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 3,300 families registered, which gives us a 15% participation rate thus far). We have achieved 88% of our goal! 

$2,500+ (11)

$1,000+ (28)

$500+ (37)

$250+ (77)

$100+ (207)

$75+ (7)

$50+ (56)

$25+ (40)

$10+ (16)

$1+ (2)

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.

The full text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church with The Foundations of Faith color-coding built in.

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

Every released episode of the Catechism in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz so you can easily stay on top of your daily readings.

Summaries, the exact wording of Fr. Mike’s daily prayers, and extra content for every single episode of Bible in a Year.

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.

An interactive reading plan for both podcasts that tracks your progress.

Notes and bookmarks so you can quickly pick up where you left off and write down your reflections and prayers along the way.

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

In this week’s Encountering the Word video, Jeff Cavins shows how the Transfiguration of the Lord is connected to the Exodus of the Israelites. The readings are:

First Reading: Deuteronomy 7:9-10, 13-14

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 97:1-2, 5-6, 9

Second Reading: 2 Peter 1:16-19

Alleluia: Matthew 17:5C

Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9

Friends, it’s a wonderful grace that the Feast of the Transfiguration this year falls on Sunday. The first reading the Church gives us from the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel might strike you as curious, but it’s very apropos. Daniel has a vision of four beasts rising from the sea, symbolic of four worldly kingdoms, each one being destroyed in preparation for a final kingdom—the kingdom of God. In Jesus’ time, they read these four kingdoms as Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. If you think this is just wild speculation that had nothing to do with Jesus, think again

Cruisin’ with Mom (Part Two): In last week’s edition of TALLer Tales, I shared that I accompanied my mom on a Great Lakes Cruise on board the Viking Octantis. Doing a Great Lakes cruise was at the top of my mom’s bucket list of things to do in her senior years! I’ve never been on a cruise or heard of Viking Cruises before, but I was super impressed by the whole experience.

As I mentioned last week, when I boarded the bus from the airport to the ship, I noted I was among the youngest. That trend indeed continued once I got on board the Octantis. We were lucky if there were 15-20 people under 60 of the 378 passengers. I felt young … until I had to pop some Tylenol because my knee and/or feet were asking for some relief!

I need to give you a little backstory for today’s article. Several weeks before our trip, my mom went on the hunt for a combination walker/wheelchair-type device. We wanted something portable that could serve as a walker when she needed it but then could turn into something I could push her around (like a transport chair or a smaller wheelchair). She came across something on Amazon that fit the bill to a tee. It was a rollator/walker by Vocic, and it came in handy. When she was too tired to walk, attaching the “feet” and turning it into a transporter-type chair was simple.

Because our family often travels together, I’m accustomed to listening to my mom and sisters chat with other women about their hair, shoes, clothes, etc. It could be a random person passing by, and suddenly, a conversation ensues about shoes or whatever. I often roll my eyes, hoping the conversation will come to a close so we can go on with the journey.

Things were different on the Octantis. As I wandered the ship with my mom, there wasn’t any talk about shoes, clothes, or hair. The talk of the town was about my mom’s rollator. Whether walking to a meal or just meandering around the ship, we had many looks, comments, and questions about the rollator. Several times, I gave a demo to the curious onlooker. We even had one wife catch me after her husband looked at my mom’s rollator and told us she could use some help to convince her husband to buy one. I gave it the college try anytime I ran into them. Suddenly I felt like the official Vocic Rollator Salesperson on board! There was NO DOUBT I had the right clientele on board to show off this fancy rollator.

Our Great Lakes cruise started in Toronto. I’m not sure I would have ever found the dock had we not been driven there. One thing I learned about our Great Lakes Cruise is that many of the ports are still trying to play catch up with how to deal with a cruise ship … even a small one. The Octantis and its twin sister ship, the Polaris, are relatively small. They both were built in 2022. They hold 378 guests and 256 crew. Their length is 665 feet, with a beam of 77 feet. They are listed as a Polar Class 6 vessel (meaning they can operate in summer/autumn in medium first-year ice up to 4 ft). These expedition vessels go down to Antarctica and are well equipped to deal with ice and polar temperatures!

But back to the docks. The only first-class dock was in Detroit, where we docked in front of the Ren Cen on the Riverwalk. That was fascinating. The other docks in Toronto and Milwaukee were old freighter docks in the middle of nowhere! We anchored in a bay or just outside the port of all our other destinations and used one of the four onboard tenders to be shuttled to port (more on the tenders later … they were fascinating).

After setting sail from Toronto on day one, we spent that evening and most of the night traversing the Welland Canal Locks. That was a fascinating experience all in itself! But I was certainly settling in with my new role as one of the “younger kids” on board the mighty Octantis.

To be continued.

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 on their face. Noticing the anxious 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?”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers some great insights into the sacrament’s foundation in the economy of salvation. It states that illness and suffering have always been great problems confronting human life. We experience powerlessness, limitation, and finitude in our illness and sufferings. Illness can lead to anguish, despair, and sometimes anger toward God.

Amazingly though, an illness can provoke a search for God (as one tries to figure out why God would bring about an illness) and ultimately a return to him (as one turns to him for strength and consolation in the midst of the illness). In the Old Testament, illness often becomes a way to conversion. The Old Testament person often laments the illness before God but also turns to God for healing. The prophet Isaiah suggests (and this becomes important for the New Testament’s understanding of illness) that suffering can have a redemptive value.

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.”

I’ll share more about the redemptive value of human illness next week.

Do you remember the first time you ever left the country? And yes, going over the bridge to Canada does count! But what about the first time you traveled outside of North America, if you have been blessed enough to be able to do so? For me, it was with a group of youth and young adults as we traveled to World Youth Day (WYD) in Madrid, Spain in 2011. We began our experience, however, with a pre-trip to Rome. We spent three days in Rome before traveling to Toledo (Spain) and then to Madrid.

I will admit, I was a little nervous traveling that far for the first time. But I guarantee that I was not nearly as nervous as my mother must have been! Nonetheless, it was an exhausting and life-changing experience. I had just finished my sophomore year of college at the University of Detroit Mercy and had an inkling that God was calling me to be a priest. Seeing so many young people gathered together, and so many young, enthusiastic priests, made me feel like our faith is “cool.”

There were sisters and brothers and priests and young people all over the city. There were participants from all across the world, including many groups of young people from countries where Christians are often persecuted for their beliefs. Yes, the excitement was palpable. Each day we gathered in common language groups for Catechesis.

But the entire experience culminated with an evening vigil, followed by Mass with Pope Benedict XVI. The overnight vigil of Eucharistic adoration was at an airfield. (All of those little dots in the picture are people!) It was summer, in Spain – temperatures reached well over 100 degrees. It was so hot and so many people were passing out that the airport brought out their firetrucks and sprayed the crowd to cool us down. While the temporary relief was wonderful, you can imagine what a mess it also made!

Because, ... Then the storms came. It poured down rain. Thunder echoed throughout the airfield. Two million people watched the lightening fly through the sky. Supposedly Pope Benedict was advised to leave three times due to the storm, but he refused because of his desire to be with us, the youth. His zucchetto (little white skull cap) flew away; his notes, nowhere to be found. But how did he reassure the group of pilgrims? “Our faith is greater than the rain.” It was a moving experience, to say the least, and it was pivotal in increasing my desire to become a priest.

At this moment, there are several million young people gathered in Lisbon, Portugal for World Youth Day 2023. And my prayer for them is that they have had an even more powerful encounter with the Lord than I previously experienced.

World Youth Day was the invention of Pope John Paul II. In 1984, the Pope decided to organize a gathering on Palm Sunday, in Rome, to celebrate the Youth Jubilee of the Holy Year of Redemption 1983-1984. Sixty thousand pilgrims were expected, however 250 thousand young people from different countries around the world attended the event.  

The experience was so meaningful for the entire Church that the Holy Father decided to repeat the celebration the next year. In this gathering, 300 thousand young pilgrims were distributed among the churches of the city for moments of prayer and catechesis, followed by a gathering in Saint Peter’s Square to participate in the celebration with the Pope. This same year, 1985, John Paul II announced the institution of World Youth Day.  

Addressing the College of Cardinals and the Roman Curia, the Pope explained the creation of WYD as follows: “All young people must feel accompanied by the Church: that is why the whole Church, in union with the Successor of Peter, feels more committed, at a worldwide level, to the youth of today, their concerns and requests, their openness and hopes, to respond to their aspirations, passing on the certainty that is Christ, the Truth that is Christ, the love that is Christ, through an appropriate development process.”

Since then, World Youth Day has been held all over the world: Rome, Manila, Toronto, Madrid, Denver, Santiago de Compostela, Krakow, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Panama City, Cologne, and Czestochowa.

Every WYD has a theme for the young people to reflect upon throughout their pilgrimage. “Mary arose and went with haste” (Lk 1:39) is the bible quote chosen by Pope Francis as the motto of the World Youth Day that will be held for the first time in the capital city of Lisbon, Portugal. The biblical phrase (a quote from the Gospel of St. Luke) opens the account of the Visitation (Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth), a biblical episode following the Annunciation (the angel’s announcement to Mary that she would be the mother of the Son of God, and the theme of the last WYD, in Panama). 

During their conversation of the Annunciation, the angel also tells Mary that her older cousin, thought to be sterile, is pregnant. After affirming to the angel “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word ” (Lk 1:38), it is then that Mary sets out for Ain Karim, a village near Jerusalem where Elizabeth lived and was awaiting the birth of John, who would become Saint John the Baptist.

Mary of Nazareth is the great figure of the Christian journey. She teaches us to say yes to God. She was the protagonist of the last edition of WYD and will be so once again in Lisbon. 

In the biblical episode of the Visitation, the action of standing up presents Mary as both a woman of charity and a missionary woman. Leaving in haste represents the attitude depicted in Pope Francis’ indications for WYD Lisbon 2023: “May young people’s evangelization be active and missionary, for this is how they will recognize and witness the presence of the living Christ.” 

Addressing young people in particular, and challenging them to be courageous missionaries, the following was written by the Pope in the Apostolic Exhortation Christus Vivit: “Where does Jesus send us? There are no borders, no limits: he sends us everywhere. The Gospel is for everyone, not just for some” (CV 177).

Let us pray for our young people here in our parish and across the world, that they may encounter Jesus and give their lives to Him.

Blessings!

Fr .Adam

There is an age old question often debated among between Catholics and Protestant. Are we saved by faith or works? How are we saved?

Today Fr. Mike continues the discussion on faith and weighs in on the Catholic Church’s actual teaching on faith and works and the answer may actually surprise you

For those who participate in yacht racing, winning the annual Port Huron to Mackinac race must be a pinnacle achievement.

Media reported a few weeks ago on the outcome of this year’s event, some even including pictures of the winners’ celebrations on the island once things had wrapped up. Indeed, the satisfaction of a job well done, and the accolades that go along with it, must be electrifying.

But as a story in the Detroit Free Press indicated, it was not entirely smooth sailing along the way for the winners.  

A middle-of-the-night emergency involving damaged sails created a significant challenge for the crew of the vessel that would ultimately go on to win. 

The story explained the harrowing situation, what the crew was up against, and what they ultimately did to make things right.

It’s a metaphor, perhaps, for the journey all of us face, spiritually speaking, as we make our way toward our own finish line of our lives. 

The sailing won’t always be smooth, and the challenges can be significant.

To be sure, Jesus experienced resistance, literally of biblical proportions, as he set – and kept – the course of his mission. Because he is God and transcends time, today’s gospel account of the transfiguration was a foreshadowing for his trusted apostles, and for us, of his timeless glory.

“Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves,” we hear in the gospel. “And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.”

There is, of course, no such grand foreshadowing for us. But by the time we cross the finish line – please, God – we’ll be able to stand on that mountaintop with Jesus, having successfully navigated the depths and stayed the course.

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7:00 a.m., Carmella & Emilio Fazi

7:00 a.m., Suzanne Roland and Don C. Ancypa

7:00 a.m., Agnes & Jack Hubbard

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

7:00 a.m., Jesse F. Champine

7:00 a.m., Mary Ann Ryntz

4:00 p.m., John G. Champine, the deceased members of the Kiwak Family, Bonnie Batche, Susan Federoff, Helen Blind, the deceased members of the VandenBoom Family, Patricia Dimavicius, Joe DiTrapini, Grace and Sam Valenti, and Special Intentions for the J. Champine Family, the Thomas Family, for Alison Reslow, Pam Haisenleder, and Eddie Zatyracz.

6:00 p.m., Michael and James Forrester

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

10:00 a.m., George Petroff and for Mary and Bob Fortunate on their 52nd Wedding Anniversary

12:00 p.m. Marie Shaheen, Joseph Paluzzi Jr., Joan Hardy, Feliciana King, Mikie T. Artley, and Special Intentions for Alison Reslow, Pam Haisenleder, and for Isabella M. Biernat on her Baptism.

Thursday (August 10):

Friday (August 11):

11:00 AM - Baptism of Elliott Mae Humbach

1:00 PM - Wedding of Mary Manaois and Timothy Livingston