Happy July 4th! To celebrate this holiday falling on a Sunday, we’ll have fireworks shot off in the church at the end of Mass so sing the closing song loudly as there will be a lot of noise during that time. On second thought, Michaela really hates fireworks & I was reminded of that on Juneteenth when somebody was shooting them off in a place that sounded like it was in our backyard (or in the next room!). Firecrackers have really become a nuisance as they bother our pets and even keep us older folks up at night. So I’ll scratch the idea of fireworks in the church and instead we’ll celebrate the holiday with an outdoor Mass at the shrine on Monday, July 5th, at 9am. It worked out very well when we celebrated Memorial Day there a month ago so we’ll do it again. But this time I’ll let you know that besides the benches we have there (& we’re going to be getting some more), we also have chairs from the Parish Center that we’re happy to bring out for you so if you can’t bring a chair but still want to join us for Mass there, please come & trust that we’ll give you something to sit on & won’t make you sit with your legs crossed on the ground.
On a more serious note, I want to express our sympathy to Allan Morinec on the death of his mother and to Chip Meitin whose mother also passed away recently. These two men are faithful members of our parish and we offer our prayers for them and for their moms. Please say a Hail Mary for them and for their mothers as you read this.
I received a letter this week from Bishop Malesic asking me to thank the parish community for our support of the Heart of a Shepherd Campaign. You won’t know what that is because I haven’t told you about it yet but the Diocese recognized the need to update our seminary buildings which are in Wickliffe, Ohio, only about 25 minutes from here. I began my seminary journey there back in 1974 when I attended Borromeo Seminary High School. (After the high school seminary closed in 1976, I went to another high school seminary in Vienna, West Virginia until I graduated from there in 1978). Borromeo College Seminary continues to be located on this same campus in Wickliffe, and several years ago, the “Major” seminary called St. Mary’s, formerly on Ansel Road in Cleveland, moved to the same campus as our college seminary in Wickliffe. I attended St. Mary Seminary on Ansel Road before it moved to it’s current location. Training for our Permanent Deacons and Pastoral Ministers also moved to this same site in Wickliffe so the whole campus is now called the Center for Pastoral Leadership (have I lost you yet?). With that little bit of background, I get to the point I want to make in that these buildings are showing their age & are in need of being updated and remodeled. So the “Heart of a Shepherd” Campaign was started under Bishop Perez and is now being continued by Bishop Malesic and I support it fully knowing how blessed we are in the Diocese of Cleveland to have our own seminary system. Many other dioceses need to send their seminary students outside of their diocese to study and prepare for ordained ministry. But we are so fortunate to have our own seminary which allows us to get to know our own diocese, parishes and peers in ministry. I will continue to share with you in next weekend’s column how we at St. Leo’s are participating in this campaign. For now, enjoy the holiday weekend & have your ear plugs handy when going to bed.
4940 Broadview Rd.
Cleveland OH 44109
216-661-1006
Roman Catholic Church
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