News

SSt. Joseph's Church, Detroit, Michigan



		July Month of Most Precious Blood Year of Prayer for Priestly Vocations Our annual German Picnic is coming! Featuring authentic German cusine courtesy of the ladies of the Carpathia Club! Date: August 6th Location: St. Joseph Church grounds Cost: The Suggested Donation to attend the German Picnic is $12.00, which includes the standard meal. However, individual items will be priced à la carte and inexpensively to include as many people as possible. Cash Bar will include premium German Beer and Wine SAVE THE DATE! The parish will hold a dinner to mark the end of its 150th anniversary year. It will take place on Sunday, November 5, 2006, at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Warren. The exact time has not been established yet, and tickets will go on sale later, but please mark the date on your calendar, so that you won't miss the event. Get involved in the Parish Council! All parishioners are welcome to attend the meetings and participate in the governance of the parish. You can download the minutes from the last meeting here. REGISTRATION If you have been attending St. Joseph Parish but have not registered as a parishioner, please consider joining us! You can download a registration form here. Once you have completed it, please drop it into the collection basket at Mass, or send it to the address at the top of the sheet. Don't forget Daily Mass! Fr. Mark has reinstated daily Mass in our cluster. Mass is held Monday and Tuesday in Latin, and Wednesday in English at St. Joseph's at 12:10 p.m. Thursday noon Mass is at St. Josaphat's, and Fridays at Sweetest Heart of Mary, also at noon. Take the time for midday worship! We desperately need more advertisers for our church bulletin! At the present time we are down to one patron. We need 13 to pay for our printing. Suburban parishes are subsidizing the bulletins for St. Joseph & Sweetest Heart of Mary but will not continue to do so much longer. We will soon have a combined bulletin for our cluster. One unit of advertising 1 x 2 1/2 inches is $332.47 per year. A half unit 1/2 x 2 1/2 is $202.54. Please contact the parish office if you know of anyone who will advertise with us WE STILL NEED USHERS! Mike Singelyn is the interim captain of the ushers' club. Men and women who are able to usher at our regular Sunday Masses and the monthly German Mass are asked to call Mike at 313-885-5333 to volunteer their services. Choral Mass schedule The choir is currently on summer break. A new season is tentatively set to begin on September 10. Details on the new season will appear on News page and the Music Schedule page. *New choir members* -- trained or not -- are very welcome! News: July 30, 2006 SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Special thanks go out to Jason Huyghe who is donating his time and talent to repair and rebuild our rectory porches. Everyone can take notice of Jason’s handiwork as he has just finished building new steps for the porch that faces the courtyard. Jason, you make our hearts sing! What would our parish do without its volunteers? Our 3rd annual St. Joseph German picnic will take place on Sunday, August 6th. We will need volunteers for that weekend and sign-up sheets will be available today after Masses. On Saturday, August 5th, we will assemble the canopies for the food line, wash the outdoor tables and chairs and set them up in the rectory yard. On Sunday, we will need folks to help on the food and beverage line, folks to carry food to the tables for the elderly or handicapped, folks to empty trash, grillers, and people to take everything down at the end of the day. Our picnic traditionally lasts from 12:30 to 4:00 p.m. Please set this date aside and invite your friends and neighbors for an afternoon of great food and friendship on our historic parish grounds. As usual, a church tour will be included with the opportunity to ring our bells. Try pulling the 5,000 pound bell! Sign up after Mass today to help out with our annual picnic. Mother used to say: Many hands make light work. Don’t disappoint your mother! Pray With the Nation and the World In World War II there was an advisor to Winston Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every day at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people and peace. There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America. If you would like to participate: Every evening at 9:00 pm Eastern Time, (8:00 pm Central) (6:00 pm Pacific) stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying for the safety of the United States, our troops, our citizens, and for a return to a Godly nation. If you know of others who would like to participate, pass this along. Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have. Together we can make a difference! Zooming in from Outer Space If you have the free program Google Earth on your computer, and you enter the street address of our church -- 1828 Jay St, Detroit, MI -- the software will fly you over Michigan, zoom down to Detroit and show you a perfect satellite image of St. Joseph's. How cool! To download Google Earth and see for yourself, go to http://earth.google.com. News: July 23, 2006 SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Thin on the high end Our choir needs tenors. We are down to 2 tenors. Each section of our choir needs at least 3 singers. The soprano, alto, and bass sections each have at least 3 singers and sometimes more. We managed the entire 2005-06 music season with just 2 tenors and sometimes only one. Our choir sings every other Sunday from early September to early June. Choir practice is every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. We do not practice on the 4th Sunday because of the German Mass. Please feel free to contact Dr. David Wagner our organist 313 433-7760. The choir season will resume on Sunday, September 10th with rehearsals to be announced. More on the German picnic Our 3rd annual St. Joseph German picnic will take place on Sunday, August 6th. We will need volunteers for that weekend and sign-up sheets will be available today and on July 30th after Masses. On Saturday, August 5th, we will assemble the canopies for the food line, wash the outdoor tables and chairs and set them up in the rectory yard. On Sunday, we will need folks to help on the food and beverage line, folks to carry food to the tables for the elderly or handicapped, folks to empty trash, grillers, and people to take everything down at the end of the day. Our picnic traditionally lasts from 12:30 to 4:00 p.m. Please set this date aside and invite your friends and neighbors for an afternoon of great food and friendship on our historic parish grounds. As usual, a church tour will be included with the opportunity to ring our bells. Try pulling the 5,000 pound bell! Our Lord sent the Apostles out with the instruction that they should teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He also instructed us to pray that the Lord of the Harvest would send workers into His vineyard. Do we pray on a daily basis for the vocations needed to spread the Gospel? The shortage of priests would indicate that we do not. The complete Bible has been translated into only 303 of the world’s 5000 languages, the New Testament into 670 and at least one book into 911. By the way, have you ever wondered what is involved in translating the Bible into another language? Check out the site of the Summer Institute of Linguistics for a short rundown. Once as a guest in someone’s home, Anthony was seen through an open window, deep in meditation and communion. He was holding Christ so single-mindedly in his heart that the Christ Child was seen in his arms. Images of Anthony with the child Jesus, are common in Catholic art. Our statue of Saint Anthony is in sad condition and is in dire need of repair. Perhaps someone in our parish family has a hidden talent at statue repair. News: July 16, 2006 FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME German Picnic Our 3rd annual St. Joseph German picnic will take place on Sunday, August 6th. We will need volunteers for that weekend, and sign-up sheets will be available on July 30th after Masses. On Saturday, August 5th, we will assemble the canopies for the food line, wash the outdoor tables and chairs and set them up in the rectory yard. On Sunday, we will need folks to help on the food and beverage line, folks to carry food to the tables for the elderly or handicapped, folks to empty trash, grillers, and people to take everything down at the end of the day. Our picnic traditionally lasts from 12:30 to 4:00 p.m. Since Fr. Mark Borkowski became our administrator, our picnic has changed from a potluck to a fund raising event. Although our last two picnics realized a profit of less than $2,000 each, we have the potential of growing larger year by year. Eventually we are hopeful that the picnic will become a major source of supplementing our annual income. Please set this date aside and invite your friends and neighbors for an afternoon of great food and friendship on our historic parish grounds. As usual, a church tour will be included with the opportunity to ring our bells. Try pulling the 5,000 pound bell! Christmas in July Next Sunday, July 23rd, Fr. Mark will host the annual Christmas in July turkey dinner at Sweetest Heart of Mary. Tickets are $10.00 and are available in our vestibule. Raffle Our Knights of Columbus are raffling a for dinner for two at your choice of any restaurant in southeastern Michigan in conjunction with the Christmas in July dinner. The winners will be chauffeured in a vintage Rolls Royce limo and a red carpet will be rolled out for them as they emerge from the car in front of the restaurant. The Rolls Royce can be viewed at the Christmas in July festivity. One Nation, under God It has been said that only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you. Our Lord Jesus Christ and the American G.I. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom. When our Lady appeared at Fatima, Portugal in 1917 during the First World War, she asked that people pray the Rosary daily for peace in the world. The Rosary has been called Heaven’s Peace Plan. It takes about 15 minutes to pray. Can we give up 15 minutes a day to help bring peace to our world? Our Heaveny Mother seems to think so! News: July 9, 2006 FOURTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME SOME WORK DELAYED! Repairs continue on our steeple. Although the two back porches on the rectory are filled with rotted wood and have to be rebuilt, our operating checking account dipped to an all time low of $555.00 on June 27th and it is no longer possible to repair both porches at this time. We have enough lumber on hand to repair the porch facing the parking area and enough to repair only the steps on the porch facing the yard. Labor is being donated., but the rebuilding of the inner yard porch has been put on hold. The steeple must be our financial priority at this time. One donation and a small bequest have come in since June 27th that will hopefully help to cover some of the repair on the steeple. Saint Joseph Church has 233 registered parishioners. On an average Sunday 50 to 60 envelopes come into our collection. Our average weekly income varies from a low of $990.00 to a high of $2,000.00. Our winter heating bills have doubled since last year. We have had gas bills this past winter as high as $3,000. The recent roof repairs to the church and the garage were just shy of $70,000. Steeple repairs are pending. We pay a full time custodian approximately $24,000 a year. We pay a portion of the salary of Fr. Borkowski and Fr. Ward. We pay an organist. We pay musicians for our orchestral Masses. Electrical and plumbing problems that are beyond the scope of our custodian require that we hire professional tradesmen for the more complicated problems that arise in our century old buildings. Our fund raising activities such as our summer picnic bring in approximately $1,500 in profit. Simple arithmetic tells us that our outgo has become more than our income. If we as parishioners donate an average of $3.00 to $5.00 per week, it is easy to see why our finances are having a serious shortfall. The same gasoline that costs about $2.80 per gallon for a car has to fuel the parish lawn mower. Costs of everything have gone up but our income has remained the same, year after year. The Scriptures tell us that our loving Heavenly Father expects us to tithe our income at the rate of 10%. He promises us a return of 100 fold. God is not outdone in generosity. Can we match Him in returning that generosity? Catholic Services Appeal Report as of June 30, 2006 Amount Pledged……………….$13,174.00 Amount Paid……………………$8,774.00 Number of donors………………...…….66 Required goal………………….$10,951.00 Praise God, we are over our goal! If everyone completes their pledge, $2,223 will be returned to the parish. All money donated now will come back to the parish. Last year we went over our goal by $4,881 with 76 donors. Can we do it again? News: July 2, 2006 THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME Repair Challenges As repairs continue on our steeple, another expense has arisen, this one at the rectory. The two back porches are filled with rotted wood and have to be rebuilt. The initial estimate was given before any wood had been removed and it appeared that the total cost would be a thousand dollars. Now after some wood removal, the estimate will have to be revised as more lumber will be needed. The best part about this repair is that Fr. Paul has found a volunteer to donate the labor for the project. Charles Singelyn has terminal cancer. His name has been added to our sick list. His brother is Mike Singelyn, our usher and wedding coordinator, Catholic Services Appeal Report as of June 23, 2006 Amount Pledged……………….$12,774.00 Amount Paid……………………$8,774.00 Number of donors………………...…….66 Required goal………………….$10,951.00 Praise God, we are over our goal! If everyone completes their pledge, $1,823 will be returned to the parish. If anyone has lost their CSA card and would like to donate, just put your check into a plain envelope with your name and CSA on the outside and we can take care of the rest. Many thanks. All money donated now will come back to the parish to be used for the many expensive projects that are ongoing. The month of July is dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus. "Most Precious Blood of life eternal; price and ransom of the world, drink and bath of the soul, ever pleading the cause of man before the throne of Mercy; I adore Thee most profoundly! Who will not bless this Blood of infinite value? Who does not feel himself on fire with the love of Jesus who shed it all for us? What should I be but for this Blood which has redeemed me? And what drew Thee, Thou Precious Blood, from the veins of my Lord, even to the last drop? It was boundless love, which gave us this saving balsam. O balsam beyond all price, streaming forth from the fount of immeasurable love! Give to all hearts, all tongues, power to praise, celebrate, and thank Thee, now and ever and throughout all eternity. Amen “The contemplation of the wonders of the Divine Blood, inexhaustible source of reconciliation and peace, will console your heart and afford hope to your soul.” Words of His Holiness, Pope Pius XII. In the charity of your prayers, remember the sick New stories in Patrick's History Corner More thoughts posted on the Meditations page News Archive