I celebrated a funeral service for Mary Slepecky on Wednesday, January 13th. I met her son and daughter and brother and other members of her family such as her grandchildren. Her brother reminded me of Mary because they both had a little twang from their West Virginia accent and we all laughed about this. Mary was remembered for reaching out to people in kindness and I shared with the family how I think of her every day because of a personalized gift she had given me a few months ago. We prayed for her soul and entrusted her to our loving God. May he reward her now for her kindness and thoughtfulness.
On January 16th I celebrated a funeral Mass for Patricia Chopka who was married to Andy for 64 “glorious years” as her obit mentioned. I anointed Pat and prayed the last rites for her on New Year’s Day of this year. We extend our sympathies to Pat’s family, especially to her 3 children, Kari, Andy & Dave. Pat was a member of the Isabella Guild with the Brooklyn-Parma Knights of Columbus (whose home is now here at St. Leo’s) and Pat helped host Christmas parties for the K of C because of her love for children. She also contributed to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and so served Christ who also blessed and embraced children. May Christ now embrace Pat and welcome her to his kingdom.
Congratulations to Dakota Riley Fender & to Aliyah Sankey, both children of our parish school who were baptized last Sunday. They look forward to receiving their First Holy Communion in May with the other members of their class and we welcome them both as members of the Catholic Church. May they know the joy of being friends with Christ in whom they were baptized.
Please keep Father O’Grady in your prayers. He has faced further health issues since my last update on him. I miss seeing him every weekend and I’m sure you miss him praying with us as he celebrated a Mass each weekend. Let us ask the Lord to heal him and bless him with peace.
This past Friday I live-streamed our parish school Mass at 8:30am as we participated in the National Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children. A special Mass was also celebrated at the Cathedral in downtown Cleveland and dioceses across the country did the same. Every year on this date we sadly remember the legalization of abortion and continue to pray that this tragedy may soon come to an end.
Though I’m a few days late with this message from Bishop Malesic regarding Inauguration Day, let me include it anyway here: “As we approach the day during which our country inaugurates a new president, let us pray for our nation, for a peaceful transfer of power, and for the forgiveness and change of heart in those who would try to usurp the rule of law by force and violence. May cooler heads prevail, reasoned debate be encouraged, and love be at the heart of all we do. Jesus said it well, “And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” (Mark 3:25) May that which unites us in our love of this great nation far outweigh those things that currently divide us. God bless America.”