Dear Parishioners,

I celebrated the funeral Mass for Gladys Perocek on Friday, April 14th. Gladys was married for 35 years to her husband Jerome. She had 4 children, 6 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. They used a beautiful passage of scripture from the Old Testament book of Proverbs which praises a woman, both wife and mother, who was a person of deep faith. After Holy Communion, Gladys’ daughter spoke well of her and her faith. May Gladys rest in the peace of the Risen Lord.

The following day I had a Memorial Mass for Mary Ann Keisel, known by many as “Neni”, the wife of Don. Mary Ann & Don would be seen in the same pew together week after week as they both faithfully came to Mass together. They have 2 sons, Douglas & Dennis, and I expressed our sympathy to them. There are also 2 grandchildren & 2 great-grandchildren. Because Mary Ann was born on December 8th, the feast of Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of our country, she had a special devotion to our Blessed Mother. We trust that Mary prayed for her during her life and most especially “at the hour of her death” as we pray in the Hail Mary.

On Saturday I also celebrated the wedding of Matthew Natal & Kathryn Pulliam. Matthew is the son of our faithful parishioners, Jose & Heather Natal. We congratulate them all and pray that the marriage of Matthew & Kathryn will be joyful and fruitful.

Though I write this column on Tuesday morning, before our evening gathering in the Parish Center to hear the stories of faith given by those who spoke at all the Masses last weekend, I remind you again that their talks will continue this week, on Tuesday & Friday evenings at 7pm. So if you or someone you know need the encouragement of others who have suffered but have found real joy in their relationship with the Lord, please join us in the Parish Center!

We are going to be removing our parish app from the Apple App store and the Google Play store as very few people were making use of them since most people just use our website leothegreat.org, even on their mobile phone as it presents an easy format no matter what type of device you are using. We have thousands of hits every month on our website so it has proven to be a very useful and effective tool for communication. Today I will be adding the ability to view a few photos I took while in Italy last month so be sure to take a look. Feel free to ask me about any of them but you can also click the icon with the letter (i) in the circle to see more information about it. Recently, I met a man by the name of Luke Brown, who shared with me his work at Sacred Heart Counseling which uses faith to enhance the healing process. They offer counseling for individuals, couples & families. We are putting information about this service here in our parish bulletin & also have brochures and business cards available in the rectory office. I highly recommend them as they offer faith-based counseling which many have requested. Feel free to ask me about them in person.

I just wanted to thank you again for your continued generous contributions to our parish so that we can continue our mission of proclaiming and celebrating the mysteries of our faith. I am also mindful of you constant generosity to our St. Vincent de Paul Ministry which distributes food to those in need who live in our neighborhood. Thanks to Bernadine Vance and to all those who work with her in this vital ministry. God bless you all for seeing Christ in others.