Week of October 6, 2024

1) Upcoming Retrouvaille Marriage Weekend

2) GALA Save the Date - Saturday, November 2, 2024

Click on the image below to download a PDF copy of the Contributor Form.

Click on the image below to download a PDF copy of the Program Advertising Form.

3) Exceptional Needs Registration

4) Men's Fellowship

5) Right to Life of Michigan Baby Shower

6) CSA Update ... We're ALMOST THERE!

If you have not yet given to this year's CSA, please do so soon. We still need to raise $2,439 to reach our goal.

You can give online by clicking on the link below, by calling in your pledge/gift, or by picking up a CSA packet in the Parish Center or in the Gathering Space of Church. Your gift is important and enables us, the Church in Detroit, to carry out Christ's ministry of mercy and love throughout southeast Michigan and beyond — works no one individual or parish could possibly do alone!

7) Celebrating Marriage with the Saints of Umbria with Deacon Dom and Teresa

8) 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.

9) Holy Hour on Thursdays

10) This Sunday's Readings: October 6, 2024 - the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

11) Sunday Reflections by Jeff Cavins

True Spousal Love

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

In this Encountering the Word video for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jeff Cavins discusses the marks of a healthy marriage and a healthy relationship with the Lord.

The readings are:

First Reading – Genesis 2: 18-24

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6

Second Reading – Hebrews 2:9-11

Alleluia – 1 John 4: 12

Gospel – Mark 10:2-16

12) Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

The Biblical Vision of the Family



Friends, the first reading from Genesis and the Gospel from Mark this week are of great importance. They have to do with what we call Christian anthropology—the biblical understanding of who we are—and most specifically, in relation to marriage and family. This question of how we define ourselves is of course on the minds of many people today, and the readings, in a beautifully compact way, bring out the Christian answer.

13) 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.

14) 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.

15) TALLer Tales

Traveling with Ms. Daisy (Part 3): This is a continuation of my travelogue about my journey with “Ms. Daisy” (aka my mom) on our Eastern Seaboard Journey on board the Viking Mars.

During the trip, we met a delightful couple from Rochester, Michigan, Lottie and Al, who go to St. Irenaeus Parish. Lottie is a retired public and parochial school teacher, and Al worked in the automotive industry. We had fun chit-chatting with them and joining them for dinner several times during our trip. During one of our many conversations, they asked about what happened with the emergency calls for anointings or funerals while I was gone. Well, I got to tell them about an experience I had just the previous day. I told them that emergencies are emergencies and that I like dealing with them no matter where I am. So, those calls come to my phone, and I’ll call Father Bob or someone else to help if I’m not in a spot where I can deal with the situation myself. But this one particular call was sad and cute at the same time.

My mom and I were in Saguenay and had just finished our seaplane ride. Since we had some time, we decided to stroll around the little city and walk along the beautiful boardwalk just outside where we were docked. Since I had run out of snacks (and I’m all about my snacks), I wanted to see if there was a grocery store or some store open on this beautiful Sunday afternoon where I could replenish my supplies. We eventually found a tiny drugstore that was open. While we were shopping, the emergency line rang. It was a son calling in to let us know his father had just passed away. They were beginning to make funeral arrangements and wanted to discuss some details. He then told me he was putting me on speakerphone so his mom, Lynn, could also hear. When Mrs. Timmreck heard my voice, she immediately said, “Monsignor, aren’t you supposed to be in Canada right now?” “Yes, that’s where I am,” I said. “I’m in the middle of a store buying snacks and other things.” “Why and how are you answering the parish’s emergency line then?” “Well, that’s what I do! How’d you know I was in Canada?” “Well, I was at Church last night and then read TALLer Tales when I got home before all this happened.” After she shared with me the details about the sudden death of her husband, she wanted to know more about my trip and how my mom was handling the journey. She then shared that the greatest gift she had in the whole nightmare of the death of her husband was knowing that the last thing she and her husband did together was to be at the 4 PM Mass the night before. As I shared with Lottie and Al on the ship, it was a sad but cute phone call, and technology allows those emergency calls to be handled wherever I might be … even in a remote village in Saguenay.

After we left the little drug store, my mom and I walked along the boardwalk near the ship and enjoyed seeing all the families out for a stroll on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. We boarded our ship and headed up to dinner.

The following day, we docked in the Gaspe Peninsula. The excursion that day was a whale-watching experience. Based on the excursion’s write-up, my mom was a little leery of the whole adventure because it looked like it would be small 6-person power rafts, which would have been a bit much for her. But it ended up being a larger boat that held about 40 of us. My mom was pretty bummed when she found out it was a larger boat because she definitely would have gone on the journey. So, what did I do? I turned to my bag of technology tricks and brought out my Starlink Satellite dish … No, I didn’t have that stuff with me (remember, I was limited to one suitcase, and I had to bring a few day’s worth of clothes). But, I noted we had decent cell service out in the water (which was amazing), so I decided to allow my mom to experience the whale-watching adventure by Zoom! The people sitting near me on the boat were utterly amazed I was doing this, and I could only whisper quietly, “You don’t know Monsignor!”

The whale-watching experience was pretty cool. Thankfully, we were able to see not only a bunch of whales but a couple of sharks and lots of seals. The whales were majestic. We were told we would hear the whales before we saw them because they breathed through their blowholes before appearing above the water’s surface. Sure enough. We would hear the infamous sound and then go racing toward the spot where it was heard. We would wait a bit, and the whales would come up for some more air before they would do a deep dive, and we would see the flip of their tail fin as they took the graceful dive back into the water. The scene would be repeated every six minutes, the average time the whales would stay submerged before they needed air. The scenery around the Gaspe Peninsula was breathtaking, and seeing these majestic whales was an incredible treat.

Next week, the journey continued to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with a visit to the Titanic Grave Site.

Enjoy the week. Know of my prayers!

In Christ,

gmb@sjascs.org

16) Voiland's View

You may recall the story Jesus told about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. The rich man lived a life of luxury – fine clothes, rich foods, and no worries. Lazarus was a poor, sickly beggar who lacked clothing, had open sores, and who starved for food. Both died, as we all do. The rich man ended up in the flames of hell. Lazarus found himself comforted in Abraham’s arms in heaven.

It would be easy to see this story as a simple case of payback. We like stories like that. The lucky rich guy finally gets a taste of reality, while the poor sap who always ended up with the short end of the stick finally gets to gloat over some long-awaited good fortune. But if we see the story as a simplistic fairytale, we miss deeper meaning in Christ’s parable.

The parable is not only about class envy – the age-old conflict between the rich and the poor. If that were the case, we wouldn’t need to read Jesus’ parable. We could just watch one of the non-stop political ads currently blaring at us from every direction. No, the stories of Lazarus and the rich man are about much more: heaven and hell, life and death, right and wrong, suffering and pleasure.

As lousy as Lazarus’ life was, he was better than the rich man. No one would have said as much while Lazarus was alive. He was a stinky, no account beggar who contributed nothing to society and, if anything, drained valuable resources from it. If the rich man noticed him at all, and that is a big IF, he would have quickly averted his eyes and dismissed the beggar as insignificant. But, in fact, the beggar’s life was more valuable than the rich man’s because the reward he merited was eternal heaven; the rich man was lost to the flames.

This seems backwards. What is it about this story of Lazarus and the rich man that flips the worldly understanding of what it means to be a successful person? The difference appears to be suffering. Lazarus lived a life of suffering: physical nakedness, lack of food, no housing, illness, sores, loneliness, rejection, overall misery. The rich man seemed to coast through life, wearing the finest clothes, eating sumptuously, calling the shots – not suffering. Neither were necessarily evil men in and of themselves, aside from the rich man’s apparent ignoring of Lazarus. They simply seem to be two guys who lived different lives – one ends up in heaven, the other in hell. Even Abraham seems to address their situation in a very matter-of-fact way.

When the rich man in hell sees Abraham holding Lazarus in paradise, he asks for a drink to quench his aching thirst, and Abraham addresses the rich man as “son.” He doesn’t tear into him, telling him how vile he is. He is really quite mild and explains to the rich man that he had plenty to drink on earth – and was consumed by his excesses. Basically, he said, “Sorry, son, you blew it.” He further explained that Lazarus had received a gut-full of hurt while on earth that moved him to depend on God to get him through. Lazarus’ suffering ultimately guided him into God’s lap while on earth. The beggar’s pain was transformed into comfort in eternity in Abraham’s arms.

Pain is often a part of our lives. It comes in many forms – physical for sure. But emotional, psychological, and spiritual pain can really hurt, too. Mental illnesses, depression, verbal abuse, profound loneliness, spiritual attacks, and other such conditions can be devastating. Complicating the pain of Lazarus’ lack of food, his broken body, dogs licking his sores, his persistent thirst for water, was his desperate thirst for someone to care about him. Sadly, nobody cared. So, “the poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 16: 22). Yet, in what seems like a twisted way, the poor man’s suffering was his ticket to paradise. It led him closer to God.

This is the mystery of suffering. We avoid it at all costs. We run from it. We hide from it. We curse it. We scream at God because of it. All the while, the image of our Catholic faith is a man – the God-man – suffering to death on a cross. 

Are we crazy . . . ? We are not. We are part of the Mystery. We have been drawn into the Mystery of Jesus Christ. We are Christ’s body now on earth. And, as much as we might not like it, Christ’s body still suffers – in us. It is the suffering that St. Paul speaks of in Colossians 1:24, the suffering that “completes what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, the church.” Simply put, we share in Christ’s pain because we are so closely united to him, just like we share the pain of anyone we love deeply and whole-heartedly.

The question of suffering continues to be thrown in the face of believers as an argument against God. “How could a loving God allow suffering in the world?” As natural as the question might seem, it ignores reality. The better question is, “ Why would God himself enter into our world to suffer for something he did not cause?” God created nothing evil, nothing painful, no suffering. We did that. (Why he would allow us to do that is another discussion.) But, again, why would he come to suffer and die for something he didn’t cause? Love. Crazy, insane love. That is Mystery my friends. That is Jesus Christ.

In Him,

Fr. Bob

rvoiland@sjascs.org

17) Ascension Presents: Father Mike Schmitz

Where Does the Rosary Come From?

Jesus gave us the prayer we often call “the Our Father”. But where do the other prayers of the Holy Rosary come from, like the Hail Mary? The Glory Be? Who selected the mysteries that we meditate on for each decade? …who even decided to pray a rosary in “decades”?

Fr. Mike breaks down the historical origins of the rosary as well as the logic that the saints who went before us used to organize the rosary as we know it today.

18) Words on the Word: October 6, 2024 - Till Death Do Us Part

Marriage is a vocation. We know that.

Marriage is a covenant between husband and wife, in front of God. We know that.

Marriage is a profoundly serious commitment intended to be for a lifetime. We know that.

And yet, somehow, we’re not particularly surprised when we see stories in the media about well-known people who don’t treat marriage in this way. This is not something limited to well-known people, of course, but those are the ones who make the headlines.

A few weeks ago, media was tripping over itself reporting about a well-known national political figure – already a divorced father of five – who was seen on what looked to observers very much like a date. Romantic dinner in a cozy restaurant; the usual visual cues. 

The interest in this situation would already have been keen of course, but it was amplified because, as it happens, this particular person already is known to be engaged to another quasi-celebrity, and so speculation was rampant.

Since the time this story first appeared, it’s altogether possible things have been “resolved” or otherwise figured out. These things move quickly, after all.

But the key takeaway for people of goodwill is a reminder that marriage is not an entertainment event, not a throwaway, passing, season of life. 

“But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female,” Jesus says in today’s gospel passage from St. Mark. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

Let us pray, then, for all married couples – and for couples preparing for marriage – that their vocation may be strengthened daily, fortified with the glue that only God can provide.

© 2024 Words on the Word

19) 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.



20) 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!

A Missionary Journey to London

In February 2023, Bishop Robert Barron visited London, where he visited key places of Catholic heritage in the city, including the cell where Saint Thomas More was kept as a prisoner. In this beautiful and captivating video, the trip’s highlights are revealed, together with Bishop Barron’s reflections and thoughts on More’s life and the role of the Catholic laity today.

21) 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.

22) Mass Intentions for the Week:

Monday, October 7, 2024, Our Lady of the Rosary (White)

7:00 am: Donald and Tracy Kowalewski & A Special Intention for Lori Kowalewski

Tuesday, October 8, 2024, Weekday (Green)

7:00 am: A Special Intention for the Mecha Family

Wednesday, October 9, 2024, Weekday Saint Denis, Bishop & Companions; Saint John Leonardi, Priest (Green/Red/White)

7:00 am: Mary J. Rademacher

6:00 pm: Anthony Comito

Thursday, October 10, 2024, Weekday (Green) 

7:00 am: Special Intention for the Family of Tina Calisi

Friday, October 11, 2024, Weekday Sant John XXIII Pope (Green/White)

7:00 am: Michael Marsiglio 

Saturday, October 12, 2024, Vigil for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Green)

4:00 pm: Teresa Marzolino, Bonnie Batche, Thomas Stundon, Virginia Burasinski, Martin Krall, Irene C. Ancypa, Clemens Ancypa, Mary Ann Easley, Joel VanDenbussche, Mary Steele, Nancy Barkley, Norman Dolinski, Anthony Zynel, Helen Plath Tribble Shalk, and Special Intentions for the J. Champine Family, the Thomas Family, Tom & Diana Ziolkowski, Lori Becker, Debbie Kunath

6:00 pm: Lawrence & Rosemary Schenden

Sunday, October 13, 2024, Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Green)

8:00 am: The Intentions of SJA Parishioners

10:00 am: Josephine & Eugene Ziolkowski 

12:00 pm: Jerry Brennan, Dennis Lex, Daniel Bommarito, Kathleen Murphy and a Special Intention for Catherine C. Champine

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

This week's LIVE Stream

Schedule at St. Joan of Arc:

Monday (October 7)

7:00 AM - Mass

Tuesday (October 8):

7:00 AM - Mass

10:00 - Funeral for Frank Seleno (Read Obituary HERE)

12:30 PM - Funeral for John Vincent Galbo (Read Obituary HERE)

Wednesday (October 9):

7:00 AM - Mass

6:00 PM - Mass

Thursday (October 10):

7:00 AM- Mass

7:00 PM - Holy Hour



Friday (October 11):

7:00 AM - Mass

10:00 AM - Funeral for Helen Elizabeth Morley (Read Obituary HERE)

Saturday (October 12):

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

12:30 PM - Baptism of Baptism of Claire A. Lenz

1:30 PM - Baptism of James W. Murray

2:30 PM - Baptism of Grace Ryan Dittmer

4:00 PM - Mass

6:00 PM - Mass

Sunday (October 13):

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.

24) SJA's Latest Parish Bulletin

Click on the image below

to download a copy of the bulletin

for October 6, 2024

25) 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.



26) Detroit Catholic