Saint Aidan Catholic Church - Livonia, MI
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  • Discover
    • Schedule >
      • Holy Week
    • Livestream Masses
    • Lent Fish Dinners
    • Contact
    • Register
    • About >
      • Our Patron Saint
      • Church Tour
      • PRES Plan
    • Groups >
      • Women of St. Aidan
      • Men's Club
      • Men's Prayer Group
      • Young(ish) Adults
    • Links
  • Grow
    • March Enrichment
    • Lent '23
    • Families
    • Blog
    • Bible Studies >
      • Exodus
    • Sacrament Prep >
      • Reconciliation & Holy Communion
      • Confirmation
    • Young(ish) Adults
    • Youth Ministry
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      • Online Studies
      • Sacraments
      • Faith Basics
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Divine Mercy Sunday - Message & Devotion

4/28/2019

 
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The message of The Divine Mercy is simple. It is that God loves us – all of us. And, He wants us to recognize that His mercy is greater than our sins, so that we will call upon Him with trust, receive His mercy, and let it flow through us to others. Thus, all will come to share His joy.

The Divine Mercy message is one we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC:
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  • Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world.
  • Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us.
  • Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive.

This message and devotion to Jesus as The Divine Mercy is based on the writings of St. Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God's mercy. Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread.

Spend time to learn more about the mercy of God, learn to trust in Jesus, and live your life as merciful to others, as Christ is merciful to you. Visit www.thedivinemercy.org.

David J. Conrad

The Triduum from Start to Finish

4/28/2019

 
Donned in my new imported, tailored, Italian threads from this year’s pilgrimage, I set out to serve at all of the Triduum liturgies. While I have served at every one of these before, I can’t recall ever serving at each consecutively, in a year. I have to say, it helped me jump start into the Easter Season. So much richness was there in those days, seeing it up front and attentively made up for the lackluster Lenten experience I felt this year.

While we had decent crowds, there was room for more at these liturgies. I know next Easter is a year away, but it is also a year closer to our time with Jesus, hopefully in heaven. Make a commitment this Easter to participate in as much of the 2020 Easter liturgies as possible. And, make a commitment to participate in Mass every weekend until then. Remember, St. Aidan has a 7pm Tuesday Mass that fits into working family’s schedules if you make room for it.

Paul Pyrkosz

The Peace of Christ

4/28/2019

 
Today, the Second Sunday of Easter, the familiar story of the Disciple (“Doubting”) Thomas’ absence from the upper room is told in the Gospel of John. The room was locked; Jesus appears and stands in their midst and says: “Peace be with you.” I was thinking about how this story begins with Christs’ greeting, and I began to consider what true peace may mean.

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In a general sense, peace is the absence of any conflict or chaos. On a personal level, it may mean many things: Peace may mean paying off this month's credit card bill or finishing that report for work. Peace may be arriving home after fighting rush hour traffic, or not fighting with your spouse or children for at least one night. Peace may be not hearing gunfire after dark, or having a whole night uninterrupted by a phone call of some bad news. Peace may mean a good report from the Doctor and lab. Peace is something that we desire for ourselves and should desire for others.

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So what about peace with God? For some that may be a distant concept. Maybe we've never really tried to establish a personal relationship with God. Maybe some of us used to feel good about our standing with God, but now we're filled with doubt. Maybe we don't have the feeling we used to have, or sin has gotten in the way. You know: the big kind of sin that leaves us feeling guilty for years. Or maybe it's just a general disenchantment with God and being disappointed by Him time and again. Perhaps we've grown a bit cold—not turning our backs on God—but just drifting away from Him.

All or any of these things may steal our peace. I suggest that to overcome those kinds of feelings, we might try to take the focus off ourselves and turn outward to Godly work that needs to be done. We need to recognize that we aren't trying to earn our own salvation, but should focus on Jesus and what He has done for us as the example for our own “acts” as apostles. Peace with God comes through trusting in Jesus, trusting in His love and His care for us, and working for the Kingdom. When our faith led us to baptism, we entered into a relationship with Him that will provide us with the peace that God can give. It's not about us… it's about Jesus and what He did for us.

If you don't feel at peace with God, you may still be focused on yourself. There is plenty to do—work is a blessing—and can bring you peace. Step away from you and turn toward others in this field of souls. Through what you do, you might be the reason that others receive some peace here on earth. Jesus is there in the lives and faces of those around you as you do what He would do. It's time to trust in Him and His power to save. Peace be with you!

Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

The Resurrection is Historical Fact

4/21/2019

 
John Updike wrote a beautiful poem where he chides Christians who want to treat Jesus’ Death and Resurrection as a moral parable rather than as an actual historical fact (see below).  Sadly, too many theologians and spiritual writers in recent times have tried to domesticate the Resurrection: “It just means the cause of Jesus goes on; we are just going to bear his presence to the world; it means we remember him fondly; it means he has gone to God.”  The trouble with these statements is that the same could be said of any great and admired figure.  If that is all the Resurrection - and thus Christianity - means, then it falls apart.  The Resurrection is not something that happens to the disciples; it happens to Jesus.  God the Father raises Jesus from the dead, and Jesus shows Himself bodily present to His disciples after His death.  Jesus was not simply resuscitated, that is, returned to this world as He was before death; Jesus is transformed.  He has conquered death.  Jesus appeared bodily present to His disciples.  This reality took their breath away.  The Good News is first and foremost the fact that Jesus is bodily risen from the dead.  Everything else in the Christian life flows from this reality.  Because of His Resurrection, we see that Jesus has conquered sin and death.  If you take those things away, you take Christianity away.  The Resurrection is the corner-stone of Christian faith.  Christ is Risen!  Indeed, He is Risen!

David J. Conrad


Seven Stanzas for Easter

Make no mistake: if he rose at all It was as His body; If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit, The amino acids rekindle, The Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers, Each soft spring recurrent; It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the Eleven apostles; It was as His flesh; ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes The same valved heart That-pierced-died, withered, paused, and then regathered Out of enduring Might New strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor, Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence, Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded Credulity of earlier ages: Let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache, Not a stone in a story, But the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of Time will eclipse for each of us The wide light of day.

And if we have an angel at the tomb, Make it a real angel, Weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in The dawn light, robed in real linen Spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous, For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty, Lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed By the miracle, And crushed by remonstrance.

Falling for the Third Time, Again

4/21/2019

 
It turns out falling twice is never enough to make a point. Another Lent went by, and while I spend my days crisscrossing parishes and genuflecting before the Blessed Sacrament, I still fail over and over at leading a life as the Archbishop is now calling all of us to do; as one in a band of joyful missionary disciples. There were points during Lent when I was reminded I needed to step up my prayer, but I fell back into my old ways soon after, again and again and again.

St. Francis probably had good reason for the 9th station of the cross, “Jesus Falls a Third Time.” Perhaps it had to do with Peter denying Jesus three times, or maybe it also had to do with John’s Gospel where Peter is asked three times “Do you love me?” Well, here we all are at Easter. And just like Peter we cry in front of Jesus, admitting our shortcomings and weaknesses and say to the Resurrected Christ, “You know everything, you know that I love you.” We certainly fell along the way, and we will fall again, but today we celebrate that scraped knee, stand up, and profess our love to Jesus in His glorious defeat over sin and death. If Easter is in our heart, we are rejoicing in His love, hopeful of our salvation, and constantly working to strengthen our triple love for Him.

Have a Blessed Easter Season.
​
Paul Pyrkosz

An Easter Story of Grace and Generosity

4/21/2019

 
The following is from “The Best of Bits and Pieces” (Arthur Lenehan)

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Robert De Vincenzo, the great Argentine golfer, once won a tournament and after receiving the check and smiling for the cameras, went to the clubhouse and prepared to leave. As he walked alone to his car in the parking lot, he was approached by a young woman. She congratulated him on his victory and then told him that her child was seriously ill and near death. She did not know how she could pay the doctor's bills and hospital expenses. De Vincenzo was touched by her story, took out a pen and endorsed his winning check over to her. “Make some good days for the baby,” he said as he pressed the check into her hand.

The next week he was having lunch in a country club when a Professional Golf Association official came to his table. “Some of the boys in the parking lot last week told me you met a young woman there after you won that tournament.” De Vincenzo nodded. “Well,” said the official, “I have news for you: that woman is a phony. She has no sick baby. She fleeced you, my friend.” De Vincenzo said, “You mean there is no baby who is dying?”  “That's right,” said the official. “Well!” said De Vincenzo, “That's the best news I've heard all week!”

De Vincenzo's attitude is reminiscent of the generous spirit that God has shown toward us. He responded to the good news of a baby not sick and dying, rather than the fact that he had been tricked by the woman. Despite mankind taking God's goodness for granted, and despite our repeated failures of sinfulness, God was willing to give us the ultimate sacrifice of His Son. God did so; willingly and gladly, knowing that while most of us would only show disdain for his gift, some of us would respond in obedience motivated by faith and love.

“For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the u godly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find the courage to die. But God proves his love for us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)”

At Easter we welcome back those who have been away from the Body of Christ (maybe since Christmas). As Disciples we are called to be as generous to others as God was for us. May the realization of what God has given motivate you to respond to Him, and to reach out to others with the same kind of love always. Keep praying! Keep breathing!

Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

Just a Note: Thank you and may God bless all the members of the St. Aidan Music Ministry - choirs, cantors and instrumentalists - who gave so generously of their time, talent and treasure in order to serve for all of the Holy Week liturgies! Please hug a musician today for their hard work, love and dedication to this parish. Thanks so much!

Blessing of Foods at Easter

4/14/2019

 
PictureThe Author's 2008 Easter Basket
Archbishop Vigneron reminds us that “faith is enculturated through various family and cultural traditions and celebrations” (Unleash the Gospel, 7.2).  Easter provides an excellent opportunity for enculturation by assembling and having blessed your family’s basket of Easter foods.  Though associated with the Polish heritage, this delightful practice can be acquired by any family; the gradual acquisition of the characteristics and norms of a culture other than one’s own can be very enriching, and in this particular case, is an opportunity to weave our Catholic faith into the rhythm of our daily life.

I think we are quite familiar with children’s Easter baskets, but did you know they owe their origin to the custom of bringing baskets of food to church for blessing on Holy Saturday?  The children’s baskets of candy and eggs can be included in the blessing service.

The foods traditionally blessed for Easter, the feast of the Lord’s Passover from death to life, are the foods which God prescribed for the ancient Passover meal: lamb, bread, wine, and bitter herbs.

The lamb, either meat or a symbolic lamb in the form of cake or butter, is the ancient Passover food by whose blood the Israelites were saved.  Jesus is our Paschal (Passover) Lamb by whose blood we are saved.

Ham celebrates the freedom of the New Law which came into effect through Jesus’ Resurrection, in distinction to the Old Law which forbade certain meats.  Sausage is the ethnic addition to enhance the celebration; its links remind us of the chains of death which were broken when Jesus rose from the dead.

Bread reminds us of Jesus, the risen Lord, who in the Eucharist is the food of our earthly journey and the true bread of everlasting life.

Eggs are a sign of hope and resurrection.  Jesus comes forth from the tomb as the chick breaks the shell at birth.  Because of the special meaning, it is fitting that the eggs to be blessed are decorated.

Horseradish represents the bitter herbs prescribed in the original Passover meal as  reminder of the bitterness and harshness of life in Egypt.  It reminds us of the the bitterness of Jesus’ Passion by which He entered into glory.

Wine is the drink of the Passover meal and the Last Supper.  Its sparkle reminds us of the glory of Easter.  Wine gladdens our hearts and helps us enter into the joy of Christ’s Resurrection.

Everything for the Easter meal may be blessed.  The custom is to reserve the eating of blessed food until after one participates in Easter Mass.

The Blessing of the Easter Food here at St. Aidan’s will be on Holy Saturday, April 20th at 11 A.M. in the church.

David J. Conrad

Power

4/14/2019

 
Ours is a culture that loves and promotes the powerful. Politicians spend fortunes to be elected to an office that will give them significant power to enable them to influence what things happen and how they take place, and how much they will benefit personally themselves—instead of serving. Athletes work every angle and stretch every rule in order to increase their strength and stamina so that through their superior physical power they will be able to defeat their opponent. The business world is built upon the premise that more power is better and the one with the most power wins.

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While the world caters to the powerful, for many (most) of us much of life involves trying to cope with the times when we are powerless. You know those moments, when you cannot control the outcome of a situation by anything you say or do. Think of them: a doctor’s diagnosis, a family members’ rage and exit, an unfaithful spouse, a natural disaster. This is the way of this world, this is life. We work hard. We do what we can. We try hard to make our own way and prove we can handle anything that comes our way. Then, suddenly, we find ourselves flat on our back wondering what happened. We have “fallen and we cannot get up.” We are powerless.

Though the world looks at these times of being powerless as the ultimate failure, Scripture sees it as an opportunity to receive a blessing from God. Just compare Palm Sunday (today) and Good Friday. Jesus enters Jerusalem at the “top of His game” and the people love him and cheer. On Good Friday He is crucified like the lowest criminal and abandoned by His friends. He appears powerless, beaten and broken—but our belief shows us that God works through all things for good, through all things to bring us back to Him.

Chances are good that today or tomorrow or the next day you will find yourself faced with a situation that you cannot control. It may be a business deal, it may be a relationship, or it may be a family crisis. You are totally and absolutely powerless to personally fix it, change it, undo it, or improve it. Change for this situation does not rest upon you—even though it may be the result of your own actions or choices, or it may simply be the way of the world. Regardless, you are powerless.

As wrong and unfair as it may appear, you may be in the best situation of your life to experience the grace of God. Though it appears hopeless, you can recover if you will allow God to come to you in your powerless state and do what only He can do. You see, God promises that His gracious favor is all you need. His power works best in your weakness—and as we know—nothing ever stays the same. Change is God’s movement in our lives. So, pick up your cross, pray and be at peace. He rose and you will too. Keep breathing. Keep praying. Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

Just a Note: When we travel, we travel prepared: we pack our suitcases carefully with the items needed for our journey, we leave our homes ready for our return, and we attend to the details that make our journeys meaningful. My suggestion is to take the same care in preparation for this Holy Week journey of faith: read the scripture; be rested in order to truly focus and hear the Word; prepare your spirit through the Sacrament of Reconciliation; plan “attendance first” to all the liturgies─and let other stuff come second. When we prepare well for a journey, we will make the most of it. Doesn’t your Lord and Savior who died for you deserve your focus and attention for a week? See you in church!

Blessing & Procession of Palms/Flag of the Holy League

4/6/2019

 
Blessing & Procession of Palms

Next weekend is Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.  “On this day the Church recalls the entrance of Christ the Lord into Jerusalem to accomplish his Paschal Mystery.  Accordingly, the memorial of this entrance of the Lord takes place at all Masses” (Roman Missal).  Thus, we shall begin all Masses next weekend in the atrium of the church between the weekday chapel and main church doors.  A blessing and procession of palms will precede the start of Mass to help us recall the triumphal entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem days before accomplishing His saving mission by means of His death and resurrection.  Blessed palms will only be available to those who join us for the blessing in the atrium.  There will, however, be a table erected in the atrium so that after the blessing and procession you can obtain palms if you haven’t already done so.
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Flag of the Holy League

A number of you were asking about the unique flag on display in Bixman Hall during our recent Donut Sunday social after Masses March 24th.  The flag is a replica of the original 1571 version representing the Holy League, an alliance of Catholic parties organized by St. Pope Pius V and including Habsburg Spain, the Republic of Venice, and Don Juan of Austria.  The crucified Christ stand above the coats of arms of these leaders of the League, and all are linked by chains symbolizing their alliance.  Together they successfully thwarted an impending Muslim invasion of Italy at the naval Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 through the intercession of our Blessed Mother and the prayer of the Rosary.  The original flag was flown by the leader of the Catholic naval forces, Don Juan of Austria, from his flagship Real. It is made of blue damask interwoven with gold thread and is close to 24 feet long and about 14.5 feet wide.  The flag we have on display is a scaled down version of woven polyester.

What relevance does a flag like this have for us now?  For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens (Ephesians 6:12).  Think of this flag as a reminder that we must be united in opposing forces that threaten our faith and the sanctify of human life.  Under Christ and through the intercession of His Mother, Mary, we can conquer through our prayers those dark forces arrayed against the free exercise of religion, and the self-centeredness of our times that all too often thinks of vulnerable human beings as disposable.

David J. Conrad

God's Upward Calling

4/6/2019

 
Today, this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we are asked to forget what is behind us, and to move forward⎯toward and into a life in Christ.

​In the First Reading from the Prophet Isaiah (Cycle C) God tells us to “Remember not the things of the past, the things long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!” We are told to leave our sinful past; and to seek a new life in holiness and in God’s love. We all know that it is so hard, though, to let go of our regrets of sin and our choices—but unless they fuel forward movement to something new—they will weigh us down and paralyze any movement at all.

St. Paul talks of “straining forward to what lies ahead, I (we!) continue my (our!) pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling…” We understand that we are asked to do the same as he did. In fact, the Gospel Acclamation today (Year C) asks us to turn to the Lord with your whole heart, for the Lord is gracious and merciful. We all need the gracious and merciful love of God in any endeavor we may pursue in our upward calling to holiness.

The Gospel story today is about the stoning of the adulterous woman: the trap for Jesus laid by the Pharisees. Jesus simply responds to them that the person who is without sin should throw the first stone; and of course, they all leave—for who among any of us is without sin?  Jesus then tells the woman to go and sin no more⎯to leave her past behind and move on to a better future; to unburden herself of her past and strive for holiness. We Catholics enjoy this gift and Sacrament of Reconciliation and Absolution!

We are all asked to be like the adulterous woman regarding our own sins and our own struggles for grace. And, like those Pharisees, we are also reminded about our deplorable attitudes of judgment and condemnation toward ourselves and others.

This is the spirit of the Lenten Season: our reconciliation, our striving to change, and our conversion. As Disciples of Christ we must pursue this “upward calling.” No more stone throwing!

Today the Responsorial Psalm (Year A) is: “With the Lord there is mercy, and fulness of redemption.” We know that in our strivings we may fail; but the idea is to begin again, and to keep working to be the best versions of ourselves that God made us to be. It’s such a grace for us that God is merciful and forgiving—our job is to work in the Kingdom for God’s “upward calling.” The work itself may be your redemption… This is always the goal and the prize. I invite you to use this psalm refrain as comfort and as a breath prayer. We have the fulness of redemption! Keep breathing! Keep striving! Keep praying!

Keep singing!

Elizabeth Dyc

    Authors

    David J. Conrad, M.A. Theology. Our Director of Faith Formation.

    Paul Pyrkosz. Our Youth Minister & Bookkeeper.

    ​Elizabeth Dyc. Our Director of Music Ministry.

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St. Aidan Catholic Church
17500 Farmington Rd. 
Livonia, MI 48152
Phone: 734-425-5950
office@saintaidanlivonia.org

Weekend Mass Schedule
Saturday Vigil: 5:00 p.m.
Sunday: 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 a.m.

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