“The earth is the Lord’s and all it holds, the world and those who dwell in it. For he founded it on the seas, established it over the rivers. Who may go up the mountain of the Lord? Who can stand in his place? ‘The clean of hand and pure of heart, who has not [...]
Thankfulness and Hope In our last eNews just before Christmas, I wrote about HOPE and also made that the focus of my Christmas preaching. On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis launched the Jubilee Year 2025, a special year of prayer for the whole church, with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.” Now that the whirl of the [...]
This is my opportunity to say “Merry Christmas” to all of you, and to pray blessings for you in the New Year. May this holy season renew in you the gift of hope. No matter how dark our world seems – literally at this time of year, and metaphorically – as disciples of Jesus we [...]
Wright on Rites We have two important rites and two special celebrations coming up that will add to the spiritual depth and joy of our Advent liturgical celebrations. Welcoming & Celebration on December 8 This Sunday we will celebrate one of the sacramental Rites of Christian Initiation, the Rite of Welcoming our adult candidates for [...]
SPPJ is invited to participate in the Advent Simplicity Challenge, Ignatian Solidarity Network This Advent, commit to simplicity. In a season that can mistakenly be focused on gifts and consumption, explore ways to live simply as we hopefully prepare for the coming of Jesus and the restoration of the earth. This year, we’ll be mixing [...]
Welcome to Advent! This special edition of the eNews brings you an overview of our parish events for this special season of the church year. And a strange season it is. While our culture leads us in its own directions with shopping and gift-giving, Christmas music, parties and celebrations of family and friendship, our Sunday [...]
Endurance in Difficult Times Events Past and Future Since my last article, we completed the first phase of our “Called, Gifted, Committed” project; we are now organizing the information and contacting those who signed up for various parish ministries and activities. If you were not present on October 27, you’ll soon receive an email from [...]
First, let me begin with a THANK YOU to all who helped out with our celebration last Sunday in concert (excuse the pun) with the Detroit Jazz Festival: those who helped clean and decorate the altar and other spaces, those who provided cookies and helped with the social, and above all our music director, Julie [...]
COMMUNITY NEWS We have arrived in this late summer time at the midpoint in a series of five Sunday Gospel readings from the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel, exploring Jesus’s message about the Bread of Life. While that leads me to some elevated spiritual reflections, there is also plenty of down-to-earth community news to share [...]
PARISH GROWTH A few weeks ago, the Sunday Gospel included Jesus’s story about the green earth that sprouts and grows plants from seed to harvest “of itself” (automatos, in the Greek), without the gardener understanding how. Jesus creates the parable not to teach us about plants, of course, but about the way God’s presence and [...]