Dear Friends in Christ,
Here are a few updates from the parish for the week of Sunday, December 6, 2020, the 2nd Sunday of Advent:
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1) Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception: This Tuesday is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Because the dispensation from the obligation to attend mass is still in effect, it is not a holy day of obligation this year. Nonetheless, we decided to have a modified holy day mass schedule. Please feel free to join us in person or online for mass.
Our mass schedule for the holy day (both in person and online) will be
Monday, December 7 at 7:00 p.m. and
Tuesday, December 8 at 7:00 a.m., 12:00 noon and 7:00 p.m.
With the celebration of the Immaculate Conception, “we recall that Mary, free from original sin, remained free of all sin throughout her life. This means that she always chose to be faithful to God’s will, even in the most difficult times. Mary was a human being who, as the Second Vatican Council taught, was on a ‘pilgrimage of faith.’ Even when her faith was tested, she remained steadfast. As the Council also affirmed, she freely cooperated ‘in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience.’ She shows us what it means to a follower of her Son. As we participate in the Eucharist on this December 8, we thank God for giving us the Blessed Virgin Mary as the pre-eminent model of discipleship and holiness (from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website: www.usccb.org).”
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2) Advent 2020 Sponsorship Appeal: Each year we make a special effort to raise money to help cover the costs of items we use and the services we rely upon throughout the year. Our appeal looks a little different this year since we’ve added some COVID-related expenses while removing others pertaining to in-person events, etc. It is my great hope that next year we will add all those items back to this appeal, and our facilities will again be filled with the faithful in community and fellowship.
This sponsorship request allows you to see your generosity at work in some direct ways and it brings to light some of the daily expenses we face in our parish. I’ve listed the annual budget for each item, suggested sponsorship amounts, and the number of sponsors we need to meet that expense. This approach allows many to help in a way that best suits their abilities. Please keep in mind that all amounts are suggested. If you can’t meet the proposed sponsorship, please give what you can and know that all gifts are appreciated and necessary.
Donations can be made by completing the Sponsorship Appeal Form (click on the image above to download a PDF copy of it), on the St. Joan of Arc website (or by clicking on the button below), or at the Parish Center. Sponsors will be acknowledged unless indicated otherwise.
I cannot thank you enough for your generosity in all that you do to make St. Joan of Arc such a warm, welcoming and vibrant parish.
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3) Advent Calendar for Children: The Advent season is a time for us to prepare our hearts and minds as we near the celebration of our Lord’s birth on Christmas. Try one of these faith practices each day and then color in the calendar square as you count down to Christmas. Don’t worry if you miss a day or need to change the activity. Do your best to keep focused on Reason for the Season.
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4) Advent Calendar for Adults: Here is an Advent calendar from the USCCB (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). Download the PDF by clicking on the picture to the left.
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5) Advent Resources: There are a ton of Advent resources online. Here are a few to consider:
A parish in Iowa has a pretty comprehensive link to a ton of online Advent resources. Click HERE to access their Advent page.
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6) Blessing of a Christmas Tree: As many families start to put up their Christmas tree(s), here you will find short prayer of blessing that can be done with your family. Click on the image to download a PDF copy of the blessing.
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7) Archbishop Vigneron's Pastoral Note on Families of Parishes: Led By the Spirit On Mission |
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On Pentecost Sunday of this year, Archbishop Vigneron announced the next step in the missionary transformation of the Archdiocese of Detroit: Families of Parishes.
Over the next year-and-a-half, all parishes in the archdiocese will join together into groups of three to six, called “Families of Parishes.” Going forward, these Families of Parishes will work together, sharing resources and talents to further advance the shared mission of our local Church.
The Family groupings have been compiled in the last few months through consultation with the auxiliary bishops and priests, a process steeped in prayer and with attention given to the best interest of each community. The final list is expected to be released on Wednesday, December 9.
In the meantime, to help us all better understand why we are moving in this direction, Archbishop Vigneron has written a new Pastoral Note on Families of Parishes, providing some theological context for the transition and introducing a renewed structure for parish ministry to more effectively equip them for their missionary work. Like all Pastoral Notes released in recent years, this new text is informed by and expands upon the steady foundation of Archbishop Vigneron’s 2017 Pastoral Letter, Unleash the Gospel.
Looking into the not-too-distant future, Archbishop Vigneron also uses this new Pastoral Note to anticipate the development of Family Missionary Strategic Plans, which will guide each Family of Parishes as it carries out its work in the years to come.
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8) Dispensation from the Obligation to Attend Mass Extended: Archbishop Vigneron has extended the dispensation from the obligation to attend Mass until Ash Wednesday, February 21, 2021. Please click on the link below to read the full text of Archbishop Vigneron's letter.
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I am grateful to those who have already contributed to CSA 2020. As of today, we have $198,323 in pledges and gifts toward our $198,393 goal. We have a pledge balance of $19,055.90 (the balance of outstanding pledges). This amount represents gifts from 702 families. We have thus achieved 100% of our goal if all of our pledges are paid out! (OKAY, we're technically short by $70 but we're there). THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Any amount that is raised over our goal once all the pledges are paid out, will go to our Capital Campaign Fund. Thank you for your extraordinary generosity!
Here is a breakdown by gift range:
$2,500+ (9)
$1,000+ (28)
$500+ (68)
$250+ (95)
$100+ (276)
$75+ (21)
$50+ (95)
$25+ (66)
$10+ (40)
$0.25+ (4)
I would ask that you please prayerfully consider making a one-time or a monthly gift today.
The easiest way to give is electronically. Please click on the link below to make an electronic gift. If you wish to give by check and do not have your envelope, please complete your pledge card (this is important so we get credit for your gift), make your payment payable to “Catholic Services Appeal (CSA)” and send it to:
Catholic Services Appeal
P.O. Box 44077
Detroit, MI 48244-0077
Also, if you make your payment electronically through your bank, please be sure to use this address (and mark your ID number in the memo field).
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10) Holy Hour this Week: Please consider spending some time with the Lord at Holy Hour this week. This week's Holy Hour will be silent (no music).
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11) This Sunday's Readings - Sunday, December 6, 2020
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12) Grow+Go for the First Sunday of Advent:
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Grow+Go, content is designed to help you understand what it means to be an evangelizing disciple of Christ. Using the Sunday Scriptures as the basis for reflection, Grow+Go offers insight into how we can all more fully GROW as disciples and then GO evangelize, fulfilling Christ's Great Commission to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19) The concept behind the weekly series is to make discipleship and evangelization simple, concrete and relatable. Look for Grow+Go in our weekly emails. |
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13) Sunday Reflection by Jeff Cavins:
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In this week’s Encountering the Word video for the Second Sunday of Advent, Jeff Cavins encourages us to prepare for the coming of Christ by remembering our baptism and going to confession. |
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14) Giving to SJA: I'm truly grateful for all of your support of SJA during this pandemic. 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.
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15) This week's edition of TALLer Tales:
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She Whose Name that Cannot be Spoken: Our family often refers to “SHE whose name that cannot be spoken” when we are on our Zoom calls or over at each other’s homes. The SHE I am referring to Alexa! All of our family own some type of Amazon device, and the “wake up” word is “Alexa.” If you want Alexa to do something, you call out her name, and she answers or will carry out whatever command you request of her. It could be something as simple as “Alexa, play some Christmas music,” or “Alexa, turn on the Christmas Tree lights.” And, as I’m sure you can imagine, my family (because of yours truly) has all of our houses decked out with these devices. When we are on a Zoom call, and we talk about Alexa, it’s not too uncommon for her to “wake up” at other family members’ homes because “she” hears her name being invoked over the device or speaker.
In my homily this past weekend, I made a passing reference to Alexa. I spoke about how as I grow older if I sit in my back room chair in the evening at any time, I can almost be guaranteed I will fall fast asleep within nano-seconds. I’ve grown accustomed to setting an alarm with Alexa by saying, “Alexa, set an alarm for 30 minutes” so that my unintentional snooze doesn’t grow into HOURS. Well, little did I think that my reference to her in my homily would set off a chain reaction. It was reported (thank you, Sherry) that while someone was watching my mass, their Amazon Echo device heard the command and set an alarm at THEIR house for 30 minutes! Yikes, I guess I’ll have to refer to her as “She Whose Name that Cannot be Spoken” EVEN during my homilies!
Advent Resources: Even though the sights and sounds of Christmas are all around us, we need to remember the beautiful and grace-filled season of Advent. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle, Advent calls us to embrace stillness and quiet as we prepare for the birth of Christ the King.
There are MANY things you can do to help your Advent journey. You can read the reflections in the Little Blue Book from the Diocese of Saginaw or the reflections in The Word Among Us (both of which can be found in the bins just outside the Sr. Carol Center). You could pick up a spiritual book. You could spend time before the Blessed Sacrament. You could make it a goal to attend or watch mass more frequently. The options are endless; so are the rewards!
You may also want to consider some of the many excellent online resources that are available. You could get the Magnificat Advent Companion (for iOS, Android, Kindle). Creighton University has a great webpage with links to their advent resources (bit.ly/prayingadvent). The Irish Jesuits have a site that offers an Advent Retreat (sacredspace.ie). The Jesuits in Britain have a resource with audio reflections for every day of the year (pray-as-you-go.org). You can sign up for Bishop Barron’s Advent Reflections at adventreflections.com. HolyHeroes.com has some great Advent resources for children. Yes, there are plenty of online resources to help you with your Advent journey; you just have to make the time to stop, pause, and pray!
Parish Center Hours and Business: Out of precaution, we are limiting access to the Parish Center for the foreseeable future. Given the rise in COVID cases, I felt it was essential to limit access to the Parish Center. Most business with the Parish Center can be conducted over the phone or by email. Our regular hours of operation are from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Friday. You can reach the Parish Center by calling 586.777.3670 or by sending an email to info@sjascs.org. We can take mass intentions over the phone and then mail out the mass intention cards. If you have something that needs to be dropped off at the Parish Center, please know there is a dropbox just inside the Parish Center Building foyer. There you will also find bulletins and other devotional reading material.
SERF Vicariate Penance Opportunities: The SERF Vicariate Parishes have decided to have some common opportunities for reconciliation this Advent. We will NOT have our normal communal penance services because of COVID. Each parish has set aside Monday, December 14, 2020, from 6:00 until 8:00 p.m. and then on Tuesday, December 15, 2020, from 2:00 until 4:00 p.m. for reconciliation. For our parish, Father Andrew and I will be available for reconciliation during these times in one of the conference rooms in the Sr. Carol Center.
Mending broken relationships: Many of our Advent readings focus on the urgent call to build the Kingdom of God. We are told to shed deeds of darkness and put on the armor of Christ’s light. The season of Advent, and in fact the whole Christmas season, offers some great opportunities to reflect on our lives and come up with concrete action steps to put the saving message of the Gospel into effect in our lives.
One important area to consider is mending broken relationships. Use the time leading up to Christmas to find ways to mend any broken relationships in your life. Christ came to bring us his love, and his peace, and these gifts will not be fully realized as long as there are broken relationships in your midst.
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Enjoy the week. Know of my prayers.
In Christ,
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16) Tire Tracks in the d’Arc |
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Christmas Miracle: You may have noticed in the middle of last month, a story in the news about the criticism of this year’s Rockefeller Center Norway Spruce Christmas tree. It arrived in New York City after a 170 mile trip from upstate New York. It drew comparisons to Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree and to the fictional, elderly tree species in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.” Some said that it was a perfectly appropriate tree for 2020. The Rockefeller Center’s official Twitter account responded to its critics:
“Wow, you all must look great right after a two-day drive, huh?” the center tweeted. “Just wait until I get my lights on!”
Apparently the tree is wrapped for two week before it is even cut down, then it get loaded onto a flatbed truck before being driven 170 miles south. While the tree didn’t look great going-up, it seems to me that it never does! I feel like I read this story every year! I guess I just have eternal hope for the Christmas tree. So coming back from my retreat this weekend, it’s probably time to put my tree up. It’s been sitting in a box in basically the right place for 3 weeks now, unopened. Yes, it’s a fake tree - it takes a lot more tree commitment that I have to buy and transport a real one - to water it and pick-up all that it sheds. Might be less work to have a dog!
When I lived in Gaylord, my driveway was on M-32 directly across from a tree farm. I definitely took the bachelor approach to “Christmas treeing” back then. I took a saw and walked down the drive, across the street and found and cut my own tree. I paid the guy $10 and he asked if I wanted it wrapped. I told him it wasn’t a gift. When I determined he didn’t mean gift-wrapping, I let him wrap it for transit. I confused him again because he was looking for my car, but I threw it over my shoulder and I walked my tree back down his driveway and headed home. There, I found a board of plywood, a hammer and 3 nails and I nailed the board to the bottom of the tree. “Voilà!” Christmas, courtesy of the hardware store! No stand, no tub, no water... no problem!
I have, over the years, become a Christmas tree optimist. A certain priest friend of mine, who will remain nameless, while in college, decided to take his Christmas tree with him everywhere, to spread Christmas cheer everywhere he drove. He mounted his tree to the back of his pick-up truck and wired it so that whenever he hit the brakes, the fairy lights would illuminate.
My great hope for the life of the Christmas tree comes from my early family Christmases. My family had a real tree back then. It was planted in a tub with soil. It sat in the bay window of the living room, which was quite deep. After Christmas, the tree was abandoned in the backyard, in its tub and sat there the rest of the winter, spring, summer and fall. Then I don’t know if it was deliberate, or if my parents forgot to buy a tree the next Christmas, but a couple of weeks before Christmas Day, that old tree, now a stick in a tub, came into the small enclosed porch attached to the house. And over those two weeks, a Christmas miracle occurred! The old tree came back to life!! It proudly grew a whole new set of green needles and turned from a brown stick into a blossoming Christmas tree (do Christmas trees blossom?). So back into the house it came, to adorn the bay window, the star of its own show - “Christmas Tree: The Return.” Christmas being saved, and science having been re-written and all odds overcome, back out into the yard after Christmas went our little hero tree.
And so it went on. The next year, two weeks before Christmas, into the porch came the same tree and new life resulted. The tree did not only survive, it thrived. I remember it easily fitting in the bay window at first and later out-growing the space. My family kept the same real Christmas tree for 10 years! Ten years!
Then one year, two weeks before Christmas, in it came…. And nothing. Poor little hero tree was no more. It had perished alone, sitting outside all year. This time it was too much. This time it could no longer grace us with its naturally abundant Christmas beauty…. and its place was filled with an ostentatious up-start of a new generation of plastic trees with fiber optic branches. It thought it was sooooo cool, but it never met poor old hero tree of blessed memory, may it rest in peace, doing it all the hard way with no safety net or plug in plastic stand!
So what will redeem the Rockefeller tree? I haven't seen it recently but I’m sure it’s looking fine. It’s old-school. It’s real, doing it the hard way, a survivor! But actually it’s already made the news for more than being a tatty tree. Before the tree was raised in place at Rockefeller Center, it received renewed attention after workers discovered that a little companion had traveled along the 170-mile ride to New York City with the tree: a tiny, adult Saw-whet owl that got trapped when the tree was wrapped in netting for being cut down. The weak and hungry bird was rescued and treated at a wildlife center, where it was released, two hours north of the city.
Silver linings: So what’s the point here in all these tree tales. Well, I guess a bird in the spruce is worth two in the hand, or something like that. We may have had great hopes that this virus would be gone by now and life could have had a degree of normality about it. But that’s not the case. This has been a difficult year for all and 2020 may be looking like the Rockefeller tree did. But hidden in the drooping branches and sad remnants of the closing days of the year, we have so much—much to learn—so much good, so many blessings waiting to be released if we look for them. A wise owl clings to the tree with determined hope for the future. Wrapped up, cut down, but holding on. Great wisdom lives with great hope. Life can endure tattered branches.
Someone once said, “in the end it will all be well, and if all’s not well, then it’s not the end yet!” So strap your tree to the back of your truck (not literally - it’s not legal) and go spread some cheer. We can all do something to encourage and remind each other this season of Advent to look for the blessings of our days. This is a time to ready ourselves for a greater and more glorious time when Christ, Emmanuel, God is with us, not only as we prepare to celebrate His birth at Christmas but when He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. St. Peter reminds us in the second reading this Sunday, that we should not be disturbed that this has not occurred yet. We should not be disturbed that 2020 has not been the perfect year. Today, this month, this year, our lifetimes, are but moments in time as God sees them…. “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.” This is evidence of God’s patient waiting as we all work on preparing ourselves for the day of the Lord’s coming, so that when He does come, we may “be found without spot or blemish before Him, at peace.”
I will be taking you with me in prayer.
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You are in my prayers this week.
Fr. Andrew
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17) Families of Parishes:
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18) SJA's Livestream Page and Schedule:
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This week's LIVE Stream
Schedule at St. Joan of Arc:
Monday (December 7):
7 AM - Mass
10 AM - Funeral for Joseph Cueter, Sr.
7 PM - Vigil Mass of the Immaculate Conception
Tuesday (December 8 - Immaculate Conception):
7 AM - Mass
8:30 AM - School Mass (Upper Grades)
12 PM - Mass
7 PM - Mass
Wednesday (December 9):
7 AM - Mass
8:30 AM - School Mass (Lower Grades)
Thursday (December 10):
7 AM - Mass
Friday (December 11):
7 AM - Mass
Saturday (December 12):
4 PM - Mass
6 PM - Mass
Sunday (December 6):
8 AM - Mass
12 Noon - Mass
Please note that all of our masses and events can be accessed through the ARCHIVE section of our Live stream page if you are not able to 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.
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Click on the image below
to download a copy of our Sunday Bulletin
for December 6, 2020
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Weekly bulletin: Sending the bulletin has been greatly received by so many people. IF you are getting the bulletin online and would prefer that it not be mailed to your home, please click on the button below to be removed from the mailing list.
At the same time, if you are NOT getting the bulletin and would prefer to get it, click on the same button and ask to be ADDED to the list.
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Read the latest from the DETROIT CATHOLIC
Click on the image below.
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