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.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sister in Christ, 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 Pope five years ago. Our plan is to offer faith formation sessions so that all parishioners can take advantage of a great video series from FORMED.ORG.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Last Weekend’s Feast, Devotions, Potluck, and Hall Meeting What a whirlwind of a weekend last week, but also grace filled! Even in the cold the love in our community warmed the church giving glory to God! Thank you all so much for a wonderful Feast Day celebration last weekend! We tried something new and it seemed to work very well.

There was a delay due to the weather in the delivery of the February/March envelope packets. If you still have not received your envelope packet for February/March, please contact the Rectory at 330-724-1263. A replacement packet will be sent to you as soon as possible. Please excuse this inconvenience and we thank you for your patience.

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, HAPPY FEAST DAY! Based on what I hear from some pastors, January is a slower month for the parish. Because of this and also the cold and snow, a number of them use January for vacation time. But I think we are blessed that this is not the case for us. We are blessed to celebrate the Christmas Season into the new year and celebrate Epiphany with the blessing of chalk and blessing of homes. This gears us up to prepare for our Feast Day, January 25.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Happy Feast of the Baptism of the Lord! This weekend is a good one to remember and celebrate one’s baptism. Do you know the date of yours? If not why not find out so that you can celebrate it like a birthday. Because truly on baptism day you were born again into eternal life!

Encouraging the Culture of Encounter with Jesus Christ, His Church, and All People Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Happy Epiphany! The Christmas season continues as the wise men arrive at the Christ child in the manger! This feast calls us to reflect on how God incarnated and thus takes on our humanity and is connected to every human person, not just one group or nationality. Through the wise men, He is revealed to the nations.

Beginning with the weekend of February 2/3 we will begin singing "Ave Regina Caelorum" before the final hymn through Lent.