May 04, 2023

Greetings,

This Saturday morning all of our second graders in the parish made their First Holy Communion. Congratulations to all of them and their families and thank you to all of our teachers, catechists and volunteers who put in so much time and effort preparing these young folks for this special day. What a blessing for the whole St. Sebastian community!

IN OTHER NEWS:

PSR: This weekend also marks the end of the academic year for our Parish School of Religion (PSR). Thank you to our PSR Principal Cinnamon Chivers, Keith Johnson our Parish Catechetical Leader, and all of the catechists and volunteers who prepared for and taught classes every Sunday morning so that our students could learn more about their faith and be prepared to receive the sacraments. Many blessings to all of you. And to our students, thank you for your dedication as you continue to learn more about and practice your faith over our break.

CONSTRUCTION: On Monday mornings, one of the first things I do is look down the street from my window and see if the road removal has begun yet or not. We have had several false start dates which makes preparing for the eventuality a bit difficult. But let’s try again: According to our conversation with the city this past Friday, the water line work is taking longer than expected although this does not necessarily put the project behind schedule. However, the tear up of Mull Avenue will not begin for “a couple of weeks” yet, which means that we can continue to use Mull in much the same way as it has been used since Easter. I’ll do my best to keep you up to date as more information comes our way. As of now, it is hoped that Mull Avenue will reopen for the first day of school, though not all of the other work, which includes new sidewalks, lamppost and landscaping, may be completed.

SPEAKING OF WORK: I hope that you got to see our two completed brick drives. They are beautiful (and much safer)!

DIACONATE ORDINATION: This Saturday morning is also the permanent diaconate ordination for the Diocese of Cleveland. A local Akronite, Mr. Andrew Davis of St. Vincent Parish will be henceforth known as Deacon Davis. Congratulations!

EXTRAORDINARY FORM: The priests who are associated with the Extraordinary Form were supposed to have a meeting with the Bishop on Tuesday, but it needed to be rescheduled due to a priest’s funeral. It was rescheduled for the afternoon of Friday, May 5, far too late to make the results known in any of our publications for this weekend. My plan at the moment is to share the information at the weekend Masses if it is newsworthy.

As things stand at the moment, we have been instructed by our Bishop that Masses are to continue as they are through August. At that time, whatever the new arrangements are will begin. I am guessing that this meeting is to inform us as to what we could expect so that we might prepare. Please keep all involved in your prayers.

NEW MASS: A brand new Mass setting written by a fellow parishioner will be given its debut at St. Sebastian Parish on the evening for Friday, May 20 at 7pm. All are invited to attend!

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck