We welcome Damian Mihuta into our Catholic family as he is baptized this weekend after the 11am Mass. May he know the joy of a relationship with his Creator.
We received a generous donation of $5,000.00 from the estate of Irene Venesky, a parishioner of St. Leo’s whose funeral Mass was in February of this year. We are grateful that she remembered us in her will and pray that God may reward her goodness to us.
I spoke with someone from the travel agency who is arranging the trip to Italy in March and he told me that the reservations received have been better than expected so he asked me to encourage you to get your reservations in as soon as possible if you have not done so yet so that they can make the necessary airline and hotel accommodations. Apparently many people are anxious to travel again due to the restrictions that COVID placed on people throughout the world so this is a good sign that things are returning to normal. There are no COVID vaccination or testing requirements so that is certainly good news as well. So thanks to all who have turned in their registration forms to us. If you’re on the fence, I’ll just say that I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to travel while I know I am healthy enough to do so since we never know what can block us from checking that off of our bucket list in the future. While there is no cut off date at this point, it does make it easier for the company to make the necessary arrangements if they have a good idea of how many seats & rooms to reserve so the sooner the better. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to reach out to me by calling the rectory office at 216-661-1006 or by sending me an email at jschmitz@leothegreat.org. I’m excited to join so many of you in a place that is so rich with both secular and church history. And of course there’s the pasta…never forget about the pasta!
My step mother fell last week & fractured her hip…something that the elderly & their loved ones always worry about. The good news is that she opted to have surgery which she came through just fine, which was a relief given her age. She is recovering at a nursing home and will hopefully be back with my dad at Vitalia in Strongsville by Thanksgiving.
We figured out a way to get us through those rare but frustrating times when the internet goes down, especially on a weekend while we’re live-streaming Mass. If that happens again, we should be able to use a phone and its cellular service to provide the live-stream. We’re also working to see if we can have our phone system…which also requires the internet…to automatically transfer all calls to a cell phone so that again, you won’t be inconvenienced by not being able to get a hold of us. Technology is great and extremely convenient when it works…but frustrating when it’s “out of order.” So hopefully we can remedy these two situations in the event our internet service goes down.
I’m sad to let you know that Mildred Ancin, Father Vesely’s sister, died this past Monday evening. You may recall that she fell & broke her hip after Father Vesely died & was in surgery during his funeral services so she was not able to be present for the wake or funeral Mass. While she recovered from the broken hip & surgery, she continued to decline physically & mentally. I visited with her at Mount Alverna just a couple of days before she died and was relieved to see that she was in no discomfort. She was very close to her brother and now they are together in death as they were in life. I do not know of the funeral arrangements yet but I ask that you keep her and her brother in your prayers. May they both rest in God’s peace.