There’s a good chance that as we hear/heard (depending upon when you’re reading this), our 2nd Reading this weekend at Mass we felt like we were at a Wedding. Though it is certainly not the ONLY 2nd reading that I’ve ever heard proclaimed at a Wedding, it is, by far, the most common. St. Paul presents to us, in this reading, a wonderful description of love, a quality that is so needed in our world today.

In 2019, on the memorial of St. Jerome, September 30th, Pope Francis called the Church to celebrate the Sunday of the Word of God on the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. In the Preamble of the Introduction to the Lectionary for Mass we are reminded, “the word of God proclaimed in the celebration of God’s mysteries does not only address present conditions but looks back to past events and forward to what is yet to come.

In our second reading today, St. Paul writes to the people of Corinth, “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” (1 Cor. 12:7). The Spirit is given, not to some, not to a few, not to a majority, but to each individual, but to each & every individual for the benefit, not just of the individual themselves, but for the benefit of all. The manifestation of the Spirit is not the same in each individual & our call, our challenge, is to put that manifestation to use.

“You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” Those words, which make up the last line of our gospel this weekend as we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord & enter into Ordinary Time, are words that are spoken, not just to Jesus, but to each & every one of us. Maybe there wasn’t a booming voice from the heavens on the day that we were baptized, but in that moment, God spoke those same words into our hearts, “You are my beloved son/daughter, with you I am well pleased.”

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! On January 1st, though due to its falling on a Saturday it was not a Holy Day of Obligation this year, we celebrated the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. How is Mary the Mother of God, we might ask? After all, if God has existed since the very beginning & will always exist, how can we say that Mary is His mother?

Just a reminder that the Parish Office will be closed this week from Monday, December 27, 2021 through Sunday, January 2, 2022. The Parish Office will reopen on Monday, January 3, 2022. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

"Heavenly Father, you have given us the model of life in the Holy Family of Nazareth. Help us, O Loving Father, to make our family another Nazareth where love, peace and joy reign. May it be deeply contemplative, intensely Eucharistic, and revived with joy..."

"Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from the store, maybe Christmas means just a little bit more." Those are words from the story of the Grinch & they’re also words that kept jumping into my mind as in the months & weeks leading up to Christmas. We heard all kinds of warnings about getting everything that we needed for Christmas early because of all the supply chain issues.

What is the 300 Club you ask, well it's a chance to support St. Patrick West Park and win $100.00 each month. The cost of the ticket is $50.00 and then your names goes into the drawing each month for a chance to win. There are 3 winners each month, so that gives you 33 chances to win. Then in December, we hold a dinner and have our final month's drawing where you could win up to $1000.00. Tickets can be purchased any time! The 300 Club hold up to 300 members and is open to all until all 300 tickets are sold. So who wants to be part of the fun? If you are interested in purchasing tickets, please contact the rectory...

As we continue through this Advent season & draw closer to our celebration of Christmas, we’re probably all at different points in our Christmas shopping. Maybe we’ve got it all done, maybe we’ve still got a few things left to get, or maybe we haven't even started yet. Maybe we’ve ordered something & are still waiting for it to arrive, maybe we weren’t able to find the gift that we wanted to get for someone, maybe all we’ve got left to do is wrap & bag the gifts that we bought for our loved ones.

This week, we celebrate on Wednesday, the great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We celebrate the Immaculate Conception on December 8th each year & then we celebrate Mary’s birthday on September 8th of the following year, 9 months to the day since we celebrated her conception.

This week, as we enter into the season of Advent, we begin a new Church year, a new opportunity, a new invitation for the grace of God to be unfolded in our lives. What we celebrate in Advent is not so much our coming to God, but that we have a God who comes to us. What we see revealed in Jesus is that we have a God who takes the initiative, who doesn’t wait for us to make the first move towards Him, but rather who takes the first step towards us.

This Thursday, November 25th is Thanksgiving Day. With everything going on this week, here are a few reminders regarding this week's schedule of events. The Parish Office will close on Wednesday, November 24th at 12 Noon. It will be closed on Thursday, November 25th and Friday, November 26th. It will reopen for normal business hours on Monday, November 29th. The Mass on Thanksgiving Day will be celebrated at 9 AM. All are welcome to attend! If you cannot attend in person, you can join us virtually as this Mass will be live-streamed on our Parish's YouTube page.

Thanksgiving Blessings! This Thursday, we pause to remember all the blessings in our lives. Gratitude is a foundational attitude of the Christian life, remembering & giving thanks for all that God has done for us. There’s not one person who can say that God hasn’t done anything for them, that God hasn’t poured out some blessing in their life.

The GIVING TREE for Jack Mulhall Center for Sober Living will begin with the First Weekend of Advent (November 27/28th). Please return your donated item(s) UNWRAPPED or your monetary gift by Sunday, December 12th. Contact Pat Singleton (216-744-0483/text), if you have any questions. The Giving Tree List is posted on the bulletin boards, parish Facebook Page and on the parish website by clicking on the button in the article. Thank you!

At least to me it seems like it was just summer a month ago and yet here we are just over a month away from the Christmas & New Year’s holidays. Soon the Advent wreath will be up in Church & the Christmas decorations soon will follow as we celebrate these great events in the life of our faith. I wanted to share with you this weekend our upcoming schedule for Christmas and New Year’s so that we could all start to plan & prepare.

I remember, when I was just starting out playing the flute, taking music lessons. Every week I would go to my aunt & uncle’s music studio (they still own it to this day) & in the room where my teacher & I would practice he had a poster. The poster had a picture of Uncle Sam pointing out & it bore the saying, “I want you to practice!”

Covid-19 has changed our way of doing so many things and our Thanksgiving Distribution of food is once again one of those changes! Last year we helped 310 families have Thanksgiving by sending gift cards for them to fill their tables with food. This year with the help of our Parish Family we will be doing the same.

Two years ago this Sunday, I made what I believe to be my most important staff member hire at both parishes. Many have met her & many have been welcomed & greeted by her when visiting the parish office. Her name is Angel & I guess that you could say that her “official staff title” is Special Assistant to the Pastor.

One of the Catholic vocab words that we are probably very familiar with is the term Holy Days of Obligation. These are days that we are obligated to attend Mass on. The first & primary Holy Day of Obligation is Sunday, but there are also 9 other Holy Days of Obligation throughout the liturgical calendar.