Generation Christ - Ann Arbor at 530 Elizabeth Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 US
| 09-16-2011 | The Weekly Update is typically mailed out at noon on Fridays. Email paulcschultz at gmail dot com, if you would like to subscribe |
~ The Weekly Update ~
Feast of Sts. Cornelius & Cyprian (OF/EF)
Greetings GenChrist,
This Sunday, Fr. Joseph Ngidjoi, PIME, parochial vicar of pastor of Holy Trinity Student Parish, will lead our meditation.
Please note: As indicated in our midweek update, the organizers of tomorrow evening's dance in Royal Oak are discouraging the attendance of those dancers under 21 years of age.
In Christ,
Paul Schultz
News in Brief
Today: Friday Adoration - beginning after 7:00 a.m. Mass
Tonight: Frassati Holy Hour - Royal Oak - fb
Tomorrow: "Black and White and Red All Over" - End of Summer Semi-Formal Dance - fb
September 18: First GC Core Team Meeting - 5:00 p.m.
September 20: Great Books - Session IV - fb
September 21, 23-24: Michaelmas Embertide
September 21: First SCH Mass & Dinner of Fall
September 21: Generation Christ bar night? - see GCYP
September 25: Delonis Center
September 25: St. Hyacinth TLM (fb) and St. Joseph Oktoberfest (fb)
GenChrist Notes: Catholic news: England and Wales; Ember Days notice; Discernment of Spirits; October Rosary Rallies; 40 Days for Life
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News
St. Catherine House First House Mass in Dinner
All the women are invited to House Mass and Dinner at St. Catherine House from 6-8. The evening will begin with Mass at 6 pm in the chapel. Followed by a delicious dinner. And, finally a talk by Sr. Margaret Mary of the Daughters of Mary of Divine Providence, who is a wonderful, hilarious speaker. Feel free to come to all or any part of the evening!
St. Catherine House, a woman's house of discernment, is located right across the street from St. Thomas on Elizabeth St. Any questions or, if possible, to RSVP, contact Christina Galloway.
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"Whatever you did for the least of my brothers, you did for me."
Join six other GenChristers next Sunday, September 25th, at the Robert J. Delonis Center to help cook, serve and clean up following the Sunday meal. Four hours in the kitchen helps to serve over 200 hungry adults and children. GenChrist serves there each month from noon-4:30 p.m., and you can join us for a single shift (12-2:30 to cook or 2:30-4:30 to serve and clean up) or for the entire afternoon. Please let me know if you are interested. Thank you! ~Mark Meinhart
Are you interested in another corporate (and corporal) work of mercy? This Sunday's bulletin references assistance that Ann Arbor's Benedictine Sisters of Corpus Christi Monastery need, during the first full week of November. Would you be able to organize a GenChrist volunteer group that week or at least participate on one? If so, let us know.
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GenChrist Notes
Catholic news
As previously noted, the Bishops of England and Wales have made heartening decision to explicitly restore the practice of abstinence from the flesh of land animals as the manner of satisfying the obligatory Friday penance. Here is their recent, wonderful press release explaining that action. In other good news, the Tim Dolan, the Archbishop of New York is continuing to explore whether the same ought to be done in the USA.
Ember Days notice
This coming week, we will have an opportunity to observe the Autumnal (or "Michaelmas") Ember Days - Ember Wednesday (9/21), Ember Friday (9/23) and Ember Saturday (9/24), which fall in the week after the Sunday after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
Ember Days fall four times within each year and are days when the faithful can particularly focus on God through His marvelous creation. Ember Days are days of fasting and partial abstinence, which are voluntary under the 1983 code of canon law. Marking the change of the natural seasons by prayer and fasting, we can thank God for all that He has done for us, for the plenty of the earth, and the beauty of the world He created. (See also, New Advent: Ember Days; and the Fish Eaters explanation of how the Ember Days are fashioned after a prior Jewish fasting tradition.)
In our Protestant and/or secular American culture, it is often said that the Church co-opted pagan festivals, giving them a little leavening of Catholicism but otherwise importing them whole cloth. In most important cases, this claim is wholly untrue; but is made by our opponents so as to suggest that Catholicism is a pagan or non-Christian religion. Ember Days are, in a sense, an exception to the rule - not because the Church adopted anything that was pagan but rather because the Church 'Christianized' something that the pagans had gotten almost right - thanking and praising God for a bountiful harvest, a rich vintage, a productive seeding or the blessing of nature in general.
Ember Days began in the Diocese of Rome before Christians were free to practice the Faith in public and gradually spread to all of western Christendom. They were celebrated in the third century and their origins are shrouded perhaps even further in the past. In 1969, in preparation for the introduction of the Missal of Pope Paul VI in 1970, the Congregation for Divine Worship invited all of the national bishops conferences to determine how the Ember Days should be incorporated into the calendar of that Missal within their nations. To date, the Bishops of the United States have not acted on this invitation - and the Ember Days do not yet appear in our Ordinary Form calendar.
Nonetheless, under Pope Benedict's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum (7/7/07) and its instruction Universae Ecclesiae (4/30/11), it remains our option to take advantage of the Extraordinary Form's calendar and the prayers and readings attached to the Masses of the Michaelmas Embertide.
While nothing will be planned for next Wednesday, please email Paul if you are interested in a communal celebration of the Friday or Saturday of these days of prayer, fasting and abstinence.
Lanterians
Discernment of Spirits Seminars: Fr. Dennis Brown, OMV, using principally books of Fr. Timothy Gallagher, OMV, will facilitate Ignatian study-discussion groups delving into the grace, science, art and habit of discernment. The 2011-12 group will meet monthly from 7:00-8:30 pm at the parish center of Old St. Patrick’s Church in Ann Arbor on Wednesdays beginning October 5th through June. If you would like to participate please e-mail AnnArborRetreats@aol.com or phone 630-417-1984. There is no required fee.
Rosary Rallies
According to Catholic devotional practice, October is the month of the Holy Rosary. The following opportunities to participate in "Rosary Rallies" have come to our attention. Please send more to us, should you learn of them.
Saturday, October 15th, 2011
12 Noon until 1 p.m.
on the grounds of Madonna University, I-96 @ Levan Rd. in Livonia.
Sunday, October 16th, 2011
1:30 p.m. - 20 Decades; 3:00 p.m. - Divine Mercy Chaplet; 4:00 p.m. - Mass
Blessed Sacrament Cathedral, Detroit
Webpage
40 Days for Life
Hello all,
As you may know, 40 Days for Life is kicking off a national campaign of prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigils outside of abortion clinics, all intended to help bring about an end to abortion and promote a culture of life. The main focus of 40 Days for Life is to conduct 24/7 prayer vigils outside of abortion clinics, both across the U.S. and in several other countries as well.
We will be conducting a new 40 Days for Life campaign here in Ann Arbor, from September 28th to November 6th. I would like to encourage everyone in Generation Christ to get involved in some way, shape, or form, whether that be by private prayer and fasting, helping to publicize 40 Days for Life in our community, or by actually heading out to Planned Parenthood to pray in front of the abortion clinic. In particular, if anyone is interested in praying outside of the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic, but does not want to go there on their own, I would be happy to accompany them, if my schedule permits (I myself go out there on Saturdays, usually from 9:30am-11:30am).
If you would like more info, or would like to know how to get involved with 40 Days for Life here in Ann Arbor, you can contact me or contact Paul Dobrowolski, the coordinator of 40 Days for Life here in Ann Arbor.
God Bless,
--Jeff
