Week of December 15, 2024

1) SJA Giving Tree Project 2024 - Final Weekend

The “Giving Tree Project” is a special charitable project designed to match our parishioners’ generosity with our community’s needs during the Christmas holidays. The project serves 100% local individuals who may not otherwise receive a gift at this special time of the year. This year, we have also taken on additional charitable organizations that focus solely on gifting children’s toys. In addition to our gift cards and online giving, we will have boards in the Gathering Space with tags for toys to be purchased.

HOW IT WORKS:

PURCHASE GIFT CARD(S): 

The Giving Tree will accept gift cards again this year. This decision makes it safer and easier for our parishioners to participate. It also makes the program more flexible for our charity agencies.

Buy plastic* gift card(s) valued from $15-30 (per card). You may purchase more than one, but please make sure limits fall within per-card limits of $15-$30.

* tangible gift cards, please, no electronic vouchers. Please ensure the cards have been activated by the retailer that issued them.

STORES ACCEPTED: Meijer, Walmart, and Target

WHERE TO BUY: At the named retailer, most drug & grocery stores, or online.

LET US PURCHASE THE GIFT CARDS FOR YOU: You may donate again this year via our online giving platform by clicking the button below and indicating the amount you want to donate. We will take care of the rest.

PURCHASE TOY(S):

New this year, there are 100 gift tags for toys on boards in the Gathering Space. They are specific to the age and gender of the child. Please bring the purchased toys unwrapped and place them in the red bins with the tag attached. Gifts can also be brought to the Parish Center.

DEADLINE for all donations: Monday, December 16, 2024

Bring your marked envelope(s) to the Parish Center Office during office hours or place it in the locked collection boxes in the Sr. Carol Center or the Parish Center Lobby.

2) Advent Tea for Women - Wednesday, December 18, 2024

3) Hat, Mitten, and White Socks Project

This year, for our Hat and Mitten Tree Project, we are also adding white socks to our list. We are donating to multiple agencies this year and are accepting hats, mittens, and white socks for children and adults. If you wish to donate hats, mittens, or white socks, you can place them in the bins on either side of the Sr. Carol picture in the Gathering Place or drop them off at the Parish Center.

4) Additional Confession Opportunities during Advent

Father Bob and I will be available for reconciliation during the following times in one of the conference rooms in the Sr. Carol Center. Chairs will be set up in the Gathering Place and will serve as a “line” for confession; you’ll be getting some exercise moving from one chair to another as the line moves. If you wanted to wait for a specific confessor, you could do so.

The remaining schedule is as follows:

Tuesday, December 17: 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM

Wednesday, December 18: 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM

Saturday, December 21: 11 AM to 12:00 PM

You would be amazed how many times I welcome people back who haven’t celebrated the sacrament in years or even decades. Don’t be afraid if you’re one of these people and are worried about going to confession. Tell the confessor it’s been a while since you’ve gone to confession; he will walk you through the ritual. Don’t worry if you can’t remember the Act of Contrition; we have cards in the confessionals with the prayers. Your act of contrition could be as simple as: “Lord Jesus, Son of God have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Another excuse I often hear about why people don’t go to confession is: “Father, you don’t have the time to hear all that I need to confess.” Nice try, we’ll make the time! Another excuse: “Father, I wouldn’t have the time to do the penance you would give me. By the way, what kinds of penances do they give out these days?” The penances given out these days are often in the form of a prayer or some act of kindness. It’s not difficult, people! I encourage you to give it a try.

5) Christmas Giving to SJA

Parishes worldwide rely on their parishioners' generosity ... especially at Christmas. The Christmas Collection is our biggest collection of the year.

As each of us prepares to provide people important in our lives with a gift or some token of our appreciation at Christmas, please remember to include our amazing parish in those plans too! Your generosity goes a long way and helps us continue our mission of bringing Christ to so many people.

The easiest way to give a Christmas gift to the parish is electronically. Click on the link below to make an electronic gift to the parish. You can do so as a guest or by setting up an account. It couldn't be any easier! Thanks for your extraordinary generosity!

6) Mass Schedule for Christmas Eve and Day

Our Mass schedule for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day is as follows:

Christmas Eve:

4 PM, 6 PM and 10 PM

Christmas Day:

8 AM, 10 AM and 12 PM

7) Advent and Christmas Concerts in the Archdiocese of Detroit

From Detroit Catholic: Snow has begun to fall, wreaths and candles have been lit, and chestnuts are roasting on an open fire.

Advent has begun in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

As the Church flips the calendar to a new liturgical year, one of the most cherished seasonal traditions is attendance at an Advent or Christmas concert. Each year, Detroit Catholic brings you a collection of concerts and musical offerings at local Catholic parishes.

The concerts below (with a few notable exceptions) are free and open to the public, featuring some of the best parish musicians, choral ensembles and professional singers performing classic Christmas carols, songs of the season and melodies to get your family in the spirit to welcome the coming newborn king. If you know of a concert that should be added to this list, email us at detroitcatholic@aod.org.

May you and your family have a joyous, holy Advent season this year.

Click here to see the full story and schedule of concerts.

8) 10 Great Christmas Movies You'll Want to Watch With Your Family This Holiday Season

From Church Pop:

Watching Christmas movies is a beautiful way to spend time with family.

However, finding Christmas movies with a plot discussing the season’s true meaning can be difficult.

Here’s a list of 10 of the best Christmas movies to watch with your family this year:

1) The Nativity Story: The Nativity Story presents a scripturally based story of Jesus’ birth. This 2006 Christmas movie details the biblical timeline. In all honesty, it's one of my favorite live-action films about the Birth of Jesus.

Fun fact: Oscar Isaac plays Saint Joseph in this movie. He also plays Poe Dameron in the new Star Wars trilogy.

2) A Christmas Carol: There are multiple retellings of this Christmas story based on the Charles Dickens classic. Ebenezer Scrooge meets the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. These ghosts show him his life, which ultimately ends in his conversion.

Read More ...

9) 12 Delightful, Faith-Filled Catholic Stories to Enjoy as a Family This Advent & Christmas Season

From Church POP:

'Tis the season for cold nights and warm pajamas – the perfect time to cozy up with your children and enjoy some heartwarming stories together.

I’ve curated a list of my family’s favorites, which you can get at the EWTN Religious Catalogue. 

1) "Christmas in Heaven," by Anthony DeStefano

"Christmas in Heaven" by Anthony DeStefano / EWTN Religious Catalogue

New, and hot off the press, Anthony DeStefano delivers readers with another marvelous story the whole family will enjoy.

Weaving together truths about our faith (death, holy souls, and the Church Triumphant) with the nostalgia of Christmas traditions here on Earth, DeStefano encourages readers to lean into our Christian hope that we can see our loved ones again in Heaven one day.

As someone who misses Grandma, especially during the holidays, I highly recommend this book!

Check out other great books by Anthony DeStefano from the EWTN Religious Catalogue.

2) "The Spider Who Saved Christmas," by Raymond Arroyo

"The Spider Who Saved Christmas," by Raymond Arroyo / EWTN Religious Catalogue

Until reading this book, I could not have imagined a place in the Christmas story for a spider, but I’m happy to report that Raymond Arroyo proved me wrong.

Now, this is one of my kids’ all-time favorite Christmas stories!

When King Herod’s men set out to kill all Jewish boys under age two, the Holy Family, on their way to Egypt, seeks refuge in a cave occupied by Nephila and her young. See how the eight-legged heroine and her spider babies spring into action and risk their own lives to save the hallowed visitors. And if this story inspires you to hide a little spider in your Christmas tree from now on, let me know!

Read More ...

10) High School Youth Group

11) Pregnancy Aid Appeal

Dear Friends of Pregnancy Aid,

As you prepare for the Christmas season, please consider giving a generous gift to Pregnancy Aid Detroit. Jesus calls each of us to help others and your contribution to Pregnancy Aid enables us to continue to be a beacon of hope to pregnant mothers in need. The root of the word philanthropy translates to loving people and that is what the volunteers & staff do every day at Pregnancy Aid by offering unconditional love to moms who are facing a pregnancy crisis.

As you may already be aware, Pregnancy Aid offers critical support for both moms and babies during their entire pregnancy and up to their baby's first birthday. We provide material aid and free counseling to pregnant mothers including free ultrasound exams, emotional support, accurate pregnancy & post pregnancy information and basic supplies such as diapers, formula, car seats, pack-n-plays, etc.

Just so far in 2024, we have already given away over 10,000 free

maternity and baby items to mothers in need.

Your gift to Pregnancy Aid allows us to continue our work to help as many mothers as possible make the right decision...to choose life and keep their babies. Reflecting on the first Christmas, the aid of just one willing heart allowed Mary and Joseph to find a place for the birth of Jesus. You too can be a willing heart this Christmas by supporting the mission of Pregnancy Aid.

The following are some of the ways your philanthropy can personally make a phenomenal difference in the lives of God's most vulnerable children:

• Write a check to “Pregnancy Aid” and mail it to 15847 E. 8 Mile Road, Eastpointe, MI 48021.

• Give securely online at www.pregnancyaiddetroit.org/support.

• Use a donor-advised fund such as Vanguard, Fidelity Investments, etc. Please note that our complete name is Pregnancy Aid, Inc. of Eastern Wayne County, and our tax ID number is 23-7377830.

• Donate through Venmo. Search for Pregnancy Aid @Pregnancy-Aid.

Thank you for your support of Pregnancy Aid and your generous contribution is always greatly appreciated!

God Bless,

David Swider

President

12) 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.

13) Holy Hour on Thursdays

14) This Sunday's Readings: December 15, 2024 - the Third Sunday of Advent

15) Sunday Reflections by Jeff Cavins

“Great Expectation”

Third Sunday of Advent

Jeff Cavins reflects on the readings for the Third Sunday of Advent:

First Reading: Zephaniah 3:14-18A

Responsorial Psalm: Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6

Second Reading: Philippians 4:4-7

Gospel: Luke 3:10-18

16) Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

The Peace that the World Can’t Give

Friends, on this Third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday, I want to draw attention to our second reading, which is from St. Paul to the Philippians. These lines about joy, anxiety, prayer, and peace can run right through our minds, but they’re actually breathtaking, and they open up something at the very heart of the spiritual life.

17) 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.

18) 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.

19) TALLer Tales

On the WRONG Team: A few weeks ago, my mom and I ventured over to my sister’s house in Allenton so I could work on a few things. My primary task was to figure out what happened to one of our remote cameras mounted on a tree on an adjacent piece of property my mom owns. Based on the images, it looked like a tree branch or branches fell or grew so much that it took over and blocked the lens. When I got there, I discovered that the mounting bracket broke and the camera had fallen into a bunch of weeds and brush (and probably poison oak and poison ivy too). I carefully removed the camera and rather than work on it there, I decided to take it back to my sister’s house down the road.

I worked on the camera for a bit, cleaning out the charging port with toothpicks and alcohol. The port had all kinds of gunk in it from the fall. After I thought all was okay, I decided to take the equipment and drive back down the road. I was driving Daisy Lou at the time. My sister lives right on Capac Road, and it can be treacherous at times to pull out of her driveway as cars will often fly down the road (and the nearby curve), going about 70 miles per hour. As you turn, they can be on your back in seconds, laying on their horn, or even worse, trying to pass you as you come out of the driveway.

I was just about a few hundred feet from my sister’s house when my watch buzzed with a notification that my phone was no longer nearby. I thought that was weird but didn’t think anything of it. Then, seconds later, my watch had a call from OnStar. When I answered the call, it was OnStar Emergency Assistance saying that my phone had indicated I had fallen or had gotten into a crash. As I tried to talk to this person on my watch and assure the agent I was okay, I noticed a huge combine harvester quickly approaching me; if I didn’t get off the road, I WAS going to need OnStar emergency assistance. I turned into the corner farmhouse and waited for the combine to pass while concluding my conversation with OnStar. Then, lights went off in my head, and my heart sank. While my heart was still sinking, I realized I left my phone on the hood of Daisy Lou, and it probably had fallen. I was sick. I returned to the house, hoping it was still in my sister’s long driveway. It wasn’t. I went onto my sister’s computer and checked to see the phone’s last known location on my Verizon account; it showed the phone was still on Capac Road. My heart sank even more. My sister Cindy and I hopped in her car and searched for my phone. As we were driving north on Capac Road, I saw a bunch of black “splots” sitting in the middle of the road. We went down the road, waited for the traffic to clear, and made a U-turn. My sister pulled off to the side of the road, and I got out and started hunting for the phone. This was a dangerous adventure, only because of the speed of the traffic and the fact you couldn’t see cars and semis barrelling down the road because of the nearby curve. Then, my worst fear was realized: my phone WAS in a bunch of pieces in the middle of the road.

Waiting for the appropriate moment, I went out and gathered my “road kill.” It was a mess. The glass had all broken, but the main guts of the phone were somewhat intact. I returned to my sister’s house, wondering how I would manage without a phone until the following week. A few minutes before 6 PM, I went onto the Asurion website to file a claim for a broken phone. Much to my surprise, my new phone was to arrive the following day.

Between the funeral and baptisms I had on Saturday, I watched our video coverage to see if FedEx made any deliveries. The prized package arrived during the 4 PM mass; I went right to work on it between the 4 and 6 PM masses. With an Apple phone, the restore process is very simple, and everything just appears. This is the first time I’ve ever had to do a full restore from the cloud on a Samsung phone. After I went through the first restore process, my heart sank. A TON of stuff was missing and wasn’t found anywhere in the cloud. I called Verizon and Asurion tech support, and they said my only option was to take it to an Asurion fix-it place with the hopes they could put a new screen on my “road kill” and do a manual transfer!

That Monday, I had an appointment at UBreakiFix on Gratiot in Roseville. The tech person helping me was awesome. After he got done chuckling at my story and seeing the condition of my phone, he wasn’t sure he could help me but said he would try. He said he had never seen a phone like mine work in that condition before. He told me to come back in about four hours.

I showed up four hours later, and he was able to attach a screen to my phone and initiate a transfer to my new device. EVERYTHING got transferred. And I mean everything. AMEN ALLELUIA! I thanked God and sang the tech person’s praises for the rest of that week.

As he and I were chatting about how easy it is to restore Apple devices from the cloud versus what I was going through with my Samsung phone, he paused and said with a smile as he handed my phones back to me, “Well, I guess you’re on the WRONG team.” Thankfully, I got a pass this time and was very lucky! This was a wake-up call to ensure my backups are functioning on all my devices! UGH. It was a close call, and I felt like I had just won the Superbowl … even though I felt like I was on the wrong team!

Christmas Mass Schedule: Our Mass schedule for Christmas is as follows:

Christmas Eve at 4 PM, 6 PM, and 10 PM. Christmas Day will be 8 AM, 10 AM, and 12 PM.

All of our masses will be live-streamed. And, as we have done in the past, we will have two 4 PM Masses. Father Bob will be the celebrant of the 4 PM Mass in Church, and I will be the celebrant of the 4 PM Mass in Emmaus Hall.

Christmas Greetings: Since next weekend’s bulletin will be our special Christmas edition, I want to take the opportunity now to extend my Christmas greetings and prayers to you, our faithful and regular parishioners. I am truly grateful for the many ways you share your time, talent, and treasure around the parish. Through your extraordinary generosity, we are changing many lives and doing much to deepen people’s relationship with the Lord! It’s incredible to realize all the great work and ministry that is being done at our parish. Thank you for all that you do that makes us such an amazing parish!

May the Christ Child, the Prince of Peace, enlighten your hearts and homes with the warmth of his light, love, and joy! Please know that you will be remembered in my prayers and Masses during this holy season.

Enjoy the week. Know of my prayers!

Merry Christmas!

In Christ,

gmb@sjascs.org

20) Voiland's View

Consider using what’s left of Advent and the coming Christmas season as a time of spiritual conditioning. Our relationship with God is something that takes continuous work to keep at peak performance. Our spiritual wellness is much like physical wellness, about which much of our society is deeply concerned – sometimes to the point of obsession.

If we neglect our physical bodies, the damage that occurs to us is something that usually comes about over an extended period of time. If we gain too much weight, if we've lost physical strength, if we have certain illnesses or maladies that have been brought on by poor physical habits, chances are the causes of the decline didn’t arise suddenly. Eating improperly, not getting enough exercise, not getting enough sleep, putting harmful substances into our bodies, not doing the things that we're supposed to do to keep healthy, are behaviors that come gradually. 

Their effects aren't necessarily rapid either, although some health problems may appear quickly. More commonly, our bodies break down over time. So, to get back in shape, back to health, we have to resolve ourselves to change. We embark on a plan to lose weight, to get stronger, and to establish a better daily routine that is more respectful of our natural, physical needs. We establish a physical rhythm, a conditioning routine that turns our bodily ship around from its harmful path to a healthy one. Spiritual health demands a similar course correction.

As we can easily stray from good bodily health habits, we also tend to fall into bad spiritual habits. We get morally sloppy. Our souls grow fat with worldliness. We lack the energy to lift our spiritual feet and tread the “narrow path” to heaven. We don't pray regularly. We quit going to Sunday Mass . . . or maybe go if we feel like it. We clog our minds with lame content on TV. We waste time endlessly scrolling through electronic screens. We don’t actually look at people’s faces anymore, nor listen to what they are saying. We find ourselves neglecting the good things we should do, while replacing them with idiotic things that turn our minds to mush. We trade good habits for bad habits, and they lead us into a slump. We get ‘dirty’ inside. 

Essentially, we get spiritually soft.

Getting back into spiritual good shape, is just like getting physically fit again. To rejuvenate our body, we start a regular exercise routine. We eat better. We might take some nutritional supplements. But the result won’t be instantaneous success. The same thing goes for our souls. We have to start praying again. We have to p-r-y open a Bible and actually read some of it. We start attending Mass again. Then, we have to contemplate what we are doing. Rather than just going through the motions, we build an awareness in our lives of the importance of our spirituality, of our religion. It helps to talk with others about our faith journey, just like it helps to have a training partner at the gym. We can let others know about the holy circuit training that we have devised to strengthen our relationship with God who created us.

Spiritual conditioning forms us in a practice that St. Paul spoke about: praying ceaselessly. Our life becomes more prayerful in itself. We practice being in God's presence all the time – because he is always with us, whether we're aware of it or not. A keener awareness of how God continuously works in our lives brings much needed focus to our overly-active daily routines. Advent can be a time of such realignment.

Using Advent and Christmastime for spiritual conditioning isn’t a radical, unsettling experience. There should be a sense of peace in going back to a familiar state of mind – or finally finding peace that has been elusive until now. It will hopefully be an enduring, life-giving adjustment that produces spiritual fruit long into the future. We are not talking about instant sainthood here. We don’t become spiritual champions overnight – just like we’re not going to lose thirty pounds in a month, as much as advertisers say we can. In reality, that's not even healthy.

Similarly, expecting to fully reclaim long-neglected spiritual vitality by simply saying a couple of prayers isn’t realistic. Being nice to somebody once doesn’t carry much long-term weight. Reading one paragraph of the Bible doesn’t promise a love for Scripture. Good things take time to develop. Virtue is a habit. Virtue comes when we act virtuously, over and over again. 

Then we become virtuous ourselves!

These next several weeks, consider taking time to think about what the coming of Jesus Christ means in our lives. What does It mean to us that God came in the flesh, that he has relationship with us, that he understands who we are, that he continues to give himself to us in the Eucharist? Think about how different our relationship with God would be had Jesus not come: no Eucharist, no teaching, no intimacy with God, no salvation. Pouring some energy into our relationship with God will pay serious benefits. It’s tough to start again on any kind of exercise program that has been abandoned. 

But, it feels good when we get back into the swing again. Now is the best time to get back into good spiritual condition! May these mid-Advent days and coming Christmas season be time to create the spark that intensifies the Light of Christ in our lives!

Hoping in Jesus!

Fr. Bob

rvoiland@sjascs.org

21) Ascension Presents: Father Mike Schmitz

What People Forget About Our Lady of Guadalupe

The apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary that came to be known as Our Lady of Guadalupe was a miracle. The Castilian roses that came from Tepeyac Hill in winter were a miracle. The divinely illustrated vision of Our Lady on St. Juan Diego’s tilma was a miracle—as is the fact that the tilma composed of organic fibers has refused to degrade for 500 years and is still available to see to this day.

But none of those were the greatest miracle that Our Lady brought to the Americas that fateful century. Fr. Mike points out the incredible miracle that many people gloss over—but the one that makes an eternal difference.

22) Words on the Word: December 15, 2024 - Food for the Hungry

We’ve reached the point in the year where, some might say, there’s finally some good news!

Media outlets, normally filling their space with the ugly and the horrid, look for and report on heartwarming things, since folks are especially in search of that as we approach Christmas.

The Detroit Free Press a few weeks ago did a nice story on a woman who spends her Thanksgiving Day cooking for several hundred people at the Pope Francis Center downtown.

She and her team cook all the staples – turkey, stuffing, sweet and mashed potatoes, gravy and more – and serve to people who otherwise likely would not enjoy any substantial meal at all that day, let alone an old-fashioned comfort food extravaganza.

The woman, according to the story, has a resume that includes cooking at places like the Roostertail, the Westin Book Cadillac, and more, but she thrives on cooking for the Pope Francis Center visitors.

“It’s an honor to cook for the people I serve,” she was quoted in the Free Press story as saying. “I fell in love with the Center and the job, and I don’t think they will ever be able to get rid of me.”

That’s it. A simple story of loving one’s neighbors and helping by using the gifts provided. It’s a tangible putting-into-action the advice given by St. John the Baptist in today’s gospel from St. Luke. 

“Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise,” John says, before, as always, turning the conversation to Jesus. “I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming. I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.”

Christmas is just a week away. How are we using our gifts to turn hearts and minds to Jesus?

© 2024 Words on the Word

23) 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.



24) 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!

No Greater Love: Kendrick Castilo

Kendrick Castillo planned to become an engineer and dreamed of becoming a Knight of Columbus like his father. However, on May 7, 2019, just three days before Kendrick was scheduled to graduate from STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado, another student pulled out a gun. Through interviews with Kendrick’s family and friends, this video recounts his character and faith, as well as the heroic action he took which cost him his life.

25) 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.

26) Mass Intentions for the Week:

Monday, December 16, 2024, Advent Weekday (Purple)

7:00 am: Donald C. Ancypa

Tuesday, December 17, 2024, Advent Weekday (Purple)

7:00 am: For the deceased members of the Calisi Family who died in the month of December 

Wednesday, December 18, 2024, Advent Weekday (Purple)

7:00 am Audrey Benedis

6:00 pm Joseph Semany

Thursday, December 19, 2024, Advent Weekday (Purple) 

7:00 am: Esmenia Salomon Silva

Friday, December 20, 2024, Advent Weekday (Purple)

7:00 am: Kathleen Doak

Saturday, December 21, 2024, Vigil for the Fourth Sunday in Advent (Purple)

4:00 pm: Fred Maloof, Joey Thompson, Tina Calisi, Laura Barkley, Leonard LaMountain, Bonnie Batche, Edward, Helen & Henry Blind, Joan Weber, Dr. Lori Karol, Kevin Collins, Mary Steele,Joseph & Angeline Calus, George Lombardi, Maria Lombardi, Julian Ross, David Sperry, Thomas Benoit, Paula Nagel, Mitzi Phillips, Maureen Buda and Speial Intentions for the J. Champine Family, and the Thomas Family.

6:00 pm: Michael & James Forrester; Charles & Margaret Forrester

Sunday, December 22, 2024, Fourth Sunday in Advent (Purple)

8:00 am: The Intentions of SJA Parishioners

10:00 am: Michelle Deleeuw

12:00 pm Steve Wright, Tina Calisi, Ralph Marzolino, Victor Hage, Patricia Peters, Paula Nagel, Mitzi Phillips, and Robert Ruhama

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

This week's LIVE Stream

Schedule at St. Joan of Arc:

Monday (December 16)

7:00 AM - Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Doreen Marguerite Saur (Read Obituary HERE)

Tuesday (December 17):

7:00 AM - Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Germaine Bryan

6:30 PM - School Christmas Concert

Wednesday (December 18):

7:00 AM - Mass

6:00 PM - Mass

7:00 PM - Baptism of Cody L. Roper

Thursday (December 19):

7:00 AM- Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Tina (Concetta) Calisi

7:00 PM - Holy Hour



Friday (December 20):

7:00 AM - Mass

Saturday (December 21):

12:30 PM - Baptism of Navy N. Elling

4:00 PM - Mass

6:00 PM - Mass

Sunday (December 22):

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.

28) SJA's Latest Parish Bulletin

Click on the image below

to download a copy of the bulletin

for December 15, 2024

29) Weekly Bulletin Mailing List

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.



30) Detroit Catholic