Mar 14, 2024

Greetings,

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Thank the good Lord that it is on a Sunday this year. Good news unless one is participating in Exodus 90. St. Patrick was a 5th-century missionary to Ireland and later served as bishop there. He is credited with bringing Christianity to parts of Ireland and for having driven out the snakes of the Emerald Isle because it was too expensive to fly them.

IN OTHER NEWS:

PALM SUNDAY: It’s right around the corner. Next week we will be blessing palms. That also means that Holy Week is hot on our heels. Keep up the hard work on your Lenten practices! We are in the home stretch.

LAST CONFESSIONS: The last confessions celebrated before Easter will be Saturday, March 23 at 9:30am. I want you to get your confession in so I advise you to go sooner rather than later or make sure there are confessions at another parish if you cannot make our schedule. They are easily found online. To that point, between the mission, the Diocesan Night of Confessions, the school and PSR and our regularly scheduled confessions, Fr. Bozek and I, with the occasional help from other priests, have heard confessions almost every day during Lent and the lines are still long. We look at each other and wonder at this sacrament which some declared dead for all intents and purposes. Come share the joy and freedom of this sacrament that your brothers and sisters find so life giving.

DR. PETER KREEFT: Last weekend was the final weekend to purchase tickets after Mass for his visit to Akron. But that doesn’t mean that tickets are not available. Secure yours online or purchase the remaining tickets at the door.

LENTEN DISPLAYS: This is the final weekend to visit the painting “Christ Being Placed in the Tomb” and the display of relics in the Padre Pio Chapel (the old baptistry). They need to be cleared out so that construction of Christ’s Tomb may once again take place.

CHURCH PARKING: I know that there has been a trailer parked in the church parking lot for a couple of weeks taking up a number of spots. This is the work trailer for the plasterers and painters who have been working on the church, Zwisler Hall and the rectory. As of Monday, when this letter was being written, the church and Hall were finished but the rectory is only about halfway done. Over the years there have been a number of plumbing or roof leaks in the rectory and that has led to a lot of plaster damage that has been largely ignored. We are finally making all of the necessary repairs and painting the main parts of the house, some of which have not been painted in a couple of decades. For a house that is used as hard as the rectory is, that really shows, and I am grateful that, because of you, we have the means to make these repairs. When this is finished, we will look at replacing some of the carpeting in the rectory that has dutifully served us since long before I was pastor.

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck