Dear Friends in Christ,
Here are a few updates from the parish for the week of July 4, 2021.
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1) Peter's Pence Collection: |
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This weekend, we "take up" the Peter's Pence Collection. Envelopes are available at the Church doors or you could give electronically by clicking the button below. Your gift to the Peter's Pence collection can be dropped in the offertory bins in Church or at the Parish Center.
The Peter’s Pence collection is a gesture of solidarity through which every member of the faithful can participate in the activity of the Pope as Pastor of the universal Church.
“The faithful’s offerings to the Holy Father through the Peter’s Pence Collection are destined to Church needs, to humanitarian initiatives and social promotion projects, as well as to the support of the Holy See.”
Consider a gift of $25, $20, or even $10 to the Peter's Pence Collection. Thank you in advance for your generosity.
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2) Catholic Services Appeal 2021 |
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Dear Friends in Christ,
In St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians, he urges them, "Whatever you do, do from the heart (Col. 3:23)." These words are particularly meaningful since he wrote them from prison, facing persecution and hardship. The faith community at Colossae was facing its own hardships as they strove to live the life Christ called them to whatever the circumstances. Being rooted in the Lord would serve them well as they continued to grow as a faith community, and as the Church continued to grow throughout the world.
The theme of the 2021 CSA is FUEL THE MISSION. The mission is simple, to make Christ's kingdom present in our day to the many people of Southeast Michigan. That mission cannot be fully accomplished unless it is fueled with human and materially resources.
Our CSA goal this year is just slightly more than $217,000. 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.
Your gift helps support men who are discerning a vocation to the priesthood. It impacts youth, family, and young adult ministries to help people at all stages of life grow in faith. It helps Catholic schools continue to form the next generation of leaders and disciples. It helps our food pantries and soup kitchens feed and clothe the poor. Your gift brings Jesus to Southeast Michigan in a very real and tangible way.
You may have already received a mailing from the Archdiocese of Detroit. If you did so, please make a contribution to the CSA as indicated in that mailing. You can also easily give by visiting: csa.stjoan.church or by clicking on the button below.
Also available at the Church exists, in the bins outside the Sr. Carol Center, and at the Parish Center are general CSA brochures and envelopes that can be used to make a contribution to the CSA.
I'm grateful to those who have already contributed to the CSA. We have raised a little more than $41,575 toward our $217,000 goal. I hope I can count on you to help FUEL the MISSION of all that the Archdiocese of Detroit is trying to accomplish in the name of Christ in Southeast Michigan.
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3) SJA's CSA Update as of July 3, 2021 |
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I am grateful to those who have already contributed to CSA 2021. As of today, we have $101,204.29 in pledges and gifts toward our $217,002 goal. This amount represents gifts from 322 families (we have 3,234 families registered). We have thus achieved 47% of our goal!
Here is a breakdown by gift range:
$2,500+ (3)
$1,000+ (21)
$500+ (34)
$250+ (59)
$100+ (118)
$75+ (10)
$50+ (45)
$25+ (21)
$0+ (11)
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.
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4) This Sunday's Readings - July 4, 2021 |
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5) Grow+Go for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time |
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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.
Click on the button or image below to download a PDF copy of this Sunday's Grow+Go.
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6) Sunday Reflection by Jeff Cavins |
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In this week’s Encountering the Word video for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jeff Cavins offers some truly inspiring words to help us have faith in the fact that God’s grace is sufficient for us. |
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7) 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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8) This Week's Edition of TALLer Tales |
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The Great Switcheroo: This past Sunday, we gathered at my parents’ condo to continue the great basement clean-up and to celebrate my birthday and anniversary.
As I’ve written before, my dad was a saver of many things. He loved to save boxes just in case something had to be returned, and he loved to save papers. He had tax records and receipts going back to the mid-1960’s carefully organized and stored in filing cabinets! While I’m putting most of this stuff in a shred pile, I’m still going through things to make sure we aren’t tossing some treasures that might be worth scanning or keeping. My dad even had his report cards from St. Augustine Elementary School in Detroit stored in an envelope. But I have no room to talk! In my “Rome pile” in my parents’ basement, I found articles I wrote during my first few weeks at the North American College. Those date back to 1986! And, of course, the great clean-up takes time because you spend time reminiscing and looking through all the stuff.
Whenever our family gathers at the condo, many first pile their wallets, purses, and phones on the kitchen counter. I almost need a permanent charging station for the phones to save people from remembering to bring cords and chargers. While we have those electrical outlets with USB charging ports all over the place, I lack the cords to go with the different phones. On this particular day, the birthday cards were also mounting on the kitchen counter.
My sister Sandy arrived right after I did; we were the only ones there at the time. She was the first to plop a birthday card on the counter. We went downstairs to meet up with our mom, who was already at work in the basement. The next group to arrive was my sister Cindy and her kids. They were upstairs for a bit of time. We heard them laughing upstairs, but we didn’t think anything of it. They eventually worked their way downstairs. More family arrived, and we spent a few hours continuing the great clean-up. I was amazed by how much progress we made. At 5:00 p.m., I sounded the quitting alarm so we could go to dinner. People were out of that basement faster than Fred Flintstone could shout “yabba dabba doo” at quitting time. We shut off all the lights, gathered all of our stuff … including the birthday cards … and made sure the Bumpy and TCBY cakes made their way into one of the cars. We were then off to Leo’s Coney Island at 25 and Van Dyke for dinner.
After dinner, and just as we were eating the Bumpy Cake and TCBY cake, the kids were overly anxious for me to open my cards. I tried to persuade them that I would do the honors later, but the peanut gallery wouldn’t hear of it, so I decided to open the cards in front of everyone. The cards were opened as they were plopped on the pile … the last was first, and the first was last to be opened (Sandy and family).
I eventually opened the Finn Family card. They gave me a bunch of scratch-off lottery tickets (somewhat of a staple birthday/holiday gift for us). I then got to the Labut Family card (Sandy and family). Sandy was sitting opposite me at the restaurant. I noticed the envelope had been taped but didn’t think anything of it. I opened the card, read it and the handwritten note, and closed it. Sandy looked confused. “Did you see what was inside the card?” I gave her the “like what are you talking about” look. “Look inside the card,” she said. I did as I was told. By this time, the peanut gallery was doing more than snickering, but I still hadn’t clued into what happened. “Look inside the envelope then,” Sandy said. I showed her the envelope, opened it up, and tipped it upside down. Nada! She was floored and confused. “I know I put lottery tickets in there,” she exclaimed to the group. By this time, the laughter at the end of the table was substantial enough to make you realize Sandy was just duped. Now the laughter upstairs when the Finns arrived at the condo and the taped envelope made all the sense in the world.
When the Finn crew arrived earlier that afternoon, they realized Aunt Sandy had lottery tickets in her card based on the raised mid-portion of the envelope. They felt bad they didn’t think of doing the same, so they carefully opened her card, took out the lottery tickets, put them in their card, and resealed the envelope. Sandy eventually caught on to what happened. But the look on her face was priceless when I opened her card! And the laughter from the peanut gallery was contagious as people started to realize what happened. When I initially opened the Finn Family card, Sandy thought it was curiously fascinating that they “bought” the exact lottery tickets! Now she knew how that happened!
Sacrament of the Sick – Part Two: I began this series on the Sacrament of the Sick last week by looking at how Extreme Unction gave way to our current understanding of the Sacrament of the Sick. The change in the theological understanding of the sacrament (namely that it’s not only for the dying) was the work of the Second Vatican Council and Pope Saint Paul VI. Every time I write about this topic, I recall with a smile some of my hospital visits where perplexed patients worried I was giving them their “last rites.” I remember one such visit in particular. After I said the prayers and anointed this one person who was in the hospital for a relatively minor situation, they had a worried look upon their face. Noticing the worried look, I asked what was wrong. With a crunch of the forehead and eyes locked on my eyes, my worried patient asked, “Did you just give me last rites?”
Christ had enormous compassion for the sick. Christ’s many healings were not only a sign that God had visited his people but were a sign of the very nearness of the Kingdom of God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us (CCC 1503-1505): “Jesus has the power not only to heal, but also to forgive sins (cf. Mk. 2:5-12); he has come to heal the whole man, soul and body; he is the physician the sick have need of (cf. Mk 2:17). His compassion toward all who suffer goes so far that he identifies himself with them: ‘I was sick and you visited me (Mt. 25:36).’ His preferential love for the sick has not ceased through the centuries to draw the very special attention of Christians toward all those who suffer in body and soul. It is the source of tireless efforts to comfort them.” Christ was so moved by those who suffer that he not only allowed himself to be touched by the sick, but he made their miseries his own. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that the suffering servant would take on our infirmities and bare our diseases and weaknesses. “By his passion and death on the cross, Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth configure us to him and united us with his redemptive Passion.”
Uniting our sufferings to the sufferings of Christ is often an overlooked practice in our human experience (okay, read this sentence again). It is hard to look beyond ourselves or our own situation when we are sick. Yet, there is incredible value in seeing how our sufferings unite us with Christ’s redemptive Passion. Our sufferings have a redemptive value, and we need to awaken ourselves to such a reality. Next week I will take a closer look at Christ’s redemptive suffering and how we participate in that reality.
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Enjoy the week. Know of my prayers!
In Christ,
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9) Tire Tracks in the d’Arc |
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All for God:
St. Paul acknowledges in today’s second reading, “I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” What tremendous faith Paul speaks of in these few words. Even his weaknesses he can see as being in service to God. He understands that humbling himself allows God to take control, to direct him. Christ fills-up, through grace, what he lacks in himself. It’s an entirely different perspective to the self-sufficient attitude the world tries to sell us today. The paradox of our culture is that while it espouses this attitude, people are often critically dependent upon the esteem of others, so much so that they are not free to act even in ways they know by their conscience to be right, out of fear of losing that affirmation.
A few years ago I came across a poem that was said to be written on St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s bedroom wall. It’s an adaptation of a piece by an American secular writer, written 20 years before her death in 1997.
God will be, and is, the ultimate judge of our thoughts and our actions. The motivation of our lives and our attitude toward others, whomever they may be, should always be to please God, and to imitate Christ. Mother Teresa’s words are a clear and challenging example of what it means to be an authentic Christian, by action and not just simply by name. Here is the poem:
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People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you.
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight.
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough.
Give the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
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When you can free yourself from needing the affirmation and approval of others, and know that you are acting in service of God, there is great freedom there. And then you will find all the affirmation you need in God, who makes it clear that our weaknesses will not overshadow His love.
Freedom to Roam: I do love to travel. I don’t love to pack, but I love to travel. A few years ago while spending the summer out in Omaha, NE, I had the opportunity to travel west a little. I was staying at Creighton University for a 10-week formation program, but 4th July fell on a Thursday and we were given from Wednesday at noon until Sunday night to “do our own thing.” A few classmates (Fr. John included) and I headed out on a road-trip to Rapid City and stayed overnight at the Cathedral, on our way to visit the Badlands National Park, Crazy Horse Monument, and Mount Rushmore, South Dakota and Devil’s Tower in Wyoming. That was my first time in that part of the country and I loved it there.
The Badlands were simply stunning—like no place I’d ever been before.
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Devils Tower was an amazing sight also. It’s a huge igneous intrusion, standing out alone against the blue sky, almost 900ft high. There are trails through the woods so that you can walk all around it. If you are crazy enough you can even climb it. I am not. But when we visited, looking really closely, you could just about make out some tiny dots that were moving against the rock-face. They were climbers. |
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These incredible natural wonders of our landscape leave me in awe. But they move me to marvel, too, at the creator of these places—from creation we see the Creator. St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans: “For what can be known about God is evident… Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse.” (Rom 1:20) Paul is talking about those who, although they know God, still reject the Gospel, fail to honor God and do not give Him thanks for blessing their lives.
We live in an incredible country, one that often appears to have rejected God and the Gospel. Independent as a nation we are, but let us always remain dependent upon the God who made us, loves us, protects us and makes us free to love Him in return. Happy 4th July to you all!
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You are in my prayers this week.
Fr. Andrew
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10) Words on the Word: July 4, 2021 - To Have or Not to Have
Chances are, it was not a coincidence.
A national media aggregation website a few weeks ago put the following two stories adjacent to each other:
“8 Million Households Face Foreclosure, Eviction…”
“San Fran Mansion Sells for Record $43.5M”
The first story was national in scope, and detailed how, coming out of the moratorium on mortgage foreclosures and rental evictions that had been put in place during to the Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people who have fallen behind on their payments are now at risk of homelessness.
The other story, obviously, is specific to a particular home in San Francisco, and provides details on an 11,000-square-foot, 7-bedroom, 7-bathroom dwelling with a 5,000-bottle wine cellar and “stunning views of the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge,” among other amenities.
So there, in stunning contrast, is an illustration of the so-called “haves” vs. the so-called “have-nots.”
The conditions, of course, are on the extreme ends of the spectrum compared to what the majority of folks in the country are experiencing. But both ends are very real. The plentiful end of the spectrum, while it may not be coveted by most people, certainly could be adapted to. It’s the potential of being homeless that is, without a doubt, much scarier. But there is some wisdom and some solace to be found in today’s second reading.
“I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints for the sake of Christ,” St. Paul writes in the second letter to the Corinthians, “for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Weak. Strong. Living in opulence or living on the edge. Christ is there with and for everyone, and our job is to keep that reality in perspective.
© 2021, Words on the Word
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11) Teresa and Deacon Dom's Roman Holiday Marriage Retreat
Click on the image below to learn more about this Roman Holiday Marriage Retreat.
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12) FORMED Pick of the Week: |
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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:
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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.
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13) This Week on St. Joan of Arc LIVE: |
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This week's LIVE Stream
Schedule at St. Joan of Arc:
Monday (July 5):
7:00 AM - Mass
Tuesday (July 6):
7:00 AM - Mass
5:30 PM - Baptism of Mason Thomas Heitz
Wednesday (July 7):
7:00 AM - Mass
Thursday (July 8):
7:00 AM - Mass
7:00 PM - Holy Hour (Praise and Worship Music)
Friday (July 9):
7:00 AM - Mass
Saturday (July 10):
4:00 PM - Mass
6:00 PM - Mass
Sunday (July 11):
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 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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14) SJA's Bulletin for July 4, 2021 |
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Click on the image below
to download a copy of our
Bulletin for July 4, 2021
The 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
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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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