Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, He is Still Risen! Indeed He is Risen!!! May Crowning on Mother’s Day Weekend Immediately following the 4:30 Mass on May 8 we will celebrate the crowning of our Mary statue in the Church. Tessa Zellefrow, who recently received her first Holy Communion will bring forward the crown. Also at all the Masses will be a blessing for Mothers on their special day.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, He is Still Risen! Indeed He is Risen!!! Sacrament of Confirmation The following young people received the Sacrament of Confirmation this past week. Some celebrated it at St. Francis de Sales Parish with Bishop Gries and one person received the sacrament from Cardinal Burke in Cleveland as his Eminence was in town to celebrate a Confirmation Mass in the Extraordinary Form. Congratulations to them all as they have completed their sacraments of initiation and are now equipped by God’s grace to remain faithful and fight the battles necessary to usher in the Kingdom of God.

Imagine my delight when, as a music director, Don sent me a link to his new book:  "A Collection of Catholic Devotional Hymns to St. Joseph". 

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, He is Still Risen! Indeed He is Risen!!! Fr. Needs your help for ten minutes!! The Diocese of Cleveland is seeking our input on how we are being formed as disciples. This is a great opportunity for all of us to see where we are in our Catholic Faith especially as we are (hopefully?) transitioning out of covid mode. Please make the time to take this quick survey, and I am sorry to be pushy, but of course there is deadline, next Monday, April 19. The survey takes less than ten minutes.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, He is Still Risen! Indeed He is Risen!!! Happy Easter to all and praise be to our Lord and Savior for the salvation won for us! Last year our Easter joy was stifled due to covid lockdowns, and I was frustrated that I was forced to celebrate Mass in front of a camera since we could not celebrate together. This year, even though we are not back to normal, we are glad that more can safely be in attendance to offer true worship to God.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People He is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!!! Happy Easter to all and praise be to our Lord and Savior for the salvation won for us! Last year our Easter joy was stifled due to covid lockdowns, and I was frustrated that I was forced to celebrate Mass in front of a camera since we could not celebrate together. This year, even though we are not back to normal, we are glad that more can safely be in attendance to offer true worship to God.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Brothers and Sisters, Praise be Jesus Christ! Here we are in Holy Week! Stay true to the Lord by persevering in penance! To those still homebound due to covid we wish a consoling and spiritually fruitful Holy Week. To aid people we will be live-streaming all the Triduum Liturgies as well as the 11:30 Mass on Easter Sunday. Please tune in and unite yourself spiritually with the church’s worship of God.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Brothers and Sisters, Praise be Jesus Christ! NEXT SUNDAY NEW MASS SCHEDULE STARTS! Having consulted with Pastoral Council, Staff, and also from the input people have shared through the completed surveys over the past weeks, we will be shifting our Sunday Mass Schedule. We will start the new schedule on Palm Sunday March 28. The new times will be: 8am Ord. Form, 9:30am Extra. Form, 11:30am Ord. Form. Thank you for your input and your flexibility. The new schedule should allow for a bit more breathing room between the Masses and help people, ministers, and myself enter more deeply into the prayer of the Mass. Even with that being said, since we are beginning this schedule on Palm Sunday, which is a longer Mass due to it added ceremonies, this first weekend may still feel a bit tight.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Brothers and Sisters, Praise be Jesus Christ! St Joseph Day - March 19! - Mass and Benediction! Since Pope Francis declared this year to be in honor of St. Joseph, we have been highlighting his importance in salvation history and the life of the Church. We have included St. Joseph Litanies at certain functions. We have asked specifically for his intercession after all the Masses (along with St. Paul of course). In fact, do not be surprised if I give you St. Joseph prayers as your penance for when you go to confession. By the way, if you have not gone yet, GO TO CONFESSION! (See below for extra availability).

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Brothers and Sisters, Praise be Jesus Christ! The Beauty of the Desert Lent is a desert, but there is beauty in it! We may tend to focus on the negative aspects of Lenten sacrifices, and I know this year we still suffer from covid weariness. But remember, our Blessed Lord sanctified the desert since He spent 40 days fasting and praying; He sets the pattern for us. With Him leading the way, he makes the path easier, even joyful, beautiful and refreshing. Perhaps a refreshing desert seems contradictory, but with the Lord this is possible. Think of spring cleaning and the refreshing feeling of all the junk being purged away. Well Lent can be like that if we approach it from a more positive perspective.

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.