The message that the readings share for this weekend is that the Good News confronts us with the need to make a decision. We are either for Jesus or we are against Him. Simply going to church on Holy Days of Obligations is not enough. If our decision to be FOR Jesus makes no difference in how we live our lives, then all the Masses, prayers and almsgiving is in vain. It is all a mockery that cries out to heaven for vengeance. Jesus wants our undivided hearts.

Are we convinced that following Jesus, living according to His will, is the right thing? If so, we should live our Christian Faith 24×7. Jesus wants us to have an undivided heart so that we too can have strength of soul and peace of mind. He tells us that we can only serve one master, and we must decide who it will be, God or man.

It is difficult to make a total decision for Jesus Christ. Often it is difficult to know what He is asking us to do, and often it is even harder to do it. That is why Jesus gives us himself through the Eucharist – enlightening and strengthening us before sending us back to our everyday lives. It is outside the church walls that our decision to live completely for Jesus Christ is put to the test. It is in our everyday life that we encounter Jesus afresh; in the people and circumstances of our lives. It is there, in those everyday moments and circumstances that we are called to live with undivided hearts. Let us do the best we can and that’s all is asked of us.

Final Reminder—Sacrament of Anointing

If you wish to receive the Sacrament of Anointing during the 5 pm Mass on Saturday, September 24, you are asked to call the rectory office 313-532-4394 by Wednesday, September 21; and register your name.

Congratulations to Jim Nicola

On October 1, 2016 our own parish member, Jim Nicola will be ordained a deacon at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament. St. Valentine Parish can be proud of sharing one priest and two deacons (so far) to minister in this Archdiocese. As for Jim, it will be a new ministry and a new responsibility besides all his family responsibilities.

Join us on October 8 as he will be assisting for the first time as Deacon Jim at the 5:00 pm Mass at St. Valentine. It will be a good opportunity to participate in the Mass and to congratulate him. Let us offer a prayer for him and his family as he takes up this new task. As we congratulate him we also ask the Lord to be with him in his journey and guide him.

 India Catholic Association (ICA)

I also want to give you a heads up that on October 1, 2016 the 5.00 pm Mass will be for the India Catholic Association (ICA) with Archbishop Vigneron being the main celebrant.  Anyone can be part of this celebration in Church as the Mass itself will not take any extra time. The ICA is not that big of a community so everyone can be accommodated in the Church. They will take care of the music and the liturgy including Lectors and Eucharistic Ministers.  And then we will have the second part of celebration in the School Gym where if you want to be part of it then you will have to pay so I won’t encourage you to be there since everything has been already preplanned, but it will be great to see many of you in Church on Saturday, October 1 for the 5.00 pm Mass so that we can have a wonderful celebration with The Most Rev. Allen Vigneron.

God Bless you.

Fr. Socorro

Someone once asked Charles Dickens what the best story in the English Language was, and his reply was ‘The Prodigal Son’. Today’s gospel has a message for all of us.

Man cannot live without forgiveness. We all have sometimes or the other “gone astray” and disobeyed God’s commandments. Though we are sinners we hope in the great mercy of God. That is the lesson of today’s Gospel.

We are surrounded by the evils that threatened our very existence. We are also a part of the evil that surrounds us. We multiply our sufferings through indifference and selfishness. At times we feel afraid and we realize our own helplessness. But Jesus says: “have no fear, I have overcome this world.” Thank God, the world is not lacking in people who sow peace, love and goodness; there are people who help us carry the cross, who accept us, who make us realize forgiveness. This gives us hope to begin anew.

 In contrast to the pagan gods our God is full of mercy and compassion. God’s mercy is sung 25 times in the Psalm 196: “The mercy of God is everlasting.” More than all the others, Luke’s gospel stresses mercy. Luke’s gospel can be called as ‘the Gospel of joyful mercy.’ The three parables illustrate it very clearly. – The Lost sheep (Lk 15: 4-7), The Lost coin (Lk 15: 8-10), The Prodigal Son (Lk 15 11:32).  These passages of mercy are highly recommended to us by the Church as resources for the Year of Mercy.

 The lesson we have to learn is simple: God loves us, we is precious to Him. By all means God wants to save man. “Found”, “returned”, “forgiven”, reconciled”: these are catch words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Picnic – Thank You!

 My gratitude to God for experiencing such a fantastic mass and picnic two weeks ago. We really enjoyed the wonderful, worship, food, and fellowship.  Thank you to everyone who helped make the Parish Picnic a success. Thank you to our parish community for your time, attendance and prayers. Without each and every one of you, our picnic would not be the success as it is each year.

 A special thank you to all who donated items to the food table: salads, fruit, baked pies, and desserts.  To those who donated kid’s prizes and music, thank you. Those who arranged the gym – tables and chairs, those who put in time behind the scenes and to the kitchen crew, to ALL who gave time, treasures and prayers especially our Parish Council and all the volunteers who worked so hard to make the day a success.

Thank you!
Fr. Henry

Fun Run/Walk and Spaghetti Dinner – September 18th

• Reminder to Runners/Walkers – Please note the new packet pick up times
  Runners and Walkers don’t forget to pick up your “packet” on Friday, September 16th  3:00 p.m.—8:00 p.m., Saturday, September 17th 9:00 a.m.—11:00 a.m. or Sunday,  September 18th from 10:00 a.m.  – 1:00 p.m. in the School Meeting Room.  At these time we are accepting walk-ins for the race. 
• Spaghetti Dinner -If you are interested in attending the dinner only, We would appreciate it if you please submit a registration form. However, walk-ins will be Welcome. 
• Honor Guard Needed – We are looking for active servicemen and women who are serving in the armed forces, reserves or any veterans to participate in the Honor Guard at the Fun Run. Please call Bonnie at 313-532-4394 to participate.
• Bake Sale – Our 8th graders are sponsoring a bake sale at the Fun Run dinner. If you would like to donate a baked good, they would appreciate it! The monies raised will help with their graduation expenses. You may drop off your goodies at the Gym on Saturday or Sunday morning.

Thank you.

The miracle of this Sunday links with (and reminds us of) the past two weeks in our liturgy – the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. In Cana, once again, Jesus is “revealed” – all three Sundays are epiphanies of the Lord. John depicts Mary as involved at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and at the end he places her at the foot of the cross. Mary is thus associated with the whole ministry of Jesus but her role is always seen in relation to her son. She teaches us that our lives should always be seen in relation to Jesus. Perhaps, on this Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, we could ask ourselves are we, like Mary, involved in revealing Jesus to our world? Or do we find ourselves reserved, embarrassed and maybe even afraid to let others know that we are followers of Jesus?

If our faith is weak, or if we are afraid of sharing our faith with others, we should turn to Mary. Because of the miracle at the marriage feast at Cana, which Christ performed at his Mother’s request, his disciples learned to believe in him (cf. John 2:11). Our Mother is always interceding with her Son so that He may attend to our needs and show himself to us, so that we can cry out, “You are the Son of God.”

The Traveling Catholic Mass Mob

On February 7th, 2016, we have a wonderful opportunity to come together as one parish and celebrate our togetherness at the 12 noon Mass. Through Annamarie Barnes, the coordinator for the Traveling Catholic Mass Mob, we have this opportunity to welcome the Traveling Catholics Mass Mob to St. Valentine Parish. Let us not leave it to the traveling Catholics to fill up the pews; A full church would mark as making this Mass a special celebration. Pass on this information to your friends, relatives, former St. Valentine Parishioners, school alumni and invite people you know to attend.

As we have already announced, Rev. Bishop Donald Hanchon will be our Presider. So take it as a great opportunity to be a part of this Mob Mass. We all know that February 7th is Super Bowl Sunday, we can change the title and say February 7th is Super Val’s Sunday. We will need all the help we can get from all our Associations, Commissions, Committees, and all of you. So please be ready and willing to give us your helping hand. Look forward to more details in next week’s bulletin.

Blessings,

Fr. Socorro

School News

Dear St. Valentine Parishioners,

Each fall the students at St. Valentine School are given a series of standardized tests.  One of the tests is the Archdiocese of Detroit Religion test given to all students in the Archdiocese of Detroit in grades 3, 5, and 7.  While there is not a paper and pencil test that can measure a student’s faith, this Religion test is a measure of how much catechism knowledge students retain from their religion classes. We are very proud to report the following results.

St. Valentine Archdiocese of Detroit Religion Test Results 2015-2016

*Test results include ALL students, even those with special education needs.

6 students earned a perfect score of 100%

Building Average: 85.45% B

As always we are deeply grateful to St. Valentine Parish for continuing to support Catholic education to make daily immersion in our faith a possibility for the students in our community.

Many blessings,
Rachel Damuth
Principal