At their national convention years ago, the Knights of Columbus launched a great website on fatherhood that I encourage all dads to visit. Located at fathersforgood.org, the site offers men of all ages invaluable information and insight to assist them in excelling in their vocation of fatherhood. As the authors of the site state, “Whether you are a seasoned dad, a new dad, a dad to be, or a single guy wanting to know more about fatherhood, this Web site is for you.”

The authors of the site remind us that a Father is: 1) a work in progress, 2) called by God the Father, and 3) “an ordinary man who is called and equipped to do extraordinary things from day to day – work, provide, protect, pray, get involved with his family and be there as an example for his children and to be faithful to his wife.”

Located on the site’s homepage is a featured article by the site’s editor Brian Caulfield called “Household Holiness.” The quick-read article is a good reminder that fathers are called to daily acts of self-giving sacrifice with their loved ones. The article concludes with this paragraph which is an excellent reminder for all dads: “This is good news for us fathers, who seem to struggle just to get through the day and provide for our families in reasonable comfort. Our mission is not to save the world or convert those in far-off lands. Our field is at home, our place of work, the upbringing of our children, the devotion to our wife. Day by day, yes by yes, we can build a life of holiness and happiness, in the small acts of sacrifice born of love, as we lead and serve the ones whom God has given into our care."

To access the Fathers for Good website, click on the image below:

This weekend, we bid farewell to Father Andrew. As was announced a few months ago, Father Andrew has been assigned to the in solidum team of priests who will provide pastoral care to Prince of Peace Parish in West Bloomfield, Our Lady of Refuge Parish in Orchard Lake, and St. Benedict Parish in Waterford, with his primary responsibility as the lead in solidum priest for Prince of Peace Parish.

One of Father Andrew’s greatest gifts is his preaching and teaching. As I’ve often said, he is a preacher’s preacher. So many times, Father Andrew has hit it out of the ballpark with his homilies. He is truly a gifted homilist. I know I am not the only one to share that opinion.

He has also been a joy to have around the office. Whether it’s the cardboar-Dina he created, the app created singing videos of staff, the jokes he would tell the kids at the beginning of the day, to his food opinions with the Veggie Straws at lunch, we would have plenty of laughs with him. He is a talented photographer and a talented woodworker! I was amazed to watch him create that little Church he had in his backyard to all the things he made for the Gala … all out of pallets.

Most of all, I truly appreciated his care for the sick, the dying, and the work we do with funerals. With a parish our size, we have many sick calls and opportunities to minister to the sick, dying, and their families. I never had to worry about calling him when those emergency calls came in. He just went, without question, without hesitation.

Plus, I’m most appreciative of the care he and Father Rich gave me the last few weeks as I recovered from my knee surgery. With their help and constant reminders to slow down and take care of myself, I could do just that, knowing all the sacramental needs of the parish were being handled.

When a priest is at a parish, he touches many people’s lives. The larger the parish, the greater the number of lives that are touched. Sometimes as priests, we never know or even realize how we’ve impacted people’s lives. So, think about presenting Father Andrew with a card or note about how he has touched your life or the life of your family. You can send those cards or notes to the Parish Center or you can send him an email at adawson@sjascs.org.

So, thank you, Father Andrew, for being such a faithful steward of Christ’s mysteries at SJA these past few years. We send you forth with our gratitude, prayers, and best wishes as you begin your next journey and mission as a priest of Jesus Christ.

Msgr. Mike

Father Andrew was notorious for telling jokes to the schoolchildren as they arrived each morning for school. Here is the farewell and thank you video they did for Father Andrew. I thought you'd enjoy this brief 2.5 minutes video.

SJA is moderating a Facebook group for our parishioners and friends embarking on the Catechism in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz and Ascension Press.

You can find the link to join on the SJA Facebook page or click the button below. We already have 90+ participants!

In this week's Encountering the Word video, Jeff Cavins reflects on the readings for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.

First Reading: Exodus 19:2-6a

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 100:1-2, 3, 5

Second Reading: Romans 5:6-11

Alleluia: Mark 1:15

Gospel: Matthew 9:36—10:8

Friends, as we resume Ordinary Time, I want to talk to you about vocations—specifically, vocations to the priesthood. Our Gospel for today from Matthew shows us the call of the priest: to be a shepherd of lost sheep, a warrior against unclean spirits, and a healer of sin-sick souls—one that teaches and preaches and proclaims the kingdom of God. This summons from Christ has been the greatest joy in my life. If you are feeling the call, don’t ignore it; follow it.

It’s Official. I’m OLD: Okay, I may only be 58 for a few more weeks, but all indications are turning to the reality that I’m not only getting OLDER, but I am indeed OLD! How’d that happen? It’s become both a self-recognizable reality and something that’s being pointed out to me more often! And there’s nothing like having a knee replacement surgery to help highlight the inevitable!

I didn’t feel so old using a walker; I just felt like I was recovering from surgery. But something happened when I switched to the cane. I think some DNA re-programming occurs when you grab hold of a cane’s handle. I never went to “cane school,” but suddenly, everything I would see others do with a cane became something I would do. I haven’t been using a cane long, but it sure didn’t take much time before I started enjoying the perks of having a cane.

Yes, the cane has helped me start walking with a bit of normalcy and has helped me keep my balance, but it has come in handy in so many other ways.

While sitting in the little upstairs TV room we created at my house, I noted that the cane became handy for turning on my overhead lights. Because my chair is just a bit too far away to reach the light switch, I never bothered turning on the overhead lights when I needed to brighten up the room, especially for all the Zoom calls I was doing during the first couple of weeks of my recovery. But with my cane, life was different. Sitting from the comfort of my recliner, I would reach for my cane, then move it to the light switch, and viola, I could turn on the lights without any effort. Had I known that accessing that light switch would have been such an essential task, I would have converted it to a smart switch before I had surgery. When I needed to turn on the overhead lights the other day, my cane wasn’t within reach, so I grabbed a nearby paper towel roll to help me with the light switch detail. It worked, but not nearly as efficiently as with a cane.

Then the cane has also helped me with taking off my shoes. Taking off my shoes has been challenging because I still can’t bend my knee too far (although I’m up to 115 degrees now … in PT these days, it’s ALL about those degrees). Yes, I’m sure it would be easier if I just sat down to accomplish this task, but why do anything simple? I’ve become accustomed to using the tip of my cane to help pry off my shoes.

I’ve used my cane to shut a door behind me. I’ve used my cane to put down the door stoppers at Church and put them up again (although putting them up with a cane takes some work; over time, I’ve learned to flip the cane around and use the curved end to help me accomplish the task). The cane comes in handy to move things out of my way as I’m walking around the house or campus and to hit buttons that need to be pushed.

But the other day, standing outside to greet people after mass, I had two funn incidents. By habit and without much thinking, I raised my cane to point to something. Someone commented that we needed to create a “safe zone” around me as I raise my trusty cane. When you add my cane to the length of my arm, the “safe zone” would have to be huge … like a landing pad for a helicopter! I learned that I needed to be mindful of what I was doing because I could easily and accidentally wallop someone with that cane, just innocently trying to point to something.

But after using the cane to point to something, someone … let’s say his name was Ted … mentioned with a tinge of laughter, “Monsignor, you’re officially old when you start using a cane to point to something.” I’m going to claim some DNA re-programming happened when I started grabbing a cane … somehow you instantly start acting like an older person with a cane in hand. It just happens … seriously! I’m not old. Well, at least that’s what I’ve convinced myself. But that cane sure has come in handy for many things!

A Day in the Life: In the life of a priest, you never know what’s next. The question I generally refuse to answer, unless the answer is already “yes,” is “Do you have a busy day ahead, Father?” It only takes one phone call to turn a “no” into a “yes.”

But some things happen in a day that are more unexpected than others. We’d just finished a week of readings at daily mass from the book of Tobit last week, in which Tobit was surprised to find a goat in his kitchen. Tobit, I understand now...

I did not expect last Sunday to find goats on my front lawn, and yes, a cow!

And I did not expect to find a llama eating the tree outside my house! But it was…

I was, however, expecting to find a fire-truck as the summer kick-off weekend got underway.

And so it happened. I was mightily impressed with the fire-truck and, of course, being the perpetual middle-child, when it was clear I wasn't going to be allowed to drive the fire-truck, instead, I took a look at the big panel of buttons on the outside.

There were several very tempting buttons to press and I was being goaded to do so by a parishioner.

The fireman standing by the truck asked which one I wanted to press. “AIR HORN!” I said, it had to be the air horn. He switched on the ignition and I duly scared the horses. Oops...

The person guiding the pony rides came over and ask, “erm… would you mind not doing that again, please.” Father’s in trouble again…

The Harvest is Abundant: This week’s Gospel is Jesus’ summoning of the Apostles, those He chose to be his closest companions in the work of evangelization. Last Saturday, Archbishop Vigneron sent out a message to the faithful of the Archdiocese of Detroit, to mark the end of a year of prayer for vocations to the priesthood. In his message, the Archbishop writes:

We must continue to pray for vocations to the priesthood, to invite and encourage men to listen and respond to God’s calling, and to build a culture that cultivates priestly vocations in our parishes, schools, families, and wider communities.

In this time of Eucharistic revival in our nation, I invite you to set aside time to pray in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, asking that the Lord continues to hear and respond to our prayer for priests. This is an appropriate way to offer this particular prayer because, without priests, we would be without the Eucharist. Let us never forget what a truly precious gift we have been given in the Blessed Sacrament.

Last Weekend’s Solemnity of Corpus Christi and this weekend’s Gospel must be a reminder to us that God provides the vocations—but they will only be discovered and brought to fruition with the encouragement of all of us. We must be bold in our prayer for vocations and in supporting our young people in finding the path in life God intends for them. You are in my prayers this week.

adawson@sjascs.org 

We know this: when we go to the sacrament of reconciliation with a truly contrite heart and receive absolution, we are forgiven of our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. So, if you’ve ever left the confessional still feeling bad, you might wonder… “What gives?”

Today, Fr. Mike identifies 3 reasons why we might be experiencing a lingering feeling of guilt after confession, and he gives us a bit of advice to deal with those feelings.

Finally, Fr. Mike reveals the source of these lingering regrets. The solution is deceptively simple.

16) Words on the Word: June 18, 2023 - In the News

A sampling of headlines one recent day included, among other things, the following:

A man in Detroit was facing several years in prison after breaking into the home of a senior citizen.

State police had closed a section of I-94 in Detroit to investigate a possible shooting.

A Russian missile attack had killed a number of people in Ukraine.

The news wasn’t exclusively about the bad guys, of course, but it does bring to mind a couple things to think about.

First, while the overwhelming majority of people in the world would never break into the home of another person, shoot someone on the freeway, or engage in war against another country, we’re all sinners in our own way.

Each of us, every last person, has chosen and continues to choose to turn their back on the love of God in some way. That’s the reality of original sin and our sinful condition.

But second and more important is what God has done about it. Whether it’s the thief or the shooter or the warring nation – or whether it’s the person who gossips, acts selfishly or withholds forgiveness – God, through the selfless sacrifice of Jesus, has already won the victory of our salvation. We are simply called to offer our lives, actions and being to him.

“But God proves his love for us in the while we were still sinners Christ died for us,” we hear in today’s second reading to the Romans. “How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath.

“Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life.”

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7:00 a.m., Kathleen H. Doak

7:00 a.m., Sister Silveria Conte

7:00 a.m., Lincoln Avery

6:00 p.m., A Special Intention for Mark Moffitt

7:00 a.m., Susan Roland

7:00 a.m., In remembrance—the wedding Anniversary of Joseph and Rachel Allemon

4:00 p.m., Fr. Charles DeSantis, the deceased members of the Batche Family, Bonnie Batche, the deceased members of the Allor & Petrella Families, Edward Mack, Pedro Silva, Shirlene Frech, Katarina Marie Golitz, Eugene Wojcik, Anthony Curreri, Susan Federoff, Martha Gustella, Jan Cerrini, Special Intentions for the J. Champine Family, the Thomas Family, for Alison Reslow, Pam Haisenleder and for Mr. & Mrs. James Belloli on their 60th Wedding Anniversary

6:00 p.m., George and Lucille Bugarin

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

10:00 a.m., Anthony E. Cimini

12:00 p.m., Richard & Virginia Robinette, Jaclyn Maul, Michael Van Oost, Andy Ferguson, Colleen Hemmen, and Special Intentions for Alison Reslow and Pam Haisenleder.

5:30 PM - Baptism of Keegan L. Grove

Thursday (June 22):

Friday (June 23):

12:30 PM - Baptism of Hudson D. Demers

1:30 PM - Baptism of Mason Marvin Ickes

2:30 PM - Baptism of Ryan Paul Hintzsche