This video created by Grace Lutheran Church in Coopersville, Michigan is an awesome video that educates people on what Michigan would be like if Proposal 3 were to pass. This was the video that was shown at the end of all the masses this weekend. Please encourage others to watch it as well.

The Fall 2022 issue of FOCUS was included in all bulletins this weekend and was mailed to all families who receive a bulletin in the mail. This issue has a wealth of information to help you understand the extreme measures that would be put into place if Proposal 3 were approved.

Please click on the image below to download a PDF copy of this issue of FOCUS.

Click on any of the images below to download these PDFs to help you be fully informed about the radical nature of Proposal 3. Consider passing these PDFs along to family and friends.

From Detroit Catholic: The proposed “Right to Reproductive Freedom” amendment to Michigan’s Constitution is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The proposal was circulated and sponsored by Planned Parenthood, and it threatens to change Michigan’s Constitution to make abortion legal until birth and allow for abortions and sterilizations for minors without parental consent. The proposal would render ineffective dozens of laws and provisions of our Constitution that are already in place to protect women, protect unborn children, and prevent taxpayer-funded abortions.

The ballot proposal rides on the violent swell of progressive reaction to the Supreme Court’s Dobb’s decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, and decades of federal court restrictions on state law regulating abortion.

You may have heard some of the claimed benefits of the amendment: “Protect miscarriage care!” “Protect women!” “Don’t take away the right to choose!” “My body, my choice!” “Save Roe!”

If you read nothing else in this article, know that the amendment does not restore the Roe status quo, rather it unwinds nearly all of Michigan’s Roe and Casey compliant abortion regulations and leaves Michigan legislators virtually powerless to regulate abortion, sterilization, and gender transition therapy. Under Roe and Casey, Michigan’s laws required parental consent for minors, required safe care, and limited elective abortion to “pre-viability.” The amendment changes all this and more.

This Amendment was written by the largest abortion provider in the United States. It was not written by you, your friends, or your lawyer. You must read the amendment’s full text in advance. The text of the amendment will not be written on the ballot in November. Only a “summary” will be shown on the ballot, but the summary does not inform voters of the grave legal and medical issues raised in this article.

Our Constitution is the bedrock of law. All state laws in Michigan must comply with the text of our Constitution. By the amendment drafter’s own admission, this ballot initiative changes seven separate articles of the Constitution and “alters or abrogates” more than 2,200 words of Michigan’s Constitution. Please, before you vote, be 100% certain of what you are signing into law.

He’s a lawyer. She's a doctor. Meet Attorney, Daniel S. Hilker, and Dr. Joanne Castillo MD, a family medicine physician.

The Diocese of Lansing asked them to assess some the claims being made by the pro-abortion lobby in the current debate over Proposal 3. That's the proposed 323-word “Right to Reproductive Freedom” Amendment to the Constitution of the State of Michigan which will be voted upon November 8.

For close to 20 years, our parish has helped serve meals at Crossroads. Due to the coronavirus restrictions, we will follow the same process we did in 2021.   Rather than ask for food donations, we will ask for cash donations so that all the food that is needed can be purchased. 

Nov 6th is the date we will be cooking and serving the food at Crossroads. Our menu will consist of chili, hot dogs, condiments, cornbread, cookies, fruit, and beverages. If we have additional funds we would also like to purchase toiletries as we did last year for all the guests that we serve at Crossroads; they were very happy to each receive this gift from us.

Our CSA goal this year is $211,447. Anything raised above the goal will return to the parish, while any shortfalls must be covered by the parish. Thus, your support is greatly needed and appreciated.

You can also easily give by visiting: sja.aodcsa.org or by clicking on the button below.

I am grateful to those who have already contributed to CSA 2022. As of today, we have $188,235 in pledges and gifts toward our $211,447 goal ($181,758 has been paid thus far toward our total pledged amount). This amount represents gifts from 590 families (we have 3,349 families registered). We have thus achieved 89% of our goal!

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled,

and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)

Reflecting on the readings for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jeff Cavins encourages us to walk in humility and remember that God is the one who justifies.

The Sunday Readings are:

First Reading: Sirach 35:12-14, 16-18

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:2-3, 17-18, 19, 23

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

Alleluia: 2 Corinthians 5:19

Gospel: Luke 18:9-14

Friends, our second reading this week is from Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy—one of the last letters we have from St. Paul. Now toward the end of his life, Paul passes on various pieces of wisdom to his young friend, including this: “I have finished the race.” The spiritual life is like a race; it includes different stages, from the promise, energy, and enthusiasm of the beginning to the experience of hitting the wall, where you can’t go on. St. Paul experienced all of those stages, and his hugely inspiring words are for all of us: no matter where you are in the race, finish it.

The Signs Are All There: It’s interesting as we age because you start to see more and more signs of the concrete reality that you’re getting older. Just the other day, one of my sisters joked that she now has to wait for a second after getting out of a chair to make sure all the working body parts got the coordinated signal that it’s time to move! I laughed because it’s also happening to me. Once I get going, I’m fine; but that first nanosecond after getting up from a chair can cast doubts about whether all the working parts got the message from the brain. And I’m cautious about this because of my experience of falling and breaking my foot in multiple locations after moving too quickly when getting up from a seated position when my leg fell asleep during an appointment many years ago. Remember my nice little knee cart with all the Christmas lights? I don’t want that to happen again!

But I had another concrete example the other day that brought home the reality that I’m getting older. So, yes, the signs are starting to pile up.

Thankfully, I have a pretty boring medical history. The few times I’ve had outpatient surgery, I had very little to report to the intake person. I’m thankful I have so little to report! Then people start to question if I really don’t take any medications or supplements. The answer up until recently has always been a big NO, unless you count M&M’s or Hershey Chocolates as medication.

As my dear friend, Arthur Itis (a.k.a. arthritis), starts to make a more permanent home in my body, I’ve finally had to start taking a prescription anti-inflammatory drug. So, for the first time in my life, I now have a daily pill to add to my morning rituals.

As I’ve shared my plight with a few people, I’ve had other supplements show up at my door, but nothing seems to work as well as my daily little meloxicam tablet. That little drug works wonders … when I remember to take it!

One couple in the parish even went as far as saying that the ultimate solution for me would be to cut out all sugar from my diet. If it could have, my head would have spun around like an owl in utter disbelief of what was being asked of me. Cutting all sugar from my diet would close down all my meals and major food groups. Even my morning coffee would have to go “dark” so to speak! I can’t even have coffee in the morning without the added flavored creams (right now, I’m into a peppermint mocha cream … I’m getting ready for the holidays). The thought of having no sugar in my diet seems absolutely impossible. Maybe one day I’d be willing to try, but it would have to be a very slow conversion process!

While I know how well my body responds to my new daily tablet and how much better I feel, for the life of me, I don’t always remember to take it. I’ve even divided the quantity on hand into several smaller prescription bottles, so I have one bottle at home, one in the office, and one in my briefcase. Unfortunately, even with all that help, I still forget … but then pay dearly later in the day. My other problem is that I get to the point where I can’t even remember if I’ve taken it or not. As I pondered all of these issues recently, my immediate solution was to get a weekly pill box duly labeled with the days of the week. That thought made me stop dead in my tracks. A pill box? Are you serious? No, siree, I’m not ready for that YET; I’m not THAT old! It’s coming soon, but I’m not just ready yet. Yes, the signs of getting older are mounting!

World Mission Sunday: This Sunday is World Mission Sunday, a special day when we unite ourselves with Catholics throughout the world to pray and sacrifice for the missionary efforts of the Church.

Every year the needs of the Catholic Church in the Missions grow – as new dioceses are formed, as new seminaries are opened because of the growing number of young men hearing Christ’s call to follow Him as priests, as areas devastated by war or natural disaster are rebuilt, and as other areas, long suppressed, are opening up to hear the message of Christ and His Church.

Mission dioceses – about 1,110 at this time – receive regular annual assistance from the funds collected this weekend. In addition, these mission dioceses submit requests to the Dicastery for the Evangelization of Peoples for assistance, among other needs, for catechetical programs, seminaries, the work of Religious Communities, for communication and transportation needs, and the building of chapels, churches, orphanages, and schools. These needs are matched with the funds gathered each year. The world’s national directors of the Propagation of the Faith vote on these requests, matching the funds available with the greatest needs. These funds are then distributed, in their entirety, to mission dioceses throughout the world.

Our gifts go a LONG way in these mission dioceses. A donation of $25 helps support a catechist for a MONTH in remote Latin America. A donation of $75 provides for the work of religious sisters caring for orphaned children in Africa. Much like us in the United States, these mission dioceses have also relied heavily on technology to keep their communities together during the COVID crisis. All of these efforts take money.

Our donations help approximately 1,200 schools by helping to educate children in some of the poorest parts of the world; they help some 9,000 religious sisters and brothers in formation programs and some 30,000 seminarians preparing for the priesthood! These are indeed impressive numbers and show how our donations go a long way!

This weekend, special envelopes were available in Church for our World Mission Sunday Collection. Please be generous in supporting the Pontifical Mission Society. This annual collection is the Church’s principal means of supporting missionary activity worldwide. If you were not prepared to donate at Church this weekend, you can always bring your gift next weekend or drop it off at the Parish Center. You can donate online by going to mission.stjoan.church OR you can text to give by sending a text to 586-788-1334. Your text should be your gift, followed by the word “mission.” So, for example, if you wanted to give $20, text “20 mission” to 586-788-1334.

Please keep the missionary efforts of the Church in your prayers so that the Gospel may continue to be heard even to the remotest parts of the earth!

“But What Is It?”: This Saturday sees the Church celebrate the relatively new feast day of Pope St. John Paul II. I recently watched a documentary on the life of John Paul II and I’ve been reflecting on how different our world might have been today if the Holy Spirit had not taken this young Bishop from Poland and made him the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church.

Throughout my childhood, I knew no other pope, almost as though the position was not an office in the Church, but was synonymous with John Paul himself. He oozed holiness, a love for people and a faith that was iron-clad – unshakeable. I remember, as many do, watching on TV the continuous vigil being held in St. Peter’s Square in the final days of his life. At that time, I was just embarking on the journey through RCIA to join the Catholic Church and I was really touched by the reverence and esteem in which John Paul II was being held, by people from around the world, Catholics and non-Catholics.

Almost 25 years earlier, events looked very different. Just six weeks apart in the spring of 1981, Pope John Paul II and President Ronald Reagan had both survived attempts on their lives. Surviving these near-death experiences created a bond between the pope and the president. When John Paul II and Reagan met a year later, they confided in each other a shared conviction: that God had spared their lives for a reason. The two men who might have had little in common, developed an extraordinary bond—including a spiritual bond between a Catholic Pope and a Protestant President. Their shared core convictions drove them to confront Communism, which they knew was hurting people and heading toward the extinction of the freedom God intended us to possess. And two or three years ago, a documentary movie called “The Divine Plan” was released about their relationship.

God has a Divine Plan for your life, for everyone’s life. There is a vocation for each of us to find, to nurture and to live out – a way that will fulfill us the most and allow us to live out our lives bringing the greatest possible glory to God. It may not be the most obvious path to follow right now, but that’s why it’s essential to be asking God always, “How do you want me to bring you glory?” What is God asking from you now? Have you asked Him? Maybe you’ve retired and have some time available to give back to the Church and to people in need. Maybe God has been very generous to you in your life and there is a way you can share that with others. 

God clearly had a divine plan for Noah and for Moses long before they understood it. God had a divine plan for Jonah, who, if begrudgingly, still carried out the task set before him. God had a divine plan for all the prophets he sent to speak on His behalf. God had a divine plan for the Blessed Mother that she was free to reject, but her acceptance brought forth the salvation of humanity. God clearly had a divine plan in coming into our world in the person of Jesus. God had a divine plan for the Apostles and they responded so that we heard Jesus’ name. God had a divine plan for the most unlikely of people, St. Paul, long before God called him to conversion.

Nothing God does is by accident; it is all deliberately and divinely planned, but God has made Himself vulnerable to leave the execution of that plan in the hands of weak and temperamental people like me and you. It’s not how I would have planned it, but praise God that he didn’t leave the planning to me. But it’s still up to me to do my part to see that that plan is fulfilled, in my life and in our world. And you have the same responsibility set before you.

We each have to figure out how we fit into His plan and what our part in it is. But without a doubt these days, one of the biggest parts we have to play is our responsibility to see to it that God’s plan to share his life with his creation is upheld and supported. This is especially a focus of the Church in the month of October. 

Right now, we know we are engaged in a fight to protect our children and women against the immoral attack against them that will be enshrined into our State Constitution if Proposal 3 passes next month. No matter where you stand on the issue of abortion, which we know is never a moral choice and is never “healthcare,” Proposal 3 is NOT a replacement for Roe v Wade. Proposal 3 is an attempt to clear the path, via the Constitution, to an extreme agenda that will be able to be pushed upon children through the education system. It will be the cause of gender confusion; it will remove the ability of parents to care for and to protect their children from this agenda. It will remove the safe-guards that currently protect mothers undergoing an abortion by ending any requirement for regulation of abortion practitioners and their clinics. It will prohibit prosecution of malpractice for abortion providers who injure or kill a woman during an abortion. It will allow a child to be killed up to the day of birth, including a partial-birth abortion. 

It is our responsibility and moral duty before God to educate and inform our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, parishioners about the insidious nature of what is being proposed to us this November. Do you want to live in a state with a constitution so clearly at odds with God’s divine plan for life? I do not. I will live here, but I have a duty to do my part to see that God’s plan, God’s justice be done.

If you find yourself in discussions with those who are pro-choice, or are even simply supporters of Proposal 3, do not allow their arguments to ignore the fundamental issue at hand. We must always return to the beginning of the chain. The question to ask is, “But what it is?” 

It’s never a question of rights. It’s never a question of religion. It’s never a question of politics. It’s never a question of legality. It’s never a question of control. It’s never a question of economics. It’s never a question of power. It’s not about men or women. All of these are just distractions. You will notice so often that people begin there, with one of these arguments. The only question to ask is: “What is it?” When you ask and they return to another talking point, point them back to the beginning, to the fundamental question, “But what is it?”

Nobody starts there anymore, because not even science today will reject that what it is, is a human life, in embryo, but human. It will not become anything that is not human and is therefore already a human being, a person. And then nobody can be the one to determine that your life or the life of that fetus or my life is worth more than another or less. If it’s a life, God planned it, and it is created in the image of His own life.

Critics of the Church say that the Church doesn’t care about the health of the mother. The Church has never prioritized the life of an unborn child over the life of the mother. If an unborn child dies as an unintended result of treatment of the mother, it is a sad double effect, but is not to be confused with a deliberate killing of the child by abortion as a way to “treat” the mother. 

God had a divine plan for Emilia Kaczorowska from before she was born. She grew up, got married and decided to keep the child God gave her, when her doctor advised her to end her pregnancy. She gave birth to a boy named Karol. She followed God’s plan. She stood for life and she passed on her faith to her son, who would one day become the successor of Peter and a saint, Pope John Paul II. Let’s be saints who do our part to stand for life. 

adawson@sjascs.org 

A novena is a special way to pray for a specific intention or grace, such as for a loved one, healing, forgiveness, clarity with a big decision, etc. However, they aren’t magic. We can’t assume that God will answer our prayers immediately or in the exact why we ask him to answer them.

Today, Fr. Mike shares with us the right way to approach praying a novena—whether it be a traditional nine day novena, a 33 day Consecration, or even a 54 day Rosary Novena—and what pitfalls to avoid when praying this way.

That’s it! You’re in. Now you can get the free FORMED app for your phone by searching FORMED Catholic in your app store.

Are you looking for a one-stop app for prayer and meditation? Look no further than Hallow. Hallow is an awesome prayer app. Hallow is a Catholic prayer and meditation app that helps users deepen their relationship with God through audio-guided contemplative prayer sessions. The app launched 2 years ago and is already the #1 Catholic app in the world.

To get started, simply click the button above/below to activate your free account on the Hallow website. Make sure to select “Sign Up with Email” when registering. For step-by-step instructions, you can visit this process guide. Enter the code stjoanofarcmi to obtain a discount on individual pro plans.

7:00 a.m., Richard Robinette

7:00 a.m., John L. Joseph, May Ferguson and a Special Intention for Rachel Allemon on her 99th Birthday

7:00 a.m., Joan Linden and George J. Bugarin

7:00 a.m., Josephine Zogby

7:00 a.m., Hugo Calisi

4:00 p.m., Jerry Bodendistel, Julian Ross, Bonnie Batche, Pete & Dee Misuraca, Diane Bezy, Dean Hardin, Alice Czekaj, Stephen & Nancy Fattore, Melvin Dries, Donald Strobbe, Phil D’Agostino, Alfred Blind and Special Intentions for the J. Champine Family, for the Thomas Family and for the Urso Family

6:00 p.m., The deceased Bishops, Priests, Deacons of the Archdiocese of Detroit

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

10:00 a.m., Ed Potwardowski

12:00 p.m., Sam Ciaramitaro, Rebecca Sandoval, the deceased members of the Bryk and Kidon Families, Mary Bucca, and Pamela Smith

Thursday (October 27)

10:00 AM - Funeral for Joanne Zanotti (Read Obituary Here)