Week of April 28, 2024

1) OCIA Class of 2024

2) Seminarian Desert Formation Experience

The Desert Formation Experience (DFE) is an annual 30-day spiritual pilgrimage that first-year graduate seminarians make to the Holy Land.

During their journey, they have the opportunity to experience firsthand the places Christ walked and taught, ministered and lived, suffered, died, and rose again. An opportunity that tangibly seeks Christ's guidance and places into context their own vocational walk toward the priesthood.

Some years may require modifications to the quintessential pilgrimage to the Holy Land. In those instances, the Formation Team develops a new itinerary that nevertheless meets the desired outcome for the seminarians to confirm their lives to Christ with a deeper spiritual conviction of their future priestly vocation.

The current and unfortunate circumstances in the Middle East will not allow for a pilgrimage to take place in the Holy Land this year. In lieu, the seminarians will embark on a "Pilgrimage of the Saints" where they will have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of some of the most prominent Saints of the Catholic Church as well as visit some notable Marian apparition sites.

3) Unique Gift Ideas for Every Baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation this Spring

From AOD's Unleash the Gospel:

Just as with any birthday or holiday, finding the right gift for a Baptism, First Communion, or Confirmation can be a challenge. You want to pick a gift that will be treasured but not duplicated. Sacramental celebrations are not immune when it comes to gift-giving anxiety. The go-to gifts are Bibles and rosaries, and while beautiful keepsakes, they’re likely to be repeated by another guest at the party. But if you are looking to give a gift that is not only unique but also treasured, we’ve got a dozen suggestions for you 

Baptism

Baptism isn’t a valid baptism without proper matter—water. Why not make the holy water memorable? CraftRosariesLLC offers custom glass holy water bottles with tags, ribbons and even dried flowers. There are dozens of options, and some designs can even be purchased in bulk. Why bulk? To share holy water with all your guests, of course!

When my daughter was baptized, she was given a tiny pink teddy bear, which became her comfort stuffy and was lovingly named Nuh-Night Bear. Instead of a bear, give Jesus, Mary, or the Holy Family as a night-time stuffy. I love the handmade dolls from Outrageousmom. They even offer rattles and sherpa baby blankets.

If you like the blanket idea, then check out TheLittleRoseShop. They have many Catholic symbols and saint muslin swaddle blankets and Minky baby blankets. The Little Rose Shop also has beautiful art prints and other nursery décor. My favorite gifts from the shop, however, would be their quiet books. A quiet book is similar to a fabric book in which each page has a quiet activity or puzzle. The Little Rose Shop offers three different books: Where is Jesus?, Mass, and the Rosary. They even have the Mass book pattern available for purchase to make a one-of-a-kind book!

First Communion

Continuing with sacramental matter-related gifts, how about a bread bowl that serves as a prayer or rosary bowl? Yes, the proper matter is unleavened bread, and a bread bowl serves as a dish for when the bread is rising…but it’s the symbolic nature of the bread, you know? Rustic Marine has beautiful handmade bread bowls that are works of art on their own but can also be customized. By purchasing from Rustic Marine, you would be supporting a locally-owned family business that has been working hard after suffering a devastating house fire in 2023. If you like the idea of a rosary bowl or dish but would like something a little less rustic, check out ClareyClayworks. Her handmade and customizable trinket dishes are a great gift option for any sacrament.

I know what my children loved when they were of First Communion age—pop-its. Gather and Pray has Sacraments of Initiation pop-its and pop-it rosaries. Yes, a pop-it rosary that allows communicants to “pop” each decade’s rosary bubble. I showed my kids, and they asked me to buy them one!

Once a child has become one with Christ through the gift of the Eucharist, they are on their way to being joyful missionary disciples! A small custom cross money bank or piggy bank could be used to help your little disciple practice almsgiving.

Finally, a great gift option for a first communicant would be a custom night light. Not only does a night light ease the fears of the dark, but it also reminds children that Jesus is the light of the world! There are many great options out there. However, my favorites were this night light with name and date, this one with a Bible verse and for the princess in your life, a flower cross.

Confirmation

Teenagers are difficult to shop for, and sure, it is easy to simply slip some cash in a card and call it a day. Yet, nothing compares to getting a genuine smile out of a teenager opening a gift they weren’t expecting and love! The Little Catholic specializes in fine jewelry and their pieces are lovely. The saint cuff links were a favorite for young men and the dainty jewelry scapulars and saint necklaces make great options for young women.

If you want to inspire your teen to build a prayer space, PaxBeloved has beautiful digital art prints. Her designs are contemporary which makes them approachable and loved by all ages. To really deck out a prayer space, The Catholic Woodworker has small handcrafted home altars.

The most teenager-approved gifts would have to be anything that deals with technology or music. SJCantius has over 1000 items to gift, but what really caught my attention were their Catholic phone cases. What makes the site unique is the variety of both iPhone and Samsung cases. If your confirmandi wears an Apple watch, give an Apple band like this Philippians 4:13 or John 3:16 design. Finally, if your confirmandi loves to play guitar, this custom guitar pick and pick box would make a wonderful gift!

Read the Original Article HERE

4) Ascension's Bible and Catechism App

5) Holy Hour on Thursdays

6) This Sunday's Readings: April 28, 2024 - The Fifth Sunday of Easter

7) Sunday Reflections by Jeff Cavins

Fifth Sunday of Easter

In this week’s Encountering the Word video for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Jeff Cavins discusses how we are nothing if we are separated from Christ because he is the vine and we are the branches. The readings are:

First Reading: Acts 9:26-31

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32

Second Reading: 1 John 3:18-24

Alleluia: John 15:4A, 5B

Gospel: John 15:1-8

8) Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

It’s Time for Some Pruning



Friends, the Lord Jesus Christ is not a teacher from a distant age, not someone from long ago we remember fondly, not a moral exemplar; rather, he is a field of force. We don’t just listen to him or imitate him; we live in him. Our Gospel for this Fifth Sunday of Easter gives us one of the most beautiful and powerful images for this truth: Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. But there is a dark side to this wonderful organic imagery: the Father is the vine grower, and he is going to prune away all that is in us that is preventing the life of Christ from manifesting itself

9) Grow+Go

10) Giving to SJA:

I'm truly grateful for all of 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.

11) TALLer Tales

Stressin’ Out the Monsignor (Part TWO): Last week, I began to share some of the IT nightmares I was dealing with in Manistee as I desperately tried to get everything connected and readied to stream the scripture service and funeral Mass for the sister of Fr. Rich. Sadly, we were at the parish just six months earlier for the funeral of Fr. Rich’s mom, so I knew the territory and what to bring. 

As I shared last week, I was rather frustrated because I couldn’t get a decent internet connection. The parish offices were across the street, and while I had all the needed equipment, something wasn’t working quite right. After I left the gathering in the hotel lobby on Sunday night, my mom and I went up to our room, and I called it quits for the night. I had researched things to death to find an answer, but I wasn’t coming up with anything that would be helpful. I figured I needed a good night’s sleep and would continue worrying in the morning.

On Sunday evening, as they were turning off the lights in the Church, I made arrangements with the funeral director, pastor, and business manager to meet me at 8:00 a.m. on Monday. They were all kind enough to know it was an “all hands on deck” reality to help me do whatever was needed to make it happen, and they were all on board to help. The streaming of the scripture service on Sunday was very choppy and had all kinds of sound issues. Based on the reports I was getting from people back home, many people watching the scripture service thought it was their connection. In reality, it was my connection and, thus, my fault in the end. Somehow, it always ends up being my fault! Knowing many were relying on my efforts to be able to watch the funeral, I was going to do all that I could to make it happen.

As planned, everyone met me on Monday morning. My first order of business was to reboot this building-to-building wireless bridge. This equipment has a transmitter and receiver, creating a secure wireless bridge from one building to the next. It drove me up the wall the night before because all the settings appeared correct, but nothing worked.

I was hyper-focused on this building-to-building bridge. It was supposed to be “plug and play,” but it was hardly anything but plug and play. The lights showed I had them connected, but internet traffic wasn’t flowing.

In the middle of messing around with all of this stuff, I walked into the parish offices again, and the secretary and a few other staff were baffled because they couldn’t connect to the internet. It wasn’t happening to everyone, but only those who relied on a wired connection. Lights started going off in my head. This was an essential piece of information to my puzzle. There was something much bigger going on here than just with my stuff. As all this was happening, the associate pastor, Fr. Mike, arrived and jumped into the ring to help diagnose what was happening. Like I am to SJA, Fr. Mike is their hands-on tech person at the parish. He then revealed a hugely significant piece of information. “You know,” he started to say, “our IT person was here on Friday, and he told me he changed a few settings on the router. I’m starting to think this is our issue. Ever since then, we’ve had these intermittent connection problems.” “WHAT,” I shouted in my head as if I was speaking on a PA system at Ford Field! I was like a deer in headlights and a person who wanted to scream. I was 30 minutes before going live with the rosary at 10:00 a.m. This little bit of information was absolutely key.

My attention then turned to their internet modem. I went down into their network closet and started to reboot their equipment. I rewired a few things to bypass their network and allow my building-to-building equipment to be the only connection on the modem. At this point, I figured I would deal with getting their campus back up and running after the funeral. I “ran” back to the Church and rebooted everything there. Most of the choir was already in the choir loft by this time. And now, I was working around not only wires and equipment but also people who wanted to say hello and people who wanted to help. I quickly plastered on my happy face, but I wanted to find my “invisible” pills! As we know, Monsignor doesn’t always do so well around people when his technology isn’t working!!

I waited a painful 3 minutes for everything to come back online, but I still wasn’t getting to the outside world. It was time to ditch the building to building bridge. It was now 9:45 a.m., and I only had 15 minutes to come up with a solution.

For a few minutes, I wondered if I had enough internet cable to hard wire my equipment over to the parish offices. But then I remembered that anyone with a wired connection at the parish offices couldn’t get to the outside world. So that idea got flushed.

I then started to canvas the neighborhood and wondered if any neighbor might allow an old, and now frantic, Monsignor to run his internet wires from the Church into their home internet system. At this point, I figured it would take too long to explain myself, so I ditched that idea. I had only one idea left: to use my Verizon hotspot. But I had a problem. When I used that hotspot the night before for the scripture service, the signal strength was only 1 bar, and the connection kept going from a 5G signal to a 4LTE signal, which I’m sure was causing my intermittent and poor streaming performance. I now only had a few minutes to make SOMETHING happen.

It then dawned on me. Maybe if I put my hotspot near or outside the stained glass window I was working from in the stairwell going up to the choir loft (where I initially put my wireless bridge equipment), the signal strength would be better. So, I gathered all the wires I needed and literally dangled the hotspot outside this stained glass window. I just hoped and prayed it wouldn’t disconnect and fall. I turned everything back on, and my streaming equipment showed I had a connection to the outside world. ALLELUIA! I ran back to the streaming table where Dina was waiting to take control of the cameras. The sound issue was gone. ALLELUIA! People back home were getting a good streaming feed, and everything appeared to be working as best as it was going to. ALLELUIA! The rosary began, and I started to say my own prayers over all my equipment. I gathered my vestments, gave a thumbs up to Dina, turned around and smiled to the choir, and ran downstairs to join Fr. Rich and Fr. Adam for the funeral mass as if nothing ever happened upstairs! No one would ever know until I wrote my article! By the grace of God, it all worked! Blessed be God! But I was one stressed-out Monsignor!

Enjoy the week. Know of my prayers!

gmb@sjascs.org

12) Along the Way with Father Adam

Heaven on Earth  

We know, of course, that the Church – through the sacraments and through its magisterial teaching – is our access and pathway to heaven. We also know that the Church – because it operates here on Earth – is subject to all of the imperfections and messiness of our human condition.

And so when the Church works to provide guidance and teaching on topics, controversial or otherwise, there’s always a chance for disagreements or hurt feelings.

Consider, for example, the 20-page document issued earlier this month by the Vatican that addressed contemporary issues ranging from surrogacy and abortion to euthanasia and gender ideologies.

Regardless of one’s personal beliefs on those topics, it should be noted that the document attempts to stress balance and is rooted in the fundamental dignity of all people.

It’s also noteworthy that some critics immediately voiced dissent and said certain parts of the document could be “hurtful (and) dangerously ignorant,” according to one story on the topic reported by the Associated Press.

And so, of course, people on both sides of all these issues will need to continue to attempt to engage in respectful dialogue.

We might take as our example the history of the early church, a glimpse of which is provided in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

“The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace,” we hear, despite the fact that some people had tried to kill St. Paul in Jerusalem. “It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.”

It’s an explanation mark on why we need to stay together in worship, as we pray in today’s psalm response: “I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people”

Blessings!

Fr. Adam

anowak@sjascs.org

13) Ascension Presents: Father Mike Schmitz

A Message to Cradle Catholics

A question to anyone who is thinking about rejecting Jesus (or has accepted him for that matter): have you even met him? Do you know who you are rejecting?

You might think the answer is yes. The answer might even be yes. But Fr. Mike has something that every single one of us needs to consider before deciding whether or not to stick by Jesus and his Church.

14) Words on the Word: April 28, 2024 - Heaven on Earth

We know, of course, that the Church – through the sacraments and through its magisterial teaching – is our access and pathway to heaven. We also know that the Church – because it operates here on Earth – is subject to all of the imperfections and messiness of our human condition.

And so when the Church works to provide guidance and teaching on topics, controversial or otherwise, there’s always a chance for disagreements or hurt feelings.

Consider, for example, the 20-page document issued earlier this month by the Vatican that addressed contemporary issues ranging from surrogacy and abortion to euthanasia and gender ideologies.

Regardless of one’s personal beliefs on those topics, it should be noted that the document attempts to stress balance and is rooted in the fundamental dignity of all people.

It’s also noteworthy that some critics immediately voiced dissent and said certain parts of the document could be “hurtful (and) dangerously ignorant,” according to one story on the topic reported by the Associated Press.

And so, of course, people on both sides of all these issues will need to continue to attempt to engage in respectful dialogue.

We might take as our example the history of the early church, a glimpse of which is provided in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

“The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace,” we hear, despite the fact that some people had tried to kill St. Paul in Jerusalem. “It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.”

It’s an explanation mark on why we need to stay together in worship, as we pray in today’s psalm response: “I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.”

© 2024 Words on the Word

15) This WEEK on FORMED:

16) 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!

Running For Grace:

Trever Miller

In this profile video, major league baseball player Trever Miller recounts his faith journey and its impact on his family. One night, God spoke to Trever and told him to “run,” propelling him to participate in marathons with his daughter, Grace. This action helped the family build a stronger spiritual foundation, which was solidified further when Trever joined the Knights of Columbus family.

17) Hallow App:

18) SJA's Garden Angels are looking for Volunteers

19) Mass Intentions for the Week:

Monday, April 29, 2024, Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of he Church (White) 

7:00 am, Special Intention for St. Vincent DePaul @SJA, 

Tuesday, April 30, 2024, Easter Weekday Saint Pius V, Pope (White/White)

7:00 am, Richard Calvin Rich 

Wednesday, May 1, 2024, Easter Weekday; Saint Joseph the Worker (White/White)

7:00 am, Special Intention for Frank and Monica Fazi

6:00 pm, Special Intention for Sally McCarthy

Thursday, May 2, 2024, Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church (White)

7:00 am, Marlina Sunga

Friday, May 3, 2024, Saints Philip and James, Apostles (Red)

7:00 am, Special Intention for Dr. Keith Khalil

Saturday, May 4, 2024, Vigil for the Sixth Sunday of Easter (White)

4:00 pm, Bonnie Batche, John Richardson, Karam Karam, Donna Everett, Barbara DelGrosso, and Special Intentions for the First Communicants, the J. Champine Family, the Thomas Family, for Alison Reslow, Pam Haisenleder, Lorraine Jonas, Linda Frank and Prayerful Appreciation for the work of the Priests and Staff of St. Joan of Arc

6:00 pm, Karen McMahon

Sunday, May 5, 2024, Sixth Sunday of Easter (White)

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

10:00 am, Special Intention for the DeKutoski Family

12:00 pm Sr. Margaret Moran, O.P., Samson deLeon, Mary Hobig, Vincent Troia and Special Intentions for Alison Reslow, Pam Haisenleder, Lorraine Jonas, and Linda Frank

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

This week's LIVE Stream

Schedule at St. Joan of Arc:

Monday (April 29)

7:00 AM - Mass

Tuesday (April 30):

7:00 AM - Mass

Wednesday (May 1):

7:00 AM - Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Anthony Comito

6:00 PM - Mass

Thursday (May 2):

7:00 AM- Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Nancy Gehrke (Read Obituary HERE)

7:00 PM - Holy Hour

Friday (May 3):

7:00 AM - Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Benedetto Fazio

1:00 PM - Grandparents' Day Mass

Saturday (May 4):

10:00 AM - Baptism of Luca Alonso Medina

1:00 PM - First Communion Mass

4:00 PM - Mass

6:00 PM - Mass

Sunday (May 5):

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.

21) SJA's Latest Parish Bulletin

Click on the image below

to download a copy of the bulletin

for April 28, 2024

22) Weekly Bulletin Mailing List

23) Detroit Catholic