Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Liturgy Days Please look in the bulletin for the upcoming annual Liturgy Days. Every year I offer some continuing education in what is most important for us as a parish - giving worship to God through the Church’s Liturgy. Without the Liturgy and sacraments (especially the Mass) we are lost and all our efforts are diminished.

Please check out the St. Paul Photo Albums to see photos of the Historic Churches of Cleveland. About 50 people from neighboring parishes including St. Paul's accompanied Dcn. John Amedeo.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Vocations The word vocation comes from the Latin word, “vocare,” and it means “to call.” As Catholics we should know that every person has a primary vocation of living a life of holiness (even non-Catholics and non-Christians). God calls each of us to this no matter what our circumstances. This means we use the opportunities God gives, especially the sacramental graces as well as actual graces constantly calling us to deeper relationship with our Lord and deeper love of our neighbor.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Freedom in Christ This Thursday is Independence Day. Please note the Mass time is changed to 9am. It is a day we celebrate Freedom and thank God for the gift of freedom. We thank Him also for our country, this great experiment in republican democracy. The second reading for this weekend is apropos. St. Paul writes to the Galatians, “For freedom Christ set us free, so stand firm and do not submit again to the yolk of slavery. For you were called for freedom ... but do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather serve one another through love.”

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Happy Pentecost! As I write this I am in Assisi, Italy on retreat with Bishop Perez and twenty-five other priests of the Diocese of Cleveland. The hometown of St. Francis is a beautiful and blessed place. It is as if the whole town is the retreat house. The landscape is wonderful and the people charming. Think rustic old town country and then add one thousand years. Thankfully there are modern amenities and of course the food is awesome!

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Diabolical Weather and God’s Grace How about that crazy weather last Saturday night! Right as the 4:30 Mass began it became very loud in the church from the hail hitting the church roof. Even the lights seemed to dim ever so slightly and our electric organ’s volume wavered just a little bit. Interestingly this was during the blessing of water to prepare for the sprinkling rite.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Connected Through Prayer Bishop Perez is hosting a retreat for priests in Assisi, Italy. In honor of our ten year anniversary, my classmates and I are joining him for this great opportunity. And because we will already be in Europe we figured we might as well tag on some vacation time to celebrate with just the five of us, so we are touring through Germany on the Rhine River for a week after the retreat.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, The Gift of Priesthood, the Gift of Parish Last week you may have read in the bulletin that on May 16 was my tenth anniversary of Priestly ordination. I thank God for my sharing in the ministerial priesthood of His Son, Jesus, Who is the High Priest offering Himself eternally to the Father. Every vocation to the priesthood is a gift and a mystery.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Happy Mother’s Day! A special thank you to all our mothers. Because they chose life we are here! This weekend at the end of the Masses we will give our mothers a blessing and keep them in our prayers in a particular way. Also in honor of the spiritual motherhood Mary has for all of us, we will have a brief May Crowning prayer service after the 8:15 Mass.

Director Charles Kobb promises an evening of serendipitous entertainment as the 6 octaves of bells and 7 octaves of choir chimes their level of artistry inspire as well as entertain us. Click on this link to learn more!

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Congratulations to our Confirmandi! Last Tuesday at St. Francis de Sales Parish, Abbot Hoover confirmed some of our parishioners. Aubrey Walker, Rhett Evans, Ben Urdiales, and Thomas Tatum received their preparation along with St. Francis’s candidates. It was a wonderful celebration of God the Holy Spirit as these young people were sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Indeed, the Lord is Risen!! Happy Easter and Happy Divine Mercy Sunday! Yes indeed the Lord is risen! Let us rejoice and be glad! Do not be afraid to continue saying, “Happy Easter!” to people. We are still in the Octave of Easter and the Easter season continues for another six weeks! Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, which is a relatively new liturgical day.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Happy Easter! Happy Day of Resurrection!! Rejoice in the Lord Who fulfills His promises and Whose love is overflowing even conquering death! I pray Lent was a grace filled time for you and that you made time to enter into the holy time of this past week. Now we begin to celebrate in a new way for now we focus on how the Lord is risen, not just was risen, but IS risen and continues to share with us the new life of God’s grace. How great it is that Lent is six weeks long, but the Easter Season is seven weeks long! For the Lord, love overflows; it cannot be contained! Are we living that reality?

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Parish Financial Report This weekend, Jeff Kendro will be giving our parish financial report to the parish at the Masses. Jeff dedicates much of his time to help us fulfill our duties to all parishioners and to keep us in compliance with Diocesan directives. I thank him for all his hard work. I want to thank Jeanne Bearer, who works in our business office, to make sure our dedicated staff gets paid and also keeps us on track paying our bills.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Slight Liturgical Tweaking I am often asked this question after a person returns from visiting another parish for Mass: why do they do Holy Communion differently over at that parish? Well the answer is complicated, but bottom line is that it is up to the Bishop of the Diocese to make the determination of what posture to use during that part of Mass, because there are legitimate options from which to choose.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Lenten Mission Series Thank you to all who are participating in the Lenten Mission series we are hosting on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings. I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout especially the Saturday evening attendance. The past two weekends about 50-60 people have come to grow in understanding and living out God’s Forgiveness in our lives. If you have not come yet, please feel free to join us for the final few weeks. There is still much to receive in this Lenten Season.

On Easter, we will begin singing the appropriate seasonal Marian antiphon, the Regina Caeli.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Lenten Blessings! I hope Lent is going well so far and I hope people are taking advantage of the opportunity to grow spiritually at our Lenten Mission talks which start this weekend. Choose either Saturday evening at 5:45 after the Vigil Mass or Sunday mornings at 9:30 in between the Masses. Some core things to remember this Lent is first God’s mercy which is always available. Don’t ever be afraid to turn back to Him. Also we can do nothing, NOTHING!, on our own. Our good efforts and penance of Lent are only possible because of God’s grace and His inspiring us to grow in His Love. So let us embrace this truth and cooperate with Him more!

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Ash Wednesday is a few days away, so it is good for us to prepare to celebrate it well. Ash Wednesday distribution of ashes will be at the 8:30am and 5:30pm Masses. Our Lenten Mission: “Forgiveness” from FORMED.ORG This year for Lent we will focus on the Beauty of God’s Mercy, which of course has been a theme of Pope Francis since he was elected five years ago. Our parish will offer faith formation sessions so that all parishioners can take advantage to learn more about and ultimately live God’s mercy.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Our Lenten Mission: “Forgiveness” from FORMED.ORG Lent is not far away, so it is good for us to prepare to celebrate it well. This year for Lent we will focus on the Beauty of God’s Mercy, which of course has been a theme of Pope Francis since he was elected five years ago. Our parish will offer faith formation sessions so that all parishioners can take advantage to learn more about and ultimately live God’s mercy.