One of the events that I look forward to during the summer months is the parish picnic at each parish. A few weeks ago I was talking with some members of the Holy Name Society at St. Patrick’s about setting the date of their upcoming parish picnic. They were looking to have a late summer/early fall picnic. I shared with them that we should probably wait to set an official date for the picnic until the release of the NFL schedule occurred as many (including the Pastor) spend their fall Sunday afternoons cheering on the Browns or, depending on how the game is going, yelling at them. I wanted to avoid scheduling a picnic at the same time as a game so that no one had to make the choice between watching the game or attending the picnic.

   We may, or we may not, have any interest in the NFL schedule, but whether we do or we don’t, and no matter which parish family we call home, my guess is that there is another schedule release that we are anxiously awaiting, and is our upcoming revised Mass schedule. I’ve prayed a lot about this revised schedule, along with having a number of conversations with the Parish Councils of both parishes. The schedule itself is just about finalized and should be ready to be released soon. More on the timing of that at the conclusion of this column.

   Before we release the actual schedule, I wanted to share with you a bit about the rationale behind the way it was put together. While revising the schedule is NOT a way of bringing both parishes together into one, the reality is that both parishes will be sharing the same Priest staff and so we needed to set up the schedule keeping that in mind. Yes, there hopefully may come a time when we may have some priestly help and there are retired priests who could be called on for help when needed, but that help may not always be available, so we wanted to create a schedule that, if needed, 1 priest could cover in times, for example of sick- ness and vacations, specifically the Saturday Vigil Mass times. Those aren’t the only Mass times that are changing, but they’ve certainly been the ones that have raised the most comments and questions. I’ve heard the sentiment from a number of people at both parishes, “Please keep our Vigil Mass at the time it is.”

   While I understand the desire to maintain things as is, the reality is that it will be beneficial to space our Saturday Vigil Masses in much the same way as we currently do with our Sunday Masses. With the current schedule, 1 Priest could (and will next weekend) easily cover both Sunday Masses, but that is not possible with the current Saturday schedule. Adjusting the Mass schedule to a 4:00 and a 6:00 Vigil Mass will provide a buffer zone that will enable myself, or another Priest, to say both Masses without any issues. The time between the Masses will also provide a bit of time both before and after Mass to interact and chat without having to rush from one parish to the other along with some extra travel time for those wonderful Northeast Ohio winters. Even if we do get extra help at some point in time, we will continue forward with our new revised Mass schedule to help to prevent the need to constantly be shuffling the Mass schedule over and over again and also the confusion when someone is away (like I will be next week and Fr. Clyde the following week) of when is Mass and where.

   I am leaving this coming Friday for some time away and will return to the office on June 24th. When I return, I am planning on having a Joint Town Hall meeting to share with you more about our plan going forward and to officially release the revised schedule. Watch this column for more about that meeting and a date and time, but right now we’re looking at sometime later in July.