Week of April 20, 2025

1) Easter Message from Msgr. Mike

This is the night of which it is written:

The night shall be as bright as day,

dazzling is the night for me,

and full of gladness.

The sanctifying power of this night dispels wickedness,

washes faults away,

restores innocence to the fallen,

and joy to mourners,

drives out hatred, fosters concord,

and brings down the mighty. 

(The Exsultet – The Solemn Proclamation of Easter)

April 20, 2025

Dear Friends in Christ,

The above lines, taken from the Solemn Proclamation of Easter, known as the Exultet, remind us of the incredible power of Christ’s resurrection. With all the distractions that fill our every waking moment, the sacred liturgies we celebrated this past week provided a much-needed pause to remind us that we must keep our hearts and minds focused on Christ and the power of His resurrection. Staying focused on Christ can be challenging, whether we are just going about our daily activities, dealing with personal or family tragedies, or finding ourselves worried and discouraged as we watch the news. Yet, through it all, we need to trust that Jesus is walking with us and that He will use the power of His resurrection to bring light into the darkness around us.

Remember that Jesus promised He would never leave us orphaned or abandoned. Stay close to Him! Bring Jesus into your hearts and homes like never before. Reflect on the ultimate message of these days: every Good Friday, every cross we bear, brings about an Easter Sunday. We may not know when that Easter experience will shine forth, but we need to trust that Christ will see it through because of His great love for us!

May we be bold like the early disciples of Jesus, who used the power and grace of the resurrection to transform lives. In Christ’s name, may we bring peace to our family and friends. May we go out and bring mourners joy, and most importantly, may we go out and help dispel all kinds of darkness and evil so that the Kingdom of Christ may continue to grow in our midst. There is, indeed, great power in the resurrection of Christ. It’s up to us to use the incredible power that Christ has given us!

Happy Easter!

With best wishes and prayers for you and your family, I remain,

Sincerely yours in Christ,

2) Running to the Risen Jesus

The disciples ran to the empty tomb when they heard about the risen Jesus on the first Easter. Even Peter, who ran away from him and then denied him three times, ran to Jesus.

Do we have that kind of excitement when it comes to embracing our risen Lord? We are not citizens of this world. We are made for heaven, and in this Easter Octave the joy in acknowledging that fact resonates throughout the Church. In our baptism, we became a new creation in Christ. With his resurrection he ushers in a new beginning.

Jesus is alive! With the Ascension, he took his rightful place at the right hand of the Father, but he is still among us in the Eucharist, in his Word, and in you and I.

So take heart and have hope in the resurrection, no matter what you may be going through.

3) When Jesus Stormed the Gates of Hell: The Forgotten Events of Holy Saturday

Everyone knows the meaning of Good Friday. But what about Holy Saturday?

Good Friday is the day we remember that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. The same is true of Easter Sunday, when everyone knows we celebrate that he rose from the dead in triumph over death.

Though it may have been a day of waiting for his disciples, Jesus was engaged in some of the most dramatic and important work of his messianic mission on Holy Saturday – and it took him to the depths of hell.

Wait, what? Jesus went to hell?

It’s right there in the ancient Apostles’ Creed: “[he] was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead…” (It’s also in the Athanasian Creed.)

To properly understand what is going on here, there are two things you need to know:

First, when most people hear the word “hell,” they think of the hell of the damned, the place of eternal punishment for people who do not die in Christ. However, the term “hell” can sometimes have a broader meaning of “realm of the dead” for those who are not experiencing the vision of God.

This broader meaning certainly includes the hell of the damned, but can also include other places. For example, purgatory is a part of the broader realm of the dead but is separate from the hell of the damned.

Second, before the coming of Christ, there was at least one other part of the realm of the dead that no longer exists today, a place called “the limbo of the patriarchs.”

If, before Christ, a person died in friendship with God, they wouldn’t go to the hell of the damned to be punished, but they also couldn’t go to heaven because Christ had not yet made that possible. Instead, they went to a part of the realm of the dead without the punishments of the damned.

It is to the people of this place that Christ visited when he “descended into hell.”

As the Catechism explains:

“Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who had gone before him.” (CCC 633)

So, after dying on the cross, Christ descended to the realm of the dead to proclaim to them that he had won their salvation and to lead them as the first entrants into heaven. Traditionally, this has included people like Adam and Eve, Saint John the Baptist, and his foster-father Saint Joseph.

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4) Divine Mercy Sunday at St. Faustina Church - Sunday, April 27, 2025

5) Next Retrouvaille Weekend is May 2-4, 2025

6) Operation REACH OUT

7) Want to become Catholic? Want to be baptized? Do you need to be Confirmed? Learn More about the Catholic Church

8) Ascension's Bible and Catechism App

It's Here: The Bible & Catechism App!

The word of God and the complete teachings of the Catholic Church. Answers and commentary by Fr. Mike Schmitz, Jeff Cavins, and other experts. Video, audio, and textual commentary. Right on your phone.

9) Holy Hour on Thursdays

10) This Sunday's Readings: April 20, 2025 - Easter Sunday

11) Sunday Reflections by Jeff Cavins

Easter Sunday

Jeff Cavins reflects on the readings for Easter Sunday:

First Reading: Acts 10:34A, 37-43

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23

Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-4 or 1 Corinthians 5:6B-8

Gospel: John 20:1-9

12) Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

Something Happened on Easter!

Friends, happy Easter! Many of you probably know that I’ve spent much of my life reading philosophers and spiritual writers—Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Anselm, Aquinas, Kant, Hegel. What all those figures have in common is a kind of calm, musing detachment as they talk about high ideas. Well, there’s all of that—and then there’s the Gospel, the “Good News.” Yes, the Gospels have inspired philosophers and spiritual teachers, but at their heart, they’re not abstracted philosophical musing; they’re the urgent conveying of news. Something happened—and I need you to know about it!

13) Grow+Go

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 the button or image below to download a PDF copy of this Sunday's Grow+Go.

14) Giving to SJA:

I'm truly grateful for your support of SJA. 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.

15) TALLer Tales

TALLer Tales will be back next week.

Happy Easter!

In Christ,

gmb@sjascs.org

16) Voiland's View

Abundant Easter Joy and Blessings to you and your loved ones! To say we need a little more joy in our lives is an understatement. Easter hopefully provides happiness for you that rises up from your soul. For many people, such exuberant happiness is a hard thing to come by. Understandably so. Hardships do not respect holidays on a calendar. The death of loved ones, illness, employment troubles, marital problems, loneliness, depression, and general chaotic unrest in the world, all cast a dark pall over many of our lives. We could be inclined to let the victorious message of Easter fizzle out in front of our eyes. But really, we shouldn’t. Easter is a light that shines through any darkness.

What Jesus gave us through his coming as a man: his living, teaching, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven is definitive. There is no way to erase his effects. As much as we might be pulled away by worldly attractions, from seeing the beauty of Christ’s life and victory over death, his light never fades. We simply must persist in looking for it.

The challenge that we constantly face as we search, is the tension that comes with being created in God’s image. Living our lives in God’s image is not a matter of appearance. We hear the word ‘image’ and naturally think about an image, a picture. Somehow, we think we are supposed to “look” like God. That is not how it works. Sure, we can look like Jesus. He has a human body like ours. But the Father and the Holy Spirit are pure spirit. We are not pure spirit. Yet we are created in the image of God – all three Persons. How so?

God’s image in us reveals itself in the content of our lives. This image refers to our human souls, which God created to resemble him. We resemble God best when we love like he loves. His image shines through us when we love well. The best love of all is revealed in the feast we celebrate today: Easter – the climax of Jesus’ mission on earth! The only thing beyond Easter was Christ’s return to the Father. There he now stands in the breach, pleading to his Father for us, until we might join him.

The tension we experience each day of our Christian journey is due to a battle between our body and soul. We effectively walk with one foot in heaven and one on earth. And it is a hard walk. Powerfully difficult. The difficulty lies in our bodies telling us, quite convincingly, that the world is all there is. The argument is extremely convincing because, in fact, the world is all that our bodies can know. That much is a no-brainer. But Jesus (and Paul, and the Apostles, and Old Testament prophets, and Church Fathers) tell us we are more than our bodies: Jesus tells Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We are souls who require a relationship with God in order to truly live. And here’s the kicker: our souls are the main ingredient of our human existence, while our bodies, in second place, scream: “No way!”

Now, before blaming God for creating us in such a conflicted fashion, we need to stop whining and realize that God didn’t create us that way. He created us in harmony with ourselves and with the world around us. We are the ones who blew it. In our freedom (that dangerous freedom) we rejected the order God had created. Our first parents freely decided that they could be better at being God than God himself. You’d think they would have been brighter than that. But, then again, are we?

We keep asking this question over and over and over again. Day after day and minute upon minute. “Am I not brighter than God? Am I smarter than his Church? Why should I listen to someone other than me?” In asking, we sense that we are indeed smart. Many people are stunningly intelligent, creative, ingenious, exceptional – but in a human way. When we become starstruck by our own wonderfulness, our Godlikeness, we get stupid – no matter how “smart” we may be. Pride takes over. We end up losing faith because we think we don’t need it. We blindly decide that we have got everything we need – right here in this sack of flesh called ‘Me’.

When we get all stuck on ourselves, we darken Easter. We blot out the intensely bright, warm light of Easter that Jesus fuels with his sacrificed Blood and Body. When we become consumed with ourselves, we pull our ‘eternal foot’ out of heaven at the same time. We wrap ourselves in a place of human comfort where we’ve “got it all figured out” – or so we think.

Depending solely upon ourselves is the biggest leap of faith there is. And, quite frankly, it is the dumbest leap a person can make. It is a leap that assumes there is nothing beyond the material world. It is an extremely popular assumption nowadays, but it’s nothing new. It has been around since the Devil figured out how to lie. And he, amazingly, is able to continually repackage the idea that God doesn’t exist (or doesn’t care, or is too nice), so that “smart” people of every generation are willing to buy it. Hmmm.

My prayer for you this Easter is that you focus on your soul – not on your body. Jesus saved your soul. The body you’ve got right now is not going to make it. Sorry. No matter how much work you have put into it (and God bless you for taking care of it), its days are numbered. If we take care of our souls, God will give us brand-spanking-new bodies that will blow our heavenly minds. Even so, they will still just be a way for our souls to get around – souls that image God.

Be joyful this Easter in God’s great love for you. He wants you to be with him forever. He wants you to walk more and more with both your feet in heaven.

Peace in our Risen Savior Jesus!

Fr. Bob

rvoiland@sjascs.org

17) Ascension Presents: Father Mike Schmitz

Fr. Mike's Easter Special

For this first week of Easter, Fr. Mike wants us to know how important we are to Jesus. When Jesus rose from the dead, the first people he encountered were Mary Magdalene and his disciples—the ones who believed in him. This Easter, because we believe in him, he comes to us first as well, and he tells us to go spread the Good News to the rest of the world.

18) Words on the Word: April 20, 2025 - What, Me Worry? 

Worry, worry, worry.

Conventional wisdom and ubiquitous self-help schemes aside, there’s still a ton of worry in many people’s lives. We know that worry doesn’t add even a moment to our lives. We know that worry about the future robs us of the joys of the present. We know Jesus reminds us that “sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

And yet, we worry.

A recent story on a national study website reported that “an overwhelming 62% of Gen Z and millennial responds report feeling constantly anxious…” and that “on average, people spend two hours and 18 minutes each day caught up in the grip of worrisome thoughts.”

Putting aside questions about the methodologies of such a study, the results are still intriguing.

When do they worry? At various times, but the majority while they’re trying to fall asleep.

What do they worry about? The usual litany of finances, family concerns, pending tasks, to-do lists, health issues, sleep anxiety, political uncertainties and more.

The report went on to say that some people are actually scheduling a specific timeframe each day specifically for their worry, with the hope that it won’t then consume the rest of their waking hours. How sad. And yet how pervasive the problem is.

Today, of course, is Easter. And while the mysteries of Christ’s resurrection are wide-ranging and profound, one of the most obvious benefits should be that we are reminded of how pointless it is to worry. There is nothing that Christ’s death and resurrection can’t overcome. 

“Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia,” we sing during the responsorial psalm at the Easter Vigil. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Israel say, ‘His mercy endures forever.’”

He is risen! He is truly risen! Amen, alleluia.

© 2025 Words on the Word

19) This WEEK on FORMED:

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.



20) 52 Stories: Good News from Spirit Juice Studios

Prepare to be Inspired

Spirit Juice Studios is blessed to work with countless Catholic organizations, dioceses, parishes, and schools. We get to help them tell their powerful stories about all the good stuff that is happening within the Church. Sign up for 52 Stories so we can share them with you! You’ll meet the unsung heroes of the Catholic Church, discover the stories of holy women and men around the world, and witness miraculous moments of God’s grace in everyday life.

In a world full of bad news, these stories will give you 52 reasons to believe that God is working through the Catholic faith to transform lives through His love and mercy. Sign up today!

Warrior For Christ

In this profile video, Spirit Juice Studios tells the story of Knight of Columbus and U.S. Army Special Forces First Sergeant Sompaul Vorapanich. A founding member of St. Michael the Archangel Council located at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Sompaul annually leads wounded warriors on a Knights of Columbus-sponsored pilgrimage to Lourdes.

21) 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.

22) Mass Intentions for the Week:

Monday, April 21, 2025, Monday within the Octave of Easter (White)

7:00 am: Joyce Ross

Tuesday, April 22, 2025, Tuesday within the Octave of Easter (White)

7:00 am: Concetta (Tina) Calisi

Wednesday, April 23, 2025, Wednesday within the Octave of Easter (White)

7:00 am: Thomas Sloan

6:00 pm: Ann Marie Rogier

Thursday, April 24, 2025, Thursday within the Octave of Easter (White)

7:00 am: A Special Intention for Joe Schotthoefer

Friday, April 25, 2025, Friday within the Octave of Easter (White)

7:00 am: Rachel Allemon

Saturday, April 26, 2025, Vigil for Divine Mercy Sunday (White)

4:00 pm: Bonnie Batche, the deceased members of the Batche Family, John & Harriet Armaly Sr., Joan Weber, Dr. Lori Karol, Aggie Guastella, Michael & James Forrester, Charles & Margaret Forrester, the living and deceased members of the Cottone Family, Richard & Virginia Robinette, William Voss, Elio Iodice, the deceased members of the Edward M. Kucway Family, Tena Pizzimenti, Jacob Henning, Marek Hehir, Marilyn Evans, Denis Miriani, John Tokarz, and a Special Intentions for the living and deceased members of the J. Champine Family, and for Marie Stahl, Tom Sheppard and Sam Baur

6:00 pm: Debbie Albrecht

Sunday, April 27, 2025, Sunday of Divine Mercy (White)

8:00 am: The Intentions of SJA Parishioners

10:00 am: Bill Rauch

12:00 pm: Dennis Venuto, Raymond Strussione, Katherine A. Bush and Special Intentions for Sam Baur, Marie Stahl, Tom Sheppard, and for the Rogier & Dettloff Families

23) This Week on St. Joan of Arc LIVE:

This week's LIVE Stream

Schedule at St. Joan of Arc:

Monday (April 21)

7:00 AM - Mass

Tuesday (April 22):

7:00 AM - Mass

Wednesday (April 23):

7:00 AM - Mass

6:00 PM - Mass

Thursday (April 24):

7:00 AM - Mass

7:00 PM - Holy Hour



Friday (April 25):

7:00 AM - Mass

Saturday (April 26):

12:30 PM - Baptism of Thomas John Stefani

1:30 PM - Baptism of Theodore D. MacDonald 

4:00 PM - Mass

6:00 PM - Mass

Sunday (April 27):

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.

24) SJA's Latest Parish Bulletin

Click on the image below

to download a copy of the bulletin

for April 20, 2025

25) Weekly Bulletin Mailing List

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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.



26) Detroit Catholic