For Your Marriage helps couples at all stages of life to understand and live God’s plan for happy, holy marriages by providing educational and spiritual resources.

The website was launched in 2007 as part of the National Pastoral Initiative for Marriage, an initiative of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to communicate the meaning and value of married life for the Church and for society.

We invite you to email the For Your Marriage team with questions or comments: marriage@usccb.org. First, please see below to find out whether your question can be answered by an article on the website or another person better suited to assist you.

The Retrouvaille Program is for Married Couples Facing Difficult Challenges in their Relationship

Join us for the Rescue Project beginning February 14th.

In this powerful 8-week video series, Father John Riccardo presents the gospel message and Christ's rescue in a uniquely powerful and relatable way. Each week will start with dinner and fellowship in the Sr. Carol Center. Dinner service will start at 6 PM and the evenings will conclude at 8:15 PM.

For those who cannot join in person, there will also be a Zoom option. Stay tuned for registration information.

Come and join our new children's liturgical choir Grace Notes for students from our parish and school in grades 1 - 5.

Weekly practices are on Wednesdays from 6:15 - 7:00 PM in the Church Music Room (off the parking lot between the church and school).

For details and to register go to sjascs.org/childrens-choir.

Contact Catherine Trudell with questions at cthomas@sjascs.org or at the Parish Center at 586-777-3670.

SJA is moderating a Facebook group for our parishioners and friends embarking on the Catechism in a Year podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz and Ascension Press.

You can find the link to join on the SJA Facebook page or click the button below. We already have 90+ participants!

I am grateful to announce that we made our CSA goal for 2022! AMEN! Thank you for your extraordinary generosity. At this point, anything raised above the goal will return to the parish. As of today, we have $212,588 in pledges and gifts toward our $211,447 goal ($212,588 has been paid thus far toward our total pledged amount). This amount represents gifts from 632 families (we have 3,339 families registered). We have thus achieved 100.05% of our goal!

Jeff Cavins reflects on the readings for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Sunday Readings are:

First Reading: Sirach 15:15-20

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 2:6-10

Alleluia: Matthew 11:25

Gospel: Matthew 5:17-37

Friends, we have the privilege of continuing to read from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus himself lays out his basic teaching. What we find today is Jesus as the new Moses. Like Moses, he goes up on a mountain, and he receives and then gives a new, intensified Law. Jesus wants the corrective power of the Law to go beyond merely the behavioral level and to get down to the level of the heart. We are not called to spiritual mediocrity; we are called to be saints!

Plumbing’s NOT your thing …Don’t Do It! As I have written here before, I have a list of projects and tasks that is pretty long. While I wish I had more hours in the day to complete stuff on “THE LIST,” as I age, I now wish I just had the ENERGY to complete things on THE LIST!

One reality about items on THE LIST is that family and staff pay attention to when items on THE LIST get completed. “How did you get that done ahead of my request,” some will ask. But, like all things in life, it’s about who you know. In this case, when Mom makes mention of something, her items get bumped up immediately.

Usually, with items on THE LIST, my own personal items sit around forever. I can put up with a broken this or that, thinking that one day I’ll have time to work on things for me, but I usually allow my items to get pushed down THE LIST to work on something for someone else. I used to be able to work on my projects late into the night. Now I’m lucky if I haven’t fallen asleep in my back room chair by 10 PM. That crazy chair seems to kidnap me every night. It never fails.

But one item on THE LIST needed to get bumped up to the top because Mom mentioned it. As you may know, my mom stays with me occasionally. It could be for a weekend or simply because she’s not feeling well; it’s much easier for us to watch over her at my house rather than at her condo when she’s not feeling well.

My kitchen faucet needed to be replaced. It’s been on THE LIST for a long time. Sure, I could have asked our maintenance team to deal with it, but I like doing things like this as a break from my daily stuff. The faucet was getting worse by the week. First, the water pressure was slowly dying, and then the hot water side stopped working altogether. The faucet was old and needed to be replaced. It was much more than changing the cartridge. But when my mom mentioned it not too long ago, I bumped it up on THE LIST. There’s only one problem. While I dabble in many DIY projects, plumbing typically isn’t my thing … and I’ve had interesting outcomes to prove that point!

It was a Friday night. My mom happened to be with me that weekend, and while she went off to watch a movie, I decided to tackle the faucet. As we parted ways, she said, “I’ll see you in the morning. Knowing you, this won’t be simple, and you’ll be at it for several hours!” Yes, moms know all!

As I started the project, I could hear my guardian angel shouting, “DON’T DO THIS. Plumbing isn’t your thing!” But I continued anyway. Getting the old faucet out was relatively simple. However, I did run into a few problems trying to get all the hoses through one of the steel washers so I could get the faucet out of the hole (although NOW, as I type this, I realize I could have just cut those hoses and it would have saved me about a half hour … this is why I’m a novice). I also learned a trick from an article I read in my Family Handyman magazine: I should use a board or ironing board to lie on to save my back. In the past, I would lie in such a way that the cupboard framing would dig into my back. Now I know to use a board or an ironing board when I work on sink or faucet projects so I can lie there flat without hurting my back.

With the old faucet out, work on putting in the new faucet began. That went relatively smoothly, too, although I turned in such a way that I cracked in half the board I was using to lie on! Once I cleaned up that mess, I was able to get everything connected and in place. I felt pretty proud of myself that things were moving along so smoothly. Once all the hoses were connected, I double-checked that the connections were tight. I couldn’t wait to turn on the shut-off valves and watch this faucet sing. First, I opened the hot water valve and then the cold water valve. All was quiet under the sink. I was hesitant to open the valves because I didn’t trust that I did all of this correctly. Since all was quiet under the sink, I thought I was in the home stretch. I picked myself off the floor and turned on the faucet. I was confused. NOTHING was coming out of the faucet. NOTHING. I turned the handle a few different ways and got the same result … NOTHING! My blood pressure started to boil. You have got to be kidding! How can there be nothing? I checked the shut-off valves, and they were open. “This could only happen to me,” I thought to myself. I was thoroughly perplexed. Was it a broken faucet? That would just be my luck. Did I do something wrong? I could only roll my eyes.

So I went back underneath the sink to investigate matters. The hot and cold water copper supply lines sit tall under my cabinet; they must be at least two feet tall. With my flashlight in hand, I saw that the supply hoses to BOTH the hot and cold water were completely kinked. They ended up this way primarily because of the height of the copper lines. It took me a while to rework how they were connected so they wouldn’t kink. Once that was in place, I held my breath and turned on the faucet. I was ecstatic. It worked! Hurray! I prayed it would stay that way throughout the night so I didn’t have a flood or mess to clean up when I got up the following day. When you’re a Clark Griswold DIY novice, you never know how things will turn out! But this one win won’t reverse the reality that plumbing isn’t my thing. I have a long way to go! But, I’m making progress … my kitchen is STILL waterfall free!

World Marriage Day: The Second Sunday in February is the annual celebration of World Marriage Day. World Marriage Day honors the lifelong commitment of husbands and wives and takes as its theme the commandment the Lord gave us to love one another. That commandment takes on a special prominence within a marriage relationship. Loving one another is a daily decision that couples must commit to every day of their life. It’s a simple idea but often a challenging one. Loving one another requires neither gifts nor money. It becomes a way of life. The visible signs of living this command shouldn’t be seen only on anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, or Valentine’s Day. Loving one another should be a daily reality!

One of the public service announcements for World Marriage Day had the following suggestions and thoughts: “1. Have you hugged your spouse today? 2. Call your spouse right now and say “I Love You.” 3. Take out your wedding pictures tonight and share a memory with family and friends. 4. Show the family movies tonight to celebrate a marriage well done. 5. Bring a gift tonight to your spouse. 6. Fix his or her favorite meal tonight. 7. Share your love for each other with your children tonight. 8. Ask your spouse for a date tonight. 9. Tell each other how much your marriage means to you. 10. Share your love story with your children tonight.”

In Light of Lent (Part I): Every New Year, it seems to me that we just get through the rush of our Christmas celebrations and before we know it, it’s Lent. And if Lent is a season of preparation, as was Advent, we should be putting some time into deciding how best to prepare. Every year, I find myself down to the 11th Hour— “it’s Ash Wednesday this week and I still didn’t decide what to give-up for Lent.” Which leads me to this pre-emptive strike. Before Lent gets here, I wanted to talk about it. So this is the first of a two-part series, this Sunday and next, to help us think about our preparation for this season.

Each year, for Lent Catholics battle a test of will, giving-up something they love for 40 days, beginning on Ash Wednesday. It's a sacrifice, a challenge and just something we do as Catholics, but what if I told you that giving something-up might actually take your attention away from the true purpose of Lent and that you should probably do something else instead?

People usually give things up like chocolate, alcohol or social media. At their best, Lenten sacrifices can be a great devotion. By taking away something we love or seemingly depend on we're able to make a sacrifice like Jesus did when he gave-up his life on the cross. The struggle we feel helps us to realize how dependent we are on God and how trivial some of our creature comforts are. 

But often, this is not the case. We spend all of our time thinking about how miserable we are that we don't have chocolate or alcohol or whatever, and make Easter all about the joy of getting it back. Easter comes and we eat an entire social media chocolate rum cake or something like that. 

But even if we are able to stay focused on Christ and on the cross, a great devotion for sure, what we end-up doing is making the main focus of our attention Lent, the pain and sacrifice, rather than what it should be on. Lent is a time of preparation for Easter, and so it’s the time in which we take an examination of our life and try to see how we can make our faith life a little bit better—what can we do to make our relationship with God and with others better in the way that we live our Christian life.

Lent is not an end in itself. It's not the focus of our lives as Christians. It is what is necessary for what is really important… Easter. In that case the more important question might be this: What is Easter? What exactly are we preparing for? 

There are actually two things. The first is pretty obvious - Easter is a commemoration of Jesus's death and resurrection to new life - the Paschal mystery. Jesus died on the cross and rose again to new life. But the second part is a little less obvious. Easter is a celebration of our baptism. In Baptism, we participate in that Paschal mystery and so we enter the water to die to our old self, and we come out of the water a new person. 

We come out of the water as a Christian and so the early church saw that intimate connection between the Paschal mystery and Easter and identified the Easter celebration as the time for doing baptisms. And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense on its own. 

In Jesus, just as in the case of Lazarus rising from the dead, we celebrate God's power over death. 

But how do either these risings have anything to do with us? 

This is where baptism comes in and why it's so important when we're baptized. We're not just commissioned to be like Jesus. We are initiated into the life of Jesus Himself, intimately tied to his death and so intimately tied to his Resurrection. When we understand Easter in this way then our focus of Lent looks a lot different. 

Lent has been, from ancient times, the period of time of preparation for baptism, and the faithful, and those preparing for baptism, engaged in it as a way to do penance, as a way to foster conversion of heart. They prepared for baptism and for the renewal of their baptismal promises. 

And for people preparing to enter the church, this season has a very clear meaning. 

I recall going through this time of preparation myself. It was a time of preparation, but also of learning and of coming to know the Lord and His will—a peek behind the veil of the mysteries of the faith that I had felt called to investigate further. It was a time to wrestle with some of the teachings of the church and to try to understand them in light of gospels. It was a time to consider these teachings in the context of the life of Jesus and the personal call, which is ultimately what should draw each of us closer to Him as the years go by.

If Lent after Lent go by, and we are not changed as the years unfold, there is probably something missing from our Lenten practices.

But what about those of us who have already been baptized. Are we preparing to be baptized again? Of course not—we don't get baptized again, but we do renew our baptismal promises at Easter again, to identify the fact that through baptism we do participate in Christ's Paschal mystery. And we need to at least be reminded of it. We’re called to remember this gift that we have received. And it’s the baptismal promises I will address in part II, next week.

adawson@sjascs.org 

Do you find that you give others too much influence over your mood and emotions? Do you find yourself caught in a cycle of judging all your choices based on what others think about that decision?

Today, Fr. Mike reflects on the role of positive and negative influences in our lives and how to discern if we are giving others too much power over our lives.

All one need do is turn on the television news or open a newspaper or internet news site to see the bad news, most of it a result of poor choices someone has made.

A recent quick glance at the headlines, as an example, turned up numerous stories about assaults and gunshot victims, political hijinks, layoffs, contract disputes, court battles…

The list goes on.

By contrast, it takes a concerted effort to find reports on something that might qualify as good news, at least in the mainstream media.

One such recent example: an initiative at Wayne State University to expand a debt forgiveness program that excuses a certain level of unpaid bills for former students and encourages them to resume work on their degree.

The program, according to a report in The Detroit News, has attracted national attention and is serving as a model for some other schools, as well.

“It’s an issue of justice,” the school’s president said in the report. “We bring these students in, they get into debt and they don’t have a degree. It’s unfair to them. We have to do everything we can to help them get a degree.”

A cynic could argue, of course, that it’s simply a marketing ploy, and point to others who did not get into debt, or got into debt but finished their degrees, but for now, that is beside the point.

It’s good to see efforts to make a positive impact on the world. If it turns out to be a win-win scenario, all the better. That’s a good choice.

“If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you,” we hear in today’s first reading from Sirach. “If you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you first and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.”

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.

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.

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.

7:00 a.m., Mildred LeFevre

7:00 a.m., Dennis Fleming

7:00 a.m., Domenica & Serafina DiBerardino

7:00 a.m., Hugo Calisi

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

4:00 p.m., Bonnie Batche, Donald Kowalewski, Marcella Cichoraki. Joan Weber, Dr. Lori Karol, Mark DeKoekkoek, Ella Pizzuti, Farida Manur, Christopher Weingartz, Edward Blind, Helen Blind, Henry Blind, and Special Intentions for the J. Champine family and for the Thomas Family.

6:00 p.m., Leona Bell

 

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

10:00 a.m., A Special Intention for Grayson Rupp

12:00 p.m., Rob Finn, Evan Battani, and Robbie Battani

10:00 AM - Funeral for Norman Bilbrey (Read Obituary HERE)

Wednesday (February 15):

Thursday (February 16):

Friday (February 17):

Saturday (February 18):

12:30 PM - Baptism of Eleanorea Rose Bono

1:30 PM - Baptism of Jeffrey Daniel Reske

2:30 PM - Baptism of Rosalie Elizabeth Turek