I had a funeral service for Renata Germanotta last week. She had 2 daughters and 2 grandsons. Please keep her and her loved ones in your prayers, especially during this month of October when we ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to pray for us “now and at the hour of our death.”
During October, we also dedicate this month to Respect for Life. Of course at the heart of this value we again find Mary having a profound respect the Author of Life itself whom she bore in her womb. And so again we ask Our Lady of the Rosary (a feast we also celebrate during October), to pray for expectant mothers and for all those who may be considering an abortion, that they may seek other options if they are not ready or able to care for a child themselves.
Though I write this column before our Parish Festival takes place, I thank you in advance for your support of this annual event, especially in it’s modified form this year due to the pandemic which we had all hoped would be behind us by now. I am especially grateful for your efforts to sell the raffle tickets which make up the lion’s share of our festival profit. Last year we “lost” several thousands of dollars due to the modified festival and that will be our fate again this year however we must accept what we cannot change, while trying to change what we can, as the serenity prayer says. But again I am grateful to all those who worked at the festival in preparing and serving the take-out orders and for those of you who showed up to support us buying dinners to take home with you.
I would like to remind you again that your support of our gift card program is also very helpful to us. By buying gift cards for places where you shop anyway (or by buying them as gifts for others), we are able to make a small profit on each card we sell, even though you are still able to receive the full amount of the goods purchased through a gift card. They are always available in the rectory office and I hope that our more popular ones will be available for purchase soon in the vestibule of the church at our Information Desk. I’ll let you know when that has reopened.
I really enjoyed the retreat that I was on last week and thank you for your prayers as some of my brothers priests and I took some time to reflect on our ministry to you, the People of God whom we love. We were reminded that the Lord enters into the narrative or story of our individual and unique lives in order to keep calling us to greater intimacy with him and to greater service of his people. The Jesuit Retreat House on State Road in Parma is such a great place to make a retreat or a Day of Recollection and there are many opportunities for both throughout the year, including lay people as well as priests, deacons and pastoral ministers. They have enlarged the retreat center with an additional wing which contains more rooms, a second chapel and areas designed for presentations and individual counseling & spiritual direction. They also have a great walking path which leads to a cemetery on the property where many Jesuits have been buried. It is the oldest surviving retreat center in the country, having started in the late 1800’s. So you may want to check out their website for more information on what kinds of opportunities they provide for you to retreat from your daily life, even if for a day, in order to be renewed in spirit.