Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Brothers and Sisters, Praise be Jesus Christ! Additional confessions will be available Thursdays from 5:30-6:30pm. Stations of the Cross will follow - Thursdays at 6:30pm Collaborating with our Parish Cluster partners like we did in Advent, there will be Confessions also offered On Tuesdays of March 2021, from 4:00-5:00: Multiple confessors will be available on the following dates and locations: March 2 - St. Paul's March 9 - St. Francis de Sales March 16 - Nativity of the Lord March 23 - Queen of Heaven

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Brothers and Sisters, Praise be Jesus Christ! Lent Starts Wednesday! Lent starts Ash Wednesday February 17. We will have an “Ash Service” at 7am at which Dcn John will preside (no Mass). We will then have our regularly scheduled 8:30am Ord. Form Mass with the distribution of Ashes. At 6pm will be an Extra. Form High Mass with the distribution of Ashes. Due to covid, there are particular guidelines on how to distribute the ashes. This year if you are looking forward to a great big smudge of ashes on your forehead you will be disappointed.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Brothers and Sisters, Praise be Jesus Christ! Lent Coming Up Lent starts Ash Wednesday February 17. We will have an “Ash Service” at 7am at which Dcn John will preside (no Mass). We will then have our regularly scheduled 8:30am Ord. Form Mass with the distribution of Ashes. At 6pm will be an Extra.Form High Mass with the distribution of Ashes. Due to Covid, there are particular guidelines on how to distribute the ashes. This year if you are looking forward to a great big smudge of ashes on your forehead you will be disappointed.

Brothers and Sisters, Praise be Jesus Christ! Holy Water Returns! You may have noticed that not only have the holy water reservoirs returned to the narthex for those who want to fill their own bottles to use in church or at home, but also we have four new holy water “dispensers” at the main entrances of the nave. They are no-touch and “covid approved.” Simply place your fingers up near the top for a quick second and a few drops of holy water will trickle out with which you can bless yourself in the customary manner upon entering or leaving church. Any stray drops will fall into the bowl below. Remember holy water is a powerful sacramental that helps us to live out the graces of our baptism.

Praise be Jesus Christ in this new year! Happy Feast Day St. Paul’s Due to a miscommunication, I did not expect Bishop Malesic to be here for our 4:30 Mass this weekend. Thankfully it all worked out, but I could only give short notice about his presence. My original hope was that covid would be over by now and we could have a proper Feast Day Celebration with a social and finally conclude our 100th Anniversary, which we were robbed of. Alas, here we are and still waiting. But we are grateful that last feast day Bishop Perez was here before he went to Philadelphia, and this year we have our new shepherd to visit us. While we cannot have the reception or social, I would have liked to, we are glad to meet our new bishop as we continue to persevere through these times united as a church.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Praise be Jesus Christ in this new year! St. Paul Hosting St. Augustine Parish School Fr. Majikas, the pastor of St. Augustine in Barberton, approached me a couple weeks ago with a proposal for our parish to host the lower grades of St. Augustine School children. Due to major renovations in their school building, teaching the kids in person is not possible. Even during covid, the desire for in person instruction for the younger kids is great. Having worked with Fr. Majikas and Elaine Faessel, the principal of their school (who is also a parishioner of St. Paul) when I was assigned there back in 2013, I wanted to help out if we were able. I spoke with our staff and pastoral council. All agreed that we should explore a solution.

Forming Disciples of Christ in Community and Proclaiming the Gospel Dear Brothers and Sister in Christ, Merry Christmas and Happy Baptism of the Lord! Do You Know Your Baptism Day? I ask this all the time, I know, but it’s important! While we all know our birthdays, and, granted, that has to happen before our baptism, our baptism day is actually more important! Only through baptism do we receive God’s life, the promise of salvation, and the infusing of the virtues of faith, hope, and charity. We should know that day and celebrate the day every year. So look up your old baptismal certificate and find out.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Merry Christmas and Happy Feast of the Holy Family! We continue in this great octave of Christmas celebrating the sublime truth of God the Son, having assumed a human nature to Himself was born of the Virgin Mary to usher in new hope of salvation. God in perfect love condescends to His fallen sinful creatures and is born among them utterly vulnerable.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Christmas Schedule: December 24 4pm Vigil - Ord. Form - Livestreamed 10pm Mass at Night - Ord. Form December 25 Midnight Mass - Extra. Form - Livestreamed 11am - Ord. Form note that the regular Friday night confessions and Mass is canceled.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I came across an article written by Monsignor Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. He has a great blog you can check out. Here is part of his Advent reflection: “Remember, Repent, Rehearse – All these reflections help to place Advent in proper perspective for us. We are called to remember, repent and rehearse. We remember that Christ has already come and that he has called us to the obedience of faith and promised he will return in glory. We repent of whatever hinders our readiness for that day. And we rehearse for his second coming in glory by anticipating its demands and celebrating the glory that comes to those whom he finds watchful and ready.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I came across an article written by Monsignor Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. He has a great blog you can check out. Here is part of his Advent reflection: “Remember, Repent, Rehearse – All these reflections help to place Advent in proper perspective for us. We are called to remember, repent and rehearse. We remember that Christ has already come and that he has called us to the obedience of faith and promised he will return in glory. We repent of whatever hinders our readiness for that day. And we rehearse for his second coming in glory by anticipating its demands and celebrating the glory that comes to those whom he finds watchful and ready. In a sense every Mass is a dress rehearsal for the glory of the kingdom.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I came across an article written by Monsignor Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington D.C. He has a great blog you can check out. Here is part of his Advent reflection: “Remember, Repent, Rehearse – All these reflections help to place Advent in proper perspective for us. We are called to remember, repent and rehearse. We remember that Christ has already come and that he has called us to the obedience of faith and promised he will return in glory. We repent of whatever hinders our readiness for that day. And we rehearse for his second coming in glory by anticipating its demands and celebrating the glory that comes to those whom he finds watchful and ready. In a sense every Mass is a dress rehearsal for the glory of the kingdom.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Advent Goings On New Confession Opportunities. Normally our cluster parishes have a penance service in Advent to provide a communal opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Due to Covid we are changing it up a bit. We are simply spreading out between the four parishes. On select Tuesdays from 4-6pm all the priests of the cluster will be at a particular parish, and then rotate. Thus providing opportunities for different confessors and spreading the crowd around.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Covid Safety Reminder At the time of this writing the governor has put into place some restrictions in order to curb the number of Covid cases in the state. This does not affect churches in any legal sense, and I have not heard of any change in diocesan policy or guidelines. So as of right now, our approach remains the same at St. Paul’s. But here are some reminders: if one is sick or particularly vulnerable or worried about being around others, then please remain at home. It is not possible for us to turn the church into a nursing home or hospital with their level of sanitization.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Sunday Mass Schedule Update As you know the current Sunday Mass schedule is finishing our ten week trial period. Having listened to people’s suggestions during this time, parish council met to discern our next steps. We are deciding to continue offering an Extraordinary Form Mass at 9:30am on Sundays and making it a part of our regular schedule into the future. This leads to the question of how our holy day schedule will be affected.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with the Lord, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I am writing this on Election Day, so hopefully by the time you read this we will know who our next president will be. Regardless of what happens, many people will be disappointed. I pray that respect for the rule of law is maintained and peace reigns rather than discord and violence. As Catholics we are called to witness to the peace of Christ, which is quite different from the peace politicians try to promise and always fail to deliver. True peace is deeper and comes from an understanding of who we are as made in God’s image, but as fallen sinners we need God’s mercy.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with the Lord, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, All Saints’ Day This year All Saints’ Day falls on a Sunday. How blessed we are to have such a “cloud of witnesses” who constantly glorify God and intercede for us. Furthermore, we can look to their examples of heroic virtue while they lived on earth. Sometimes people tend to forget saints were not always saints. They were first sinners (with the exception of Mary of course) like us. They lived, worked, struggled, and had tough family issues. Just like us.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Lighting Project At the time of this writing, the new LED lights are in the sanctuary and look great! By this weekend all the bulbs in the nave will be replaced as well. I am very pleased with the result. The lights are brighter in order to help better read our missals (even though I know we are not using them as much now due to covid). However they are not so bright as to distract us. Over the next few years we will see a great amount of savings in our electric bill too. Thanks to Josh Craig, Denis Randall, Joe Guzi, and Mike Merle for making it happen.

Happy 66th Wedding Anniversary to Tony and Jane DiDonato! Fr. Pfeiffer joined them at their home to give them a special blessing to celebrate the wonderful graces God has bestowed upon them for 66 years. What a great example they give to us of the faithfulness in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Lighting Project At the time of this writing, our plan is to start replacing the central nave and sanctuary lights with LED bulbs. This project has been a long time coming, but finally we can finish it. There will be equipment in the church starting Mon. Oct. 19, but should be done by next weekend. Daily masses will continue like normal.