This Tuesday is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a Holy Day of Obligation.

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – A Holy Day of Obligation: On Tuesday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a holy day of obligation. We will have a vigil mass at 7 PM on Monday, and then on Tuesday, we will have Masses at 7 AM, 12 PM and 7 PM.

What exactly are we celebrating with the Assumption of Mary?

First, let’s look at the word assumption. The word assumption comes from the Latin word assumere, meaning to take to oneself. Thus, with the Assumption of Mary, we celebrate that moment when Christ took the Blessed Virgin Mary home to himself when the course of her earthly life had finished. Over time and in other rites or Orthodox traditions, the Assumption of Mary is called the Dormition of Mary or the Glorification of Mary. As stated by Pope Saint John Paul II in his general audience on July 2, 1997, “The dogma of the assumption affirms that Mary’s body was glorified after her death. While for other human beings the resurrection of the body will take place at the end of the world, for Mary, the glorification of her body was anticipated by a special privilege.”

Belief in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary dates back to the earliest days of Christianity. The most substantial evidence we have comes not from scripture but the ancient liturgical texts, iconography, and poems honoring the mother of Jesus Christ.

Mary’s assumption into heaven was well established theologically and was part of the devotional life of the Church by the Middle Ages. While the concept of the Assumption of Mary was undoubtedly part of the life of the Church, it wasn’t proclaimed as dogma until 1951 by Pope Pius XII in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus.

Pope Saint Paul VI, in his Apostolic Constitution Marialis Cultus (For the Right Ordering and Development of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary), offered a beautiful reflection on Mary’s role in our life (#57): “Contemplated in the episodes of the Gospels and in the reality which she already possesses in the City of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary offers a calm vision and a reassuring word to modern man, torn as he often is between anguish and hope, defeated by the sense of his own limitations and assailed by limitless aspirations, troubled in his mind and divided in his heart, uncertain before the riddle of death, oppressed by loneliness while yearning for fellowship, a prey to boredom and disgust. She shows forth the victory of hope over anguish, of fellowship over solitude, of peace over anxiety, of joy and beauty over boredom and disgust, of eternal visions over earthly ones, of life over death.”

The University of Dayton has an excellent website dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. There you will find a ton of information about the Church’s teaching and writings about the Blessed Mother. I strongly encourage you to glance through the vast resources available at udayton.edu/imri/mary/.

Mother of the Church. Pray for us! Queen assumed into Heaven. Pray for us!

I am grateful to those who have already contributed to CSA 2023. We currently have $184,087 in pledges and gifts toward our $208,946 goal ($145,751 has been paid thus far toward our total pledged amount). This amount represents gifts from 481 families (we have 3,304 families registered, which gives us a 15% participation rate thus far). We have achieved 88% of our goal! 

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As stated above, the easiest way to give is electronically by clicking on the button below. If you wish to give by check, feel free to contact the Parish Center, and we will mail out an envelope and related material. Generic pledge cards can also be found on the bookcase of the Gathering Space.

Please remember that we will continue our Wednesday evening confessions and Mass.

Confessions will be heard from 5:00 until 5:45 PM in the Sr. Carol Center, and then Mass will be celebrated at 6:00 PM. For those who may be interested in knowing, the Wednesday evening Mass is in the daily mass format, that is, with no music. So, it is usually only about 30 minutes in length.

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.

The Ascension App Includes:

The full text of the Great Adventure Catholic Bible with color coding interwoven throughout so you can immediately recognize where you are in the story of salvation history.

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Every episode of Bible in a Year with Fr. Mike Schmitz for easy access and cross-referencing with your reading plan and Scripture.

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Over 1,000 commonly asked questions about the Bible with answers right in the text from experts like Fr. Mike Schmitz, Jeff Cavins, and others.

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…And we're just getting started. More to be announced soon!

In this week’s Encountering the Word video for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jeff Cavins tells us how we can discern God’s voice during prayer:

First Reading: 1 Kings 19:9A, 11-13A

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14

Second Reading: Romans 9:1-5

Alleluia: cf. Psalm 130:5

Gospel: Matthew 14:22-33

Friends, our Gospel for today is Matthew’s account of the calming of the storm and the walking on the water. This is an event that reached very deeply into the hearts and minds of the first Christians: we can find an account of it in all four Gospels. And the iconic representation in the Gospels shows us the theological and spiritual implications of this real event. It is an image of the Church, the barque of Peter, passing through the stormy times of life.

Cruisin’ with Mom (Part Three): For the last several weeks, I have been sharing about my trip with my mom on board the Viking Octantis for a Great Lakes Cruise. Doing a Great Lakes cruise was at the top of my mom’s bucket list of things to do in her senior years! Our journey began in Toronto, and from there we traversed the Welland Canal Locks and made stops in Port Colborne, Point Pelee, Detroit, Alpena, Mackinac Island, and finally, Milwaukee.

As I’ve already shared, one of the significant items about the cruise was that I was by far among the youngest passengers on this cruise. If there were 15-20 of us under 60, we were lucky. Most of the crew were in their 20s and 30s. We almost needed to establish a “kid’s table” on this cruise … and even a kid’s menu! I’m a very simple eater (chocolate, anyone?), and the options on the daily smorgasbord were way above my usual palette! But I usually had my eye on the massive dessert table before I meandered to the various other tables.

While my mom enjoyed many of the dessert cups they offered, my lunch and dinner standard was feasting on these double chocolate cookies. They were the best! My mom would often ask me to bring one or two up to the room, but that usually meant getting three or four because of what I would eat along the way. And, yes, I would have some “normal” food apart from the cookies!!!! Does the apple crisp, triple berry cobbler, and ice cream count?

But another funny part of this cruise was the amount of looks my mom, and I got from the get-go. Everyone seemed to assume we were Mr. and Mrs. Bugarin. It took me a while to figure this out, but my mom immediately got it! The looks were hilarious, and we both enjoyed watching people watch us as we moved about the ship. Even our daily mail or other communications were usually addressed to “Mr. and Mrs. Bugarin.” Sometimes, to avoid the awkward stare or elevator conversation, I would somehow use the word “Mom” in the context of what I was talking about! When we got this word out to my sisters and other family members, they all had fun texting back and asking how Mom the Cougar was doing!

Now, I have to give a little backdrop to the rest of this story. As you might imagine, I have a ton of black shirts, black pants, etc. While I brought clerical attire with me, I didn’t wear it. And my casual lineup of clothes is pretty limited. As we often laugh, you can always tell a priest on vacation! I have one nephew in particular, let’s call him Patrick, who loves to challenge me about my exquisite line of casual clothes. I occasionally hear him say, “Uncle Mike, you have to stop dressing like it’s the 90s!”

Because I’m me, I didn’t even start thinking about packing until a day or two before the trip. As such, I only had a few of my “90’s era” casual clothes to choose from because the rest didn’t fit … we’ll blame the sitting around before and after my surgery for this problem.

But, during most of the cruise, one little old lady seemed to go out of her way to compliment me on my shirts! After the second occurrence, I thought, “HA, Patrick doesn’t know what he is talking about!” But then I could hear him laugh back at me and say, “Well, she’s an old lady, and the 90s might have been her thing.” But after the fourth day of compliments, it finally dawned on me; I was slow to the party! I think she was hitting on me. WAIT a minute; there WAS a Cougar on board!

A couple weeks ago a lovely parishioner came up to me and asked, “Father, do you know of any Dominican shrines or churches around here?” I was a bit perplexed as to the reasoning of the question, at first. Then, I remembered that this year is a Jubilee Year of St. Thomas Aquinas. Though St. Dominic founded the Order of Preachers, aka, the Dominicans, (his feast day was just on August 08), St. Thomas is known as the Angelic Doctor, the Universal Doctor, and the Doctor of Humanity.

Every seminarian throughout the world studies Thomistic Philosophy during their academic career. And so, we become intimately familiar with this great Doctor of the Church. His best-known works are the Summa Theologica and the Summa contra Gentiles. While the Summa Theologica (Summery of Theology) was meant explain the Christian faith to theology students, the Summa contra Gentiles (Summery against Unbelievers) was a defense and explanation of the truth of the faith for unbelievers.

Needless to say, this 13th Century priest, philosopher, and theologian, has had a profound impact on the intellectual world. He even wrote the hymns that are traditionally sung before and after Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. During my first year of theology graduate studies we had to take a course entitled “Theology of the Trinity” and we spent the entire semester studying ONE SINGLE QUESTION from the Summa Theologica. I remember our mid-term exam was essentially to regurgitate Thomas’ argument for the Three Divine Persons of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The argument is long and complicated but, at the same time, it can be summarized in one word: love. As long as you know that, you could pass the class too! So, what is a Jubilee Year and why is this year special for St. Thomas Aquinas?

Jubilee Year

A Jubilee Year has Old Testament roots. In the Book of Leviticus (25:8-19) God commands that the 50th year be consecrated and during that year slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest. The tradition of a Jubilee Year, or as we sometimes call it, a Holy Year, began in the Catholic Church in the year 1300. You may remember in recent memory that we had the Year of Mercy in 2016 and the Year of Faith in 2013. Earlier this year Pope Francis declared a Jubilee Year for Hope in Rome in 2025. Just as for the Jewish people, a Jubilee Year in the Catholic Church is also a special time of grace and reconciliation. Furthermore, there are indulgences offered during the Holy Year. (Yes, the Church still believes in indulgences. Maybe that will be a topic for a future article?)

St. Thomas Aquinas Jubilee Celebrations

On July 18 we celebrated the 7 Centenary (700th Anniversary) of St. Thomas’ canonization by Pope John XXII. On March 7, 2024, the Church will commemorate the 750th anniversary of Aquinas’ death. The theologian died in 1274 while on his way to the Council of Lyons. He fell ill during the journey and stopped at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova, where he died. His body remained there until it was transferred to Toulouse, France where the Order of Preachers was founded. Aquinas’ mortal remains can be venerated there today in the Church of the Jacobins.

The Jubilee will culminate on January 28, 2025, the 800th anniversary of Aquinas’ birth. Aquinas was born in 1225 in the Italian town of Roccasecca, about 75 miles southeast of Rome, which at the time was part of the Kingdom of Sicily. Many celebrations to be had!

How to Celebrate

Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has extended an indulgence (again, more on that later) to any member of the faithful who visits and prays at a church, shrine, or other holy place connected to the Dominican Order. While there, you are to pray the Lord’s Prayer, recite the Creed, and invoke the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Thomas Aquinas. The special graces offered during the Jubilee end on Jan. 28, 2025.

Where to Celebrate

There are few Dominican sites you can visit in our area, and even more if you don’t mind driving a little further. The easiest choice is to visit the Cloistered Dominican nuns at the Monastery of the Blessed Sacrament in Farmington Hills. The monastery is open every day for personal prayer and daily Mass is offered at 7:15 a.m. Or you could pray Evening Prayer and the Holy Rosary with the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist on any Sunday at 5 p.m. at their motherhouse in Ann Arbor. You could head further west and visit Aquinas College in Grand Rapids. They have a beautiful chapel on campus! Or you could drive even further west… make an overnight trip to Chicago to visit the Dominican run Shrine of St. Jude Thaddeus, who is the “Patron Saint of Lost Causes.” They even have the arm of St. Jude there! (Perhaps a future article on relics is in store too… I’m giving myself a lot of homework!) If you get a chance to visit any of these places, please let me know!

Blessings!

Fr .Adam

When you go to a concert for your favorite band, and that band has been around for a while, what songs are everybody showing up for? The new ones off of the most recent EP? Or the classics?

And when that iconic song kicks off and the fans go mad… what do they want to hear? A modern reworking? Or the original—”just like the album”?

Today, Fr. Mike makes the case for worshipping God at Mass the way that he asks to be worshipped—not the way that we think he should be worshipped. “O Beauty ever ancient, ever new…”

People have joked for generations that, if they aren’t telling the truth, may God strike them down with lightening.

So it’s common enough, when lightning does strike a person, for a portion of our thoughts to move in that direction.

The Detroit News reported a few weeks ago on just such a situation. According to the story, a 58-year-old Clinton Township man was gathering firewood with a friend in a St. Clair County field when he was, literally, struck by lightning. At the time of this writing, the man was still in critical condition, while the friend emerged relatively unharmed.

Regardless of the victim’s truth-telling, of course, it’s highly unlikely God decided to send the elements down after him. Things happen in life, regardless of one’s virtue.

But it is worth reflecting for a moment on the larger lesson in the story, for the victim and for all of us. We all make choices, some good and some not, and God does, indeed, long for us to be reconciled with him despite it all.

It’s just as likely though – and perhaps even more likely – that he’d remind us of that fact in the midst of a calm and peaceful moment, such as in his manifestation to Elijah in today’s first reading from 1 Kings.

“A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind,” we hear in the reading. “After the wind there was an earthquake – but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was fire – but the Lord was not in the fire.

“After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and when and stood at the entrance of the cave.”

May we be attentive to God in both the storms and the calm.

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7:00 a.m., Marie Champine

7:00 p.m., The Intentions of St. Joan of Arc Parishioners

7:00 a.m., The deceased members of the Rogier & Dettloff Families

12:00 p.m., Josephine Lucchese

7:00 p.m., Arlene Moody and Jerald Folske

7:00 a.m., The deceased members of the Calisi Family who died in the month of August

6:00 p.m., Special Intention for Alison Reslow and Family

7:00 a.m., Rosemary Schenden

7:00 a.m., Dr. Edmond Aubrey

4:00 p.m., Robert Swalec, Bonnie Batche, Edward, Helen & Henry Blind, Lewis McQuillan, Mark Bockenstette, Tom Koehler, Joan Weber, Dr. Lori Karol, Martha Guastella and Special Intentions for the J. Champine Family, the Thomas Family, for Alison Reslow, Pam Haisenleder

6:00 p.m., Debbie Albrecht

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

10:00 a.m., Kelly Anne Dimick

12:00 p.m. Roland Doak, Jaclyn Maul, Casey Zaranek, Joan Hardy, Feliciana King, Joseph DiTrapani, Mikie T. Artley, Gail Jarvis, Patricia Ann Loch, Allen Laturno and Special Intentions for Alison Reslow, Pam Haisenleder.

7:00 PM - Vigil Mass for the Assumption

Thursday (August 17):

10:00 AM - Funeral for Charlotte Miller (Read Obituary HERE)

5:00 PM - Baptism of Makenna Jean Miller and Blake Nicholas Bielecki

Friday (August 18):

10:00 AM - Funeral for Laura Barkley (Read Obituary HERE)

12:30 PM- Baptism of Jack Elliott Jarvi

1:30 PM - Baptism of Mia Lindita Brown