy stage. As much as we have to protect and nurture a young budding plant, we have to nurture and protect the faith life of these precious little ones. We must do all we can to help them on their journey to the Lord. Let us celebrate with them EVERY weekend around the table of the Lord. Let us show them the importance of Eucharistic Adoration. Let us show them the importance of prayer. Let us show them that God needs to be the center of their lives! Walking together on the road of life, we can encounter Jesus in many different ways. But these young people need our help by pointing out His presence. They also need our help in showing them that Jesus truly is the way, the truth and the life!

Enjoy the week. Know of my prayers!

gmb@sjascs.org

13) Along the Way with Father Adam

The Importance of the Eucharist, Part II

One of the greatest gifts that I have received as a priest is celebrating Mass every day. To make Jesus present is a privilege beyond belief. And yet, as is with many things, we can start to take such a gift for granted. Admittedly, there are some days when I do not think much about the great mystery of Jesus present in the Eucharist… and then I’ll look down at Mass and think, “wow, I’m literally holding Jesus in my hands.”

There is a great quote by G.K. Chesterton from his book Orthodoxy that I have printed out and placed in my Bible as a reminder that I should not, nor cannot, get “used to” the gift of the Eucharist. “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

God does not tire of giving Himself to us each day in the Eucharist. As we prepare for First Communion with our students (and the upcoming National Eucharistic Revival) I thought it would be good to continue reflecting on the Eucharist, as I did last week, especially by looking at the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6. Moses, the great leader of the Exodus, makes a profound statement in the book of Deuteronomy: “not by bread alone does one live.” As human beings, our nature is a marvelous mix of body and soul, matter and spirit. It is quite natural for us to grasp the need to nourish our body with food and drink. (When was the last time you went 24 hours without eating?) However, it is much harder to grasp that we have an equal need, or truly, an even greater need, to nourish the soul.

The human soul is nourished by engaging in a personal relationship with Jesus, our Creator and Redeemer, and by pondering God’s truth, goodness and beauty. Without this nourishment, we are greatly deprived, become quite ill on the spiritual level, and run the risk of dying from malnourishment of the soul. The Psalmist says it this way, “As the deer longs for running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Athirst is my soul for God, the living God.”

Jesus, fully aware of this deep human hunger for God, gave Himself in the Eucharist as His parting and most precious gift to His disciples. He greatly desires to nourish us at the family dinner table, set by the Father, served by the Son and made possible in the Holy Spirit. Jesus lays out for us a absolute feast with two main courses; we are fed every Sunday, and every day if we choose, at the table of His Word and of His precious Body and Blood.

We all know what a treat it is to sit at the table in the home of someone who has a real heart for hospitality. My mother had a passion for feeding our family and friends. I have countless memories of days where she poured herself out to clean the house, set a magnificent table, create a welcoming atmosphere, and prepare an amazing meal that brought joy, strength and unity to the family. It is certainly one of the many gifts that I miss since her passing.

One outstanding element of the meal that God serves us at Mass is that God does not provide us with a fine dinner of perfectly grilled salmon, sautéed asparagus and homemade garlic mashed potatoes, as nice as that might be. Rather, Jesus chooses to feed us with His very Self. “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Jesus, in His infinite wisdom and love, chooses to give His Body and Blood for our nourishment. It is hard to grasp the beauty of this eucharistic mystery. Love does the most amazing things.

A second element of this meal, described in Scriptures as the “breaking of the bread,” is the gift of presence. When Jesus took on our human flesh 2000 years ago and was born of the Virgin Mary, He chose very definitively to draw near to us. Throughout His public ministry, Jesus engaged His disciples in an intimate way. He joined His disciples for a walk, called the children to Himself, served the apostles breakfast, and grasped the blind man by the hand. Our Lord drew close because He wanted His relationship with us to be real, personal and life changing. Jesus, in fact, desires that same intimacy with you and me. So, Our Lord fashioned the precious sacrament of the Eucharist where He bestows upon us the gift of His divine presence. As a result, in our own day, Jesus continues to draw near in the Mass: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.” When we come in faith to receive the Eucharist and are disposed properly, we are brought into a profound union with Christ, a holy communion. The magnificence of this gift is hard to comprehend. It demands great faith. It brings extraordinary grace. 

Furthermore, the Eucharist carries us up into eternal life. “Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” The Eucharist, because it is Christ Himself, is not only food for the journey to heaven, it actually carries us to heaven, our true home. This, too, is one of God’s great marvels that needs to be proclaimed boldly.

Jesus, thank you for the precious, parting gift that you made of Yourself to us in the Eucharist, help me never to take this gift for granted. 

Blessings—Fr. Adam

anowak@sjascs.org

14) Ascension Presents: Father Mike Schmitz

Politics vs. Principles

Is there any hope for unity in the United States of America? Fr. Mike gives a resounding “yes”. But not over politics or policies—but the principles that our country was founded on.

What’s the difference between politics/policies and principles? Fr. Mike has a take that might make you think.

15) Words on the Word: May 5, 2024 - All You Need is Love

It should be such a simple concept – love one another. But that’s easier said than done. 

Every day’s headlines are filled with stories of people doing the exact opposite of loving one another. One day a few weeks ago, for example, media outlets contained stories examining the potential for experiencing, in reality, the type of contemporary civil war being portrayed in a new movie. The reason given: that citizens in the United States are becoming increasingly polarized in their political views; those on the left vs. those on the right.

And many people do, indeed, take such sides, thinking the worst of those on the “other side.”

Closer to home, a story in The Detroit News reported on the sentencing of an Eastpointe man for the deaths of two neighbors. The counts included murder, felony firearm possession, and drug charges.

It would be easy for well-meaning citizens to look at a story like this and assume they know all there is to know about the perpetrator, wishing him nothing but ill will.

And yet, as followers of Jesus Christ, we’re called to a higher standard. We’re called to love others in the truest sense, which means willing their good for their own sake.

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God,” we hear in today’s second reading from the first letter of St. John. “Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.”

Jesus, for his part, puts it even more concisely and without any chance of misinterpretation in today’s gospel passage from St. John:

“This I command you,” he says. “Love one another.”

And so, we must, whether on an immediate, one-to-one scale, or writ large, toward the community as a whole.

© 2024 Words on the Word

16) This WEEK on FORMED:

17) 52 Stories: Good News from Spirit Juice Studios

Prepare to be Inspired

Spirit Juice Studios is blessed to work with countless Catholic organizations, dioceses, parishes, and schools. We get to help them tell their powerful stories about all the good stuff that is happening within the Church. Sign up for 52 Stories so we can share them with you! You’ll meet the unsung heroes of the Catholic Church, discover the stories of holy women and men around the world, and witness miraculous moments of God’s grace in everyday life.

In a world full of bad news, these stories will give you 52 reasons to believe that God is working through the Catholic faith to transform lives through His love and mercy. Sign up today!

Outreach To The Unaffiliated

This piece from the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis explores the question of the religiously unaffiliated and those who have stepped away from the Church. Through interviews with various experts, this video investigates why some have left the Church and how we can encourage them to return to a more profound relationship with Christ.

18) Hallow App:

19) SJA's Garden Angels are looking for Volunteers

20) Mass Intentions for the Week:

Monday, May 6, 2024, Easter Weekday (White) 

7:00 am, Caroline Leininger

Tuesday, May 7, 2024, Easter Weekday (White)

7:00 am, Special Intention for the Family of Tina Calisi

Wednesday, May 8, 2024, Easter Weekday (White)

7:00 am, Evalene Elliott

6:00 pm, Andrew, Rita & Gerald Kopacko

Thursday, May 9, 2024, Easter Weekday (White) 

7:00 am, The living and deceased members of the Rogier & Dettloff Families

Friday, May 10, 2024, Easter Weekday; Saint John of Avila, Priest & Doctor of the Church (White)

7:00 am, Angelamaria DiBerardino

Saturday, May 11, 2024, Vigil for the Ascension of the Lord (White)

4:00 pm, Grace & Sam Valenti, Joseph Lucchese, Bonnie Batche, Sophie Rupinski, Angeline Calus, John Burasinski, Mary Lou Racine, Dorothy McIntosh, Kristi Kennedy, Rosann Coules, and Special Intentions for Jack Shaughnessy, the J. Champine Family, the Thomas Family, Alison Reslow, Lorraine Jonas, Pam Haisenleder, Linda Frank and Gracie & Ted on their 60th Wedding Anniversary

6:00 pm, Anna Fazi

Sunday, May 12, 2024, The Ascension of the Lord (White)

8:00 am, For the Intentions for St. Joan of Arc Parishioners

10:00 am, Rita Snyder

12:00 pm Anna Dolunt, Antonietta Mazzella, Bianca Calisi, Geraldine Rogier, Catherine Graebert, Marie Rogier, Helen Sadler, Joseph Paluzzi Jr., Charlotte McQuillan, Juilette Zaranek, C. Pat Walters, Louisa Sarra, Virgini Prill, Florence Semany, Mary Margaret Ortisi, Margaret Segodnia, and Special Intentions for Alison Reslow, Pam Haisenleder, Lorraine Jonas, and Linda Frank and for Richard & Gloria Iminski on their 65th Wedding Anniversary

21) This Week on St. Joan of Arc LIVE:

This week's LIVE Stream

Schedule at St. Joan of Arc:

Monday (May 6)

7:00 AM - Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Jean and Gerald Higgins

Tuesday (May 7):

7:00 AM - Mass

8:30 AM - School Mass

Wednesday (May 8):

7:00 AM - Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Elaine Oswald

6:00 PM - Mass

Thursday (May 9):

7:00 AM- Mass

7:00 PM - Holy Hour

Friday (May 10):

7:00 AM - Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Bruno Attanasio

Saturday (May 11):

10:00 AM - Funeral for Joan Cadiuex (Read Obituary HERE)

12:30 PM - Baptism of Giuliana M. Monticciolo

1:30 PM - Baptism of Lucas R. Sims and Emma A. Sims

2:30 PM - Baptism of Zane I. Forinash

4:00 PM - Mass

6:00 PM - Mass

Sunday (May 12):

8:00 AM - Mass

10:00 AM - Mass

12:00 PM - Mass

Please note that all of our masses and events can be accessed through the ARCHIVE section of our Live stream page if you cannot watch it live!

We also have our own ROKU Channel. Search for "CATHOLIC" in the ROKU channel store, and you will find SJA's channel. A Fire TV Channel is also available.

22) SJA's Latest Parish Bulletin

Click on the image below

to download a copy of the bulletin

for May 5, 2024

23) Weekly Bulletin Mailing List

24) Detroit Catholic