Generation Christ - Ann Arbor at 530 Elizabeth Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 US
| 05-20-2011 | 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 St. Bernardine of Siena (OF/EF)
Alleluia, GenChrist, He is Risen!
This Sunday, we will be serving at the Delonis Center, the homeless shelter near Main and Huron - join Mark and several members of GenChrist who are planning to be there.
Sunday evening, we will meet for a Holy Hour in the church. Fr. Selvam will lead our meditation.
In Christ,
Paul Schultz
News in Brief
Today: Friday Adoration - beginning after 7:00 a.m. Mass
Today: Bishop Boyea / confirmations at St. Thomas @ 7:00 p.m.
Today: Frassati Holy Hour fb
May 22: Work of Mercy: Delonis Center
May 24: Roll-out: Fr. Bill Ashbaugh's Parish Pastoral Plan
May 25: ST@tM: The Mission
May 25: BBB (Jesus of Nazareth, part II) and Mid-week Social at Dominick's
May 26: FMH Monthly Open Dinner
May 30: Memorial Day Party
June 2: Ascension Thursday TLM @ OSP
June 4: English Chant - Workshop in Kalamazoo
June 11: Lansing Presbyteral Ordinations
June 12: Call to Holiness conference: Pentecost Mass and DIA tour
June 24-25: Pilgrimage for Christian Culture 2011: website fb - Day 1; fb - Day 2
GenChrist Notes: Catholic News: Initiative for Children and Youth; Do you have a spiritual director?; Catholic News: Meatless Fridays to return for Catholics in the UK; GC Policies for re-formed Facebook groups; FMH / SCH; Ordinations
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News
"Whatever you did for the least of my brothers, you did for me."
Represent GenChrist this Sunday, May 22nd, 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
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Parish Pastoral Plan
Over the last ten months, Fr. Bill has re-formed the Parish Pastoral Council and utilized them to research the foci of St. Thomas parish and to articulate them in a Parish Pastoral Plan.
As currently articulated, the parish pastoral plan will be presented to the whole parish this coming Tuesday night - 7:00 p.m. in the parish hall.
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St. Thomas @ the Movies: The Mission
Next Wednesday night (5/25), 12+ members of St. Thomas will discuss The Mission, one of Roland Joffé's good films dealing with religion, which we viewed this last Wednesday.
Interested persons are invited to come to FMH for vespers at 5:45 p.m. and a free pizza and wine supper at 6:00 p.m. Discussion will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the St. Thomas school library.
Trailer
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Dominick's
On Wednesday, May 25th, our Books Before Beer group and Wednesday evening social hour will meet at Dominick's - 812 Monroe (across the street from UMich Law) - at 8:00 p.m.
Our book selection for May and June is Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection. For May 25th, please try to acquire the book and read the first chapter. We'll finish the book for June 15th.
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McGivney House Dinner
Once a month, the priests of the St. Thomas Rectory open their weekly dinner with the men of Fr. McGivney House to any other men who have not fully discerned a call to marriage and are not closed to a vocation to religious life or the priesthood.
The next such dinner will be Thursday, May 26th. Please join us at 5:30 p.m. (Evening prayer will begin at 6:00 p.m.) Please contact Max by Monday evening, if you are interested in attending.
You must rsvp with a definite "yes" email by Monday evening, if interested. The Facebook invite exists to assist you in inviting other young men who might be interested.
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Ascension Thursday TLM
While the calendar of the Ordinary Form in the United States moves the celebration of Ascension Thursday, a Holy Day of Obligation, to the Sunday before Pentecost, those priests that celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass (which Pope Benedict calls the "Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite") have the option of celebrating Ascension Thursday on Thursday.
Old St. Patrick
7:00 p.m.
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Sing a New Song: English Chant for the New Missal
"The promulgation of the 3rd edition of the Roman Missal, starting on the first Sunday of Advent this year, can be a new beginning for a parish music program.
"This one-day event will be the first in our times that seriously focuses on English chant as part of a transition in parish life. It will teach how bring transcendent, solemn, prayerful music to Mass - music that choirs, priests, and people can sing and come to love."
Facebook - a scholarship can be available for any member of GenChrist who would like to go but cannot otherwise afford it.
"The introduction of the new Missal is a great event in the modern history of the Catholic Church. It can also mark a change toward fulfilling the highest liturgical ideals. "
The workshop begins at 9:00 a.m. with registrations, and the participants will sing at the 4:15 p.m. anticipated Sunday Mass. Lunch will be provided at no cost (but donations accepted).
Please RSVP by Wednesday, June 1st.
The workshop fee is $25, payable at the door.
Go to MusicaSacra.com/kalamazoo or write contact@musicasacra.com.
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Call to Holiness
This Pentecost weekend, the Call to Holiness Conference will be happening in Detroit. Full information on their Saturday conference can be found in their pdf brochure.
In particular, I would like to call attention to the artistic event scheduled for Sunday afternoon, which is of interest to some of our members - RSVP to the email below as well as on Facebook, if you're interested as well:
Sunday, June 12: Mass, DIA Tour and Talk
9:30 am Mass at Assumption Grotto Church, Detroit: Solemn High Extraordinary Form (Latin) with orchestra; continental breakfast available afterward
1:00 pm Detroit Institute of Arts Limited to 200 participants. Johnnette Benkovic speaking on Communicating Truth in the Culture of Our Day
2:00 pm Docent guided tour of DIA Medieval and Renaissance Catholic art
Registration fee: $25.00
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GenChrist Notes
Initiative for Children and Youth
For the last two weeks, the parish bulletin has included a series of notes about a great new initiative that's starting at St. Thomas. "This Summer, Youth Minister Beth Spizarny and Director of faith Formation Monica Pope are teaming up to launch an initiative for Children and Youth. We're tackling big-picture vision, leadership, faith formation, and insight on the developmental and spiritual needs of young people." Check out the archived bulletins here, read this Sunday's sequel note and then get in touch with Beth
Do you have a Spiritual Director? If not, you should get one.
Yesterday, while addressing the Carmelite pontifical university in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said:
“As she has never failed to do, again today the Church continues to recommend the practice of spiritual direction, not only to all those who wish to follow the Lord up close, but to every Christian who wishes to live responsibly his baptism, that is, the new life in Christ” (emphasis supplied).
If you don't know what a spiritual director is, read the rest of the pope's remarks and then seek one out. McGivney guys have found that the first person you ask won't always say yes, but that you'll quickly be successful in your search, if you are serious about it.
Fisheaters ;)
If you are a regular reader of the Weekly Update or are otherwise a well informed Catholic (pace Jimmy Akin, who is a great guy, but not a reliable interpreter of canon law), you know that every Friday of the year, as well as each day of Lent, is a penitential day of the Church. During Lent, the Friday penance must be observed by abstinence from meat, unless a solemnity should intervene. On the other Fridays of the year, the Friday penance shall be observed by abstinence from meat, unless a solemnity should intervene or unless one's nation's conference of bishops has substituted some other form of penance (1983 CIC), as is arguably the case in the United States (pdf: paragraphs 18-28).
In the vein of nourishing Catholic identity, some very heartening news came out of the United Kingdom this week (notwithstanding the fact that the bishops' press agent was unable to craft a factually correct headline ...).
The bishops' statement:
"By the practice of penance every Catholic identifies with Christ in his death on the cross. We do so in prayer, through uniting the sufferings and sacrifices in our lives with those of Christ’s passion; in fasting, by dying to self in order to be close to Christ; in almsgiving, by demonstrating our solidarity with the sufferings of Christ in those in need. All three forms of penance form a vital part of Christian living. When this is visible in the public arena, then it is also an important act of witness.
"Every Friday is set aside by the Church as a special day of penance, for it is the day of the death of our Lord. The law of the Church requires Catholics to abstain from meat on Fridays, or some other form of food, or to observe some other form of penance laid down by the Bishops' Conference.
"The Bishops wish to re-establish the practice of Friday penance in the lives of the faithful as a clear and distinctive mark of their own Catholic identity. They recognise that the best habits are those which are acquired as part of a common resolve and common witness. It is important that all the faithful be united in a common celebration of Friday penance.
"Respectful of this, and in accordance with the mind of the whole Church, the Bishops' Conference wishes to remind all Catholics in England and Wales of the obligation of Friday Penance. The Bishops have decided to re-establish the practice that this should be fulfilled by abstaining from meat. Those who cannot or choose not to eat meat as part of their normal diet should abstain from some other food of which they regularly partake. This is to come into effect from Friday 16 September 2011 when we will mark the anniversary of the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United Kingdom.
"Many may wish to go beyond this simple act of common witness and mark each Friday with a time of prayer and further self-sacrifice. In all these ways we unite our sacrifices to the sacrifice of Christ, who gave up his very life for our salvation."
Hopefully, our own nation's bishops will adopt a similar policy in the near future.
Facebook policies
Generation Christ & Facebook Guidelines
Facebook has implemented new changes on our groups, which affect the ways in which we can communicate with each other on Facebook. The groups are now "open" - which means that, if you are a member of a group, facebook permits you to message the whole group and create events that may invite all members of the group.
This is exciting, as it will be easier for us to communicate with each other and form a stronger community!
To make the best use of these new abilities, we are proposing the following guidelines to foster a community online and offline that is in-line with the mission of Generation Christ.
EVENTS:
Instead of willy-nilly creating events via the group - please forward event ideas (and appropriate pictures) to the Core Team by e-mailing generation dot christ dot ann dot arbor at gmail dot com
We will quickly check out the idea, confirm that it doesn't conflict (too much) with any other young adult Catholic or St. Thomas event that we are supporting and try to put together swift-looking Facebook event.
POSTS:
When making post on the wall or stating a conversation in each of the groups we ask that you keep thees things in mind.
The intent of the Group pages is for the members of the group to get together for GenChrist events and to build relationships by having a central location to contact one another. When making comments, please keep in mind that we are a Christian/Catholic group and the values of the group as a whole should be respected. Things that could be considered spam are inappropriate.
While it is wonderful that many people want to share articles and information regarding topics that may be of interest, please do not post them to one of our group pages. If there is a particular topic of interest or link that you would like to share, please feel free to do so on the fan page www.facebook.com/Generation.Christ
If there is any question about the topic or nature of a social event, please feel free to contact the core team and we would be happy to give our feedback on the nature of the event or topic.
Do post on the group page(s):
'A few of us are going to dinner before Gen Christ message me if you want to join'
'Coffee after the 10:45 a.m. Mass today - meet us in front of FMH'
Don't post on the group page(s):
'I'm selling my car'
'Let's go see Scream 4'
'You should read this article on ...'
FMH / SCH
As of Thursday, May 20th, FMH is filled to legal capacity for the first time since at least summer 2009 - Praise the Lord!
SCH will also be very full this fall - if, however, you know a young woman currently looking for summer lodging in Ann Arbor, direct her to call Sr. Mary Ann Foggin, SGL at (517) 342-2506
Ordinations
This afternoon will see the ordination of Dcn. Nate Harburg and Dcn. Eddie Dwyer to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, for service in the Diocese of Saginaw.
Tomorrow morning, 10:00 a.m., will see the diaconal ordinations for the Diocese of Lansing, at St. Thomas Aquinas parish, East Lansing.
The morning of Saturday, June 11th, will we the presbyteral ordinations for the Diocese of Lansing, at St. Mary Cathedral:
Dcn. Daniel Kogut
Dcn. Jonathan Perrotta
Dcn. David Rosenberg
There will be no daily Mass at St. Thomas the Apostle, that day.
