I was not able to attend the dinner & Mass with Bishop Perez as planned this past week. A couple weeks ago I started to get the familiar pain that comes from kidney stones, as those at last week’s 11am Mass know. By the grace of God I had no pain whatsoever while visiting my sister in Florida. But a day after I returned to Cleveland it returned. Maybe that’s a sign I need to move to Florida! The X-ray that I took showed a large stone that needs to be blasted through lithotripsy but I need to wait to have that procedure done until this week or next. So a little prayer will be appreciated.
We received a letter from Bishop Perez which says, “The past month has presented us with a seemingly unprecedented number of natural disasters. The toll on human life, property, livelihoods, and faith communities is immense and the full extent will not be known for some time.” After expressing his appreciation to the faithful of the Diocese for their generous support in our recent emergency collections for Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, he asks us to continue to help those also affected by the 7.1 magnitude earthquake in central Mexico. If you’re in a position to make yet another donation, you can make a check payable to St. Leo the Great with a note in the memo section of the check that says, “2017 Calamities.” We will be very attentive to this memo space so be sure the mon- ey from that check is given fully & specifically for this cause, and is not part of your donation to the parish. The parish will then send a single check to the Diocese for this recovery as- sistance. Again, your concern for our brothers & sisters who have felt the pain of these natural disasters is very much ap- preciated.
This Monday I will be celebrating a Mass with the PSR (Parish School of Religion) students and their teachers. We have many parishioners who volunteer their time each week to teach the faith to our children. This is in fulfillment of the command of Jesus that we “teach the Gospel to all so that they may be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” I am always inspired by those who are will- ing to give of their time and effort for this opportunity to plant seeds of faith in our children and on behalf of the whole parish, I thank them all. We also encourage the parents strongly to let that faith be nourished by bringing their children to Mass on the weekends since that is at the heart of who and what we are as Catholics. There would be little fruit to speaking of the gift of the Eucharist to the children without their experience of it on a regular basis.