Week of February 5, 2023
1) National Marriage Week: February 7 - 14
The observances of National Marriage Week (Feb. 7-14) and World Marriage Day (Sunday, Feb. 12) are an opportunity to focus on building a culture of life and love that begins with supporting and promoting marriage and the family. This year's theme, "Marriage...one flesh, given and received" highlights the one-flesh union of husband and wife that is willed by God. It also indicates the personal self-gift of each spouse, one to the other. These concepts point to Christ who gives Himself under the appearance of bread and wine—as real flesh and blood.
2) National Marriage Week At Home Marriage Retreat
The best way to live out our earthly marriage is to model it after the heavenly marriage revealed to us in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb: The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The Mass is the heavenly marital feast, where Christ feeds us with His very body and blood. This reality gives us not just the model, but the foundation for our lives as married couples. 

Marriage is of vital importance for our world and our Church, and it is increasingly under attack in our culture. That’s why it is imperative for Catholic spouses to do everything in their power to repair, strengthen, and solidify their marital bond each and every day. Yet it is even more important to grow in our relationship with Christ through the Eucharist, precisely because this gives us the grace to perfect our earthly marriage. In each day of this retreat, we expand on one of the seven habits for strengthening our marital union and strengthening our union with Christ in the Eucharist.
3) World Marriage Day Gala - Sunday, February 19, 2023
4) Marriage Resources
For Your Marriage helps couples at all stages of life to understand and live God’s plan for happy, holy marriages by providing educational and spiritual resources.

The website was launched in 2007 as part of the National Pastoral Initiative for Marriage, an initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to communicate the meaning and value of married life for the Church and for society.

We invite you to email the For Your Marriage team with questions or comments: marriage@usccb.org. First, please see below to find out whether your question can be answered by an article on the website or another person better suited to assist you.
5) Retrouvaille - A Lifeline for Marriage Couples
The Retrouvaille Program is for Married Couples Facing Difficult Challenges in their Relationship

  • A Marriage program that helps couples restore their marriage and rebuild a loving relationship.

  • A Christian marriage program, Catholic in origin, where couples of all faiths or no faith background are encouraged to attend.

  • Primarily a practical program to improve communication, build stronger marriages, and help couples reconnect.

  • Presenters are not trained marriage counselors, but rather couples sharing their personal stories of marital struggles and the tools they used to rediscover their love.
6) The Rescue Project - Starting February 14th
Join us for the Rescue Project beginning February 14th.

In this powerful 8-week video series, Father John Riccardo presents the gospel message and Christ's rescue in a uniquely powerful and relatable way. Each week will start with dinner and fellowship in the Sr. Carol Center. Dinner service will start at 6 PM and the evenings will conclude at 8:15 PM.

For those who cannot join in person, there will also be a Zoom option. Stay tuned for registration information.
7) Calling All Children
Come and join our new children's liturgical choir Grace Notes for students from our parish and school in grades 1 - 5.

Weekly practices are on Wednesdays from 6:15 - 7:00 PM in the Church Music Room (off the parking lot between the church and school).

For details and to register go to sjascs.org/childrens-choir.

Contact Catherine Trudell with questions at cthomas@sjascs.org or at the Parish Center at 586-777-3670.
8) The Catechism in a Year with Father Mike Schmitz
In response to countless requests, Ascension is launching The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz).



With this podcast, Catholics will:

  • Read the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church in 365 days
  • Understand the essentials of the Catholic Faith and why they matter
  • See how Church teaching is rooted in Sacred Scripture
  • Absorb over 2,000 years of Sacred Tradition
  • Encounter God’s plan of sheer goodness
  • Transform their relationship with the Church that Christ founded.

If you have ever wanted to understand what it means to be Catholic and allow those truths to shape your life—this podcast is for you!
9) Join SJA's Moderated Facebook Group for the Catechism in a Year Podcast
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!
10) Join us for Holy Hour on Thursdays at 7 PM
11) CSA Update as of February 5, 2023 - WE MADE IT!
I am grateful to announce that we made our CSA goal for 2022! AMEN! Thank you for your extraordinary generosity. At this point, anything raised above the goal will return to the parish. As of today, we have $212,588 in pledges and gifts toward our $211,447 goal ($212,588 has been paid thus far toward our total pledged amount). This amount represents gifts from 632 families (we have 3,339 families registered). We have thus achieved 100.05% of our goal!
 


Here is a breakdown by gift range:
 
$2,500+ (10)
$1,000+ (39)
$500+ (45)
$250+ (104)
$100+ (219)
$75+ (10)
$50+ (85)
$25+ (85)
$10+ (30)
$0+ (5)
 
 
As stated above, the easiest way to give is electronically by clicking on the button above. If you wish to give by check, feel free to contact the Parish Center and we will mail out an envelope and related material.
12) This Sunday's Readings: February 5, 2023 - The 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
13) Sunday Reflections by Jeff Cavins
Jeff Cavins reflects on the readings for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Sunday Readings are:

First Reading: Isaiah 58:7-10
Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 112:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Alleluia: John 8:12
Gospel: Matthew 5:13-16
14) Bishop Barron's Reflection for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends, we are reading from the marvelous Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. This week, we hear Jesus compare his disciples to three things: the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and a city set on a mountain. What do all three of these things have in common? They do not exist for themselves; rather, they exist for something else. How is your Christianity impacting the world around you—making it better and getting in the way of evil and wickedness?
15) Grow+Go for the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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.

Click on the button or image below to download a PDF copy of this Sunday's Grow+Go.
16) 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.
17) This Week's Edition of TALLer Tales
Groundhog Day … Over and Over Again: By now, you know whether or not Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and whether we think there will be an early spring or six more weeks of winter.

Well, Groundhog Day with Punxsutawney Phil may long be over, but I feel like I’m the main character (Bill Murray) in the movie Groundhog Day! You may remember the movie. The plot is about a weatherman who finds himself in a time loop on Groundhog Day, and the day keeps repeating itself. He is reluctantly sent to cover the story about the weather forecasting “rat,” as he calls it, and he makes no effort to hide his overt frustration. When he awakens the next day, he finds himself stuck on Groundhog Day, and he fears he is eternally doomed to spend the rest of eternity seeing the same place, the same people, doing the same thing every day!

If you were to guess what aspect of my life seems like a perpetual Groundhog Day, where would you place your bets? You’re right, with all of our technology!

When I awaken each morning, I foolishly think I know what lies ahead. My schedule will say one thing, but then it’s this or that emergency or this or that technology issue that will derail my day. And when it comes to our streaming equipment and all of our cameras and equipment that make our livestreams such a success, I will spend hours making it work or hours trying to come up with a backdoor solution to get us around whatever issue we are dealing with at the moment.

Now, there’s good reason to be this concerned about our livestreaming. You just have to see the statistics from our livestreams each day to realize its importance in people’s lives. Our average weekday 7 AM mass unique viewers are about 150. That’s 150 unique connections to our 7 AM mass alone. That doesn’t tell us how many people are behind those unique connections. The statistics for our weekend masses continue to blow my mind too. This past weekend we had 441 unique connections for the 4 PM Mass; 150 unique connections for the 6 PM Mass; 221 unique connections for the 8 AM Mass, 149 unique connections for the 10 AM Mass, and 111 unique connections for the 12 PM Mass. For the weekend alone, that’s 1,072 unique connections. The point is that we’re feeding many souls through our livestream outreach. In looking at the stats for this past Saturday’s 4 PM Mass, while the vast majority of viewers were from metro Detroit (along with a few from Fr. Rich’s hometown of Manistee), we had a viewer in Winnipeg Canada, someone in Portugal, as well as a sprinkling of viewers in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. So, when it comes to our livestreams, I’m hyper-focused and somewhat obsessive about ensuring it works and works well.

A few Saturdays ago, we had TWO funerals, a baptism, and then our regular 4 and 6 PM Masses. So it was a typical busy Saturday. For our livestreams, we rely on getting to our parish website to access the scheduling and broadcast controls. If we can’t get to the schedule or that interface, the streaming equipment would never go live unless it were a recurring liturgy like the daily or weekend Masses. And, until recently, I didn’t have an onsite archived recording of a liturgy (like an onsite DVR to record what we are filming with the cameras). Thus, if the broadcast didn’t happen, I didn’t have an onsite copy of that liturgy that I could later upload to the site for on-demand viewing. While I would be somewhat bothered if it was a daily or weekend Mass, having a botched broadcast at a wedding or a funeral with no onsite recording to later upload for viewing would send me “over the edge.”

No matter what I did, I could not, on ANY computer, access the St. Joan website and thus could not access our broadcast portal. Unfortunately, I only tend to find out about these issues shortly before a significant liturgy (and this day, it was a funeral). After a few tries, I went into hyper-drive mode … and as staff will tell you … this is when you best stay out of Monsignor’s way and, by all means, don’t talk to him (although he can block people out in those moments so he can focus). I tried a few of my other typical sites, like The Catholic University of America, the USCCB, EWTN, and the Vatican, but my wheel just kept spinning. Ironically, I could get to places like Freep.com, Google, and the Weather Channel. Soon, I realized I was being blocked from religious sites. My brain was quickly trying to figure out what to do. I wasn’t the celebrant of this funeral, so I could stay upstairs until I figured it all out. I developed a workaround, which was to access the site from my phone using cellular data or on a separate video network we have on site. But this wouldn’t work well for me in the long run as I needed all the controls to be on the same network. But I was intrigued by the fact that the common denominator was that all of my blocked sites were religious. UGH!  

I then sent some panicky texts to Kristine Hass and then to Jasmine and Eric from ITonDemand, who help me with our networking issues. Everyone started working on it right away. Unfortunately, we had too much going on this particular day to run into problems with being unable to control our streaming equipment.

God bless Jasmine from ITonDemand. She paid attention to our liturgy schedule and only worked on the issue in between everything. After the funeral, I went and heard confessions for a bit. I then got a text from Jasmine. “Can you call me? I think I’ve got it,” the text read. I texted back and told her I would call ASAP because I was busy. She texted back that she could now access many of the sites I was blocked from, including our own website and the admin site for our streaming equipment. When I saw that text appear on my watch, I took the first opportunity I could to call her.

Jasmine discovered that overnight, Meraki, the company whose equipment we use for our firewall and router, made some changes to their content filtering. We can block sites that people shouldn’t be accessing with content filtering; the list of themes is simply a series of checkboxes on their portal. But overnight, they added some new “themes” and automatically checked them so that any site that matched the theme would instantly become blocked. And, what was a new “theme” … religion! Yes, religion. I kid you not. With a simple click of a mouse and thus unchecking the “religion” theme, we were back to normal. Well, as normal as normal can be at SJA … until the next day when it would seem like “Groundhog Day” all over again!
Enjoy the week. Know of my prayers.
 
In Christ,
Msgr Mike Simply Signature
18) Tire Tracks in the d’Arc
Salt and Light: This week I had the honor of visiting with a parishioner at her home. She has been dealing with sickness and physical limitations through most of Covid. We had a wonderful conversation and its with her permission that I recount here some of the things we talked about. 

For someone who has struggled so much in recent months, she has such a beautiful perspective, attitude and spirit. If last week we heard the Beatitudes in the Gospel, she is the blessed meek, a gentle spirit. And this week, she is the salt of the earth and the light of the world, bringing God’s light, in the simplest of ways, into the places it needs to shine, even from her own bed. 

I hope that her perspective can be of use to others, as does she.

When I last visited her she was undergoing some physical therapy and was not in her own home. Now, thankfully she is finally home and has some homecare help attending to her. But at that last visit, she was maybe a little down. She expressed to me that she could not go and get her own groceries or go for a walk or walk her dog and she was wondering what God had in store for her in this situation—what did he want from her now?

She reminded me of what I said to her that day, and, I laugh now, of how I apparently said it. I’m not sure if I knew it at the time, but she described my tone of voice at that time being almost like a teacher to a student in school. Addressing her by name said to her, “Did you ever think that maybe God’s mission for you right now is here, to the people who are working here?” She had described to me that there were a number of staff members who although kind to her and treating her well, just seemed tired or maybe over-worked or pre-occupied. She said one in particular she got along well with, but that earlier that morning she had seemed sad or distracted. 

The parishioner told me that she had been trying to cheer up the staff and showing kindness to them. And that’s what I meant—that maybe God wanted her to minister to the staff of that facility—to bring His love to them—to bring light of the world, the light of Jesus. She said that when I said that, and as she thought about it afterwards, she realized that she knew this, but that having it affirmed renewed her conviction and gave her a renewed sense of purpose. 

During our conversation this week, she told me of a number of encounters she had had with hospital staff, several of them Muslim and that she had been able to witness to her love of God to them, and His love for them. She had not tried to judge anyone’s faith beliefs, but rather just to affirm that God loves them, particularly some who had been struggling a little. 

She expressed to me just a wonderful reflection on her own suffering. She said she had been thanking God for allowing her to experience some suffering, but that she was conscious that, and almost felt bad that, her suffering was only a tiny piece of the suffering Jesus had felt on the cross.

We talked about the difference between accepting suffering and asking for it or wanting it. I reminded her that we do not have to want suffering or welcome it in order to accept it. That if God has chosen to allow us to suffer to some degree at this present time, being willing to accept it is not to say that we are supposed to like it or want more of it. But that since we’re in this moment of suffering, that we choose to accept this share of the cross, a share in the cross Jesus suffered, on behalf of another. We use the suffering and allow it to become redemptive, offering it back to God on behalf of another who needs God’s mercy. We can actually name another person, asking that our suffering be used by God as He wishes to use it. We can ask Him that our suffering and pain merit someone who may also be going through a tough time. Jesus did not die on the cross for Himself. His suffering was redemptive suffering, accepted, offered and endured on our behalf, for our salvation. Without that purposeful intention it would have had no power and no purpose. So it is with our suffering. It is without purpose unless we allow God to use it for His glory, however He chooses.

With this new firmness of intention, the parishioner had regained her joy and inner peace. She knows that she is loved and that God is with her. The suffering without purpose may be too much for us to go through alone, but when we are willing to accept this strange-looking mission from God, when we are willing to accept the suffering He has permitted to come into our life, He will not abandon us to it alone. He will walk this path with us. 

She told me that after that first visit, she recognized that there was a joy in her heart and that since then God had given her what she called “a special silly laugh.” She told me that she smiled and laughed at the smallest of things that other people might not find that funny but that she found amusing and that brought joy to her, in the midst of her suffering. And she continued to be willing to share her love of Jesus with others as she encountered them. 

I told her what a wonderful perspective and attitude she had and asked if I could write about it here. (That was kind of funny because one of the first things she’d said that day was that she enjoyed these articles, and I had asked her if she had any ideas for this week because it was bulletin day and I didn’t!) She said it certainly wasn't out of any kind of pride that she’d like our conversation to be told to others, but that perhaps this was another element of the mission God wanted to her to undertake—to help her reach out to other people and remind them that even when we suffer God loves us, is with us, wants us to turn to Him and to continue to shine His Light into His world. 

Truly, the salt of the earth and the light of the world, she added flavor and shone light into my day this week.
You are in my prayers this week.

Fr. Andrew

19) Ascension Presents: Father Mike Schmitz
Are You a “Child of God”?

When we’re baptized, we become adopted sons or daughters of God. We become “children of God”. So… does that mean we aren’t children of God before that? And if we aren’t… what are we?

Today, Fr. Mike explains to us how baptism makes us “partners in the divine nature”, so that we can truly call God our Father.
20) Words on the Word: February 5, 2023 - Light the Lamp

We put our plans in motion, often enough, only to have fate throw a curveball.

ClickonDetroit (WDIV-TV4) reported a few weeks ago on a Sterling Heights police officer who, along with his wife and 5-month-old daughter, relocated just last year from Bay County in order to be closer to family. Shortly after getting settled in – and well-along into his wife’s pregnancy, according to the story – the officer discovered he was battling stage 3 testicular cancer that also had spread into his body, including his lungs.

The story indicated that, given the officer’s relatively young age and health, the outlook is optimistic.

Nevertheless, of course, bills have started to pile up, and the young officer, still in the first year of his new employment, was on probation, a period during which, the story said, he could have been released from his employment at any time. Needing to miss work for surgery and related matters, generally, could have triggered such a release.

However, the story said, not only did his department keep him employed, they organized a hockey fundraiser, which, at the time of this writing, had been scheduled to take place in Fraser; Sterling Heights police vs. Clinton Township.

That, indeed, is how we are called, in the words of the Prophet Isaiah in today’s first reading, to “share your bread with the hungry.”

Such stories are all around us; a neighbor in need calls forth the charity in all of us.

“You are the light of the world,” Jesus says in today’s gospel passage from St. Matthew. “A city on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly father.”

© 2023, Words on the Word
21) The Bible in a Year Podcast by Father Mike Schmitz
If you’ve struggled to read the Bible, this podcast is for you.

Ascension’s Bible in a Year Podcast, hosted by Fr. Mike Schmitz and featuring Jeff Cavins, guides Catholics through the Bible in 365 daily episodes.

Each 20-25 minute episode includes:

  • two to three scripture readings 
  • a reflection from Fr. Mike Schmitz
  • and guided prayer to help you hear God’s voice in his Word.

Unlike any other Bible podcast, Ascension’s Bible in a Year Podcast for Catholics follows a reading plan inspired by the Great Adventure Bible Timeline®  learning system, a groundbreaking approach to understanding Salvation History developed by renowned Catholic Bible teacher Jeff Cavins.
Tune in and live your daily life through the lens of God’s word!
22) FORMED Pick of the Week:
Our parish has a subscription to FORMED, a premier online platform filled with over 4,000 Catholic studies, movies, audio dramas, talks, e-books, and even cartoons for our children. FORMED has content from over 60 apostolates, including Augustine Institute, Ignatius Press, and the Knights of Columbus, with material that is professionally produced, engaging, and solid in its catechism. Best of all, this material is free to you because of our parish subscription.

You have easy access to all of the material on FORMED to support your own faith journey and that of your family members.

You can enjoy FORMED on your computer or on your television with an inexpensive Roku device or Apple TV. You can even listen on your phone as you commute to work or do chores. 

To gain access to all of FORMED’s content, follow these simple steps:

  • Go to https://signup.formed.org/ 
  • Enter our parish’s zip code 48080 or enter St. Joan of Arc
  • Enter your name and your email address
 
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.

23) Hallow App:
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.
 
We have a number of parishioners who are already using the app and loving it (my mom being one of them and she is on the app most of the day). Great for praying alone or together with your spouse/family, Hallow truly has something for everyone, no matter what you are going through (see below for their different content categories).
 
Hallow is free to download and has tons of permanently free content, as well as a premium subscription, Hallow Plus.

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.
24) Mass Intentions for the Week:
Cross
Monday, February 6, 2023, Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs (Red) 
7:00 a.m, Dorene Oster


Tuesday, February 7, 2023, Weekday (Green)
7:00 a.m., Al Rogier


Wednesday, February 8, 2023, Weekday Saint Jerome Emiliani, Saint; Josephine Bakhita, Virgin (Green/White/White)
7:00 a.m, John G. Champine


Thursday, February 9, 2023, Weekday (Green)
7:00 a.m., Karam Karam


Friday, February 10, 2023, Saint Scholastica, Virgin (White)
7:00 a.m., Matt Hunsucker


Saturday, February 11, 2023, Vigil for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Green)
4:00 p.m., Bonnie Batche, the deceased members of the Batche Family, Mark DeKoekkoek, Maura Marquez Mallare, Amanda Baumann, Michael Forrester and Special Intentions for the J. Champine Family and for the Thomas Family.

6:00 p.m., John Frahm


Sunday, February 12, 2023, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Green)
8:00 a.m., For the Intentions for St. Joan of Arc Parishioners

10:00 a.m., A Special Intention for Lindsay Rupp

12:00 p.m., Mary Smooth, Joyce Young, Josephine and Salvatore Ciaravino, Mike Spensley

25) This Week on St. Joan of Arc LIVE:
This week's LIVE Stream
Schedule at St. Joan of Arc:
 

Monday (February 6)
7:00 AM - Mass
10:00 AM - Funeral for Mary Sesto (Read Obituary HERE)
5:30 PM - Baptism of Sophia Grace Jaynes

Tuesday (February 7):
7:00 AM - Mass
8:30 AM - School Mass

Wednesday (February 8):
7:00 AM - Mass
5:30 PM - Baptism of Mila Kimberly Scarfone

Thursday (February 9):
7:00 AM - Mass
7:00 PM - Holy Hour

Friday (February 10):
7:00 AM - Mass

Saturday (February 11):
10:00 AM - Funeral for Cessily Thalacker (Read Obituary HERE)
12:30 PM - Baptism of Marcelino Gore Latorella
1:30 PM - Baptism of Robbie Drain, Jacob Drain and Aiden Drain
4:00 PM - Mass
6:00 PM - Mass

Sunday (February 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.
26) SJA's Latest Parish Bulletin
Click on the image below
to download a copy of the bulletin
for February 5, 2023
27) Weekly Bulletin Mailing List
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.

28) Detroit Catholic
Read the latest from the DETROIT CATHOLIC
Click on the image below.