As we enter into the month of October, I wanted to look at some upcoming events you might be interested in marking on your calendar. 

Over the next few weeks we will be rolling out a new opportunity for you to be able to do everything from share your thoughts & suggestions, to getting information about various ministries & ways to be involved around the parish, (for when someone new visits us) to begin the process of joining our parish family. These boxes will be found, starting with the first weekend of October, October 1st & 2nd, at the doors of the Church.

What is a Ministry Fair you might ask? Well, downstairs at the Ministry Fair you’ll find tables with information about each of the groups/ministries/organizations that we have here at St. Pat’s along with a representative from each ministry who will be happy to share information about their ministry & answer any questions you might have. 

St. Theresa of Calcutta once said, “There is always the danger that we may just do the work for the sake of the work. This is where the respect and the love and the devotion come in that we do it to God, to Christ, and that’s why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.”

When we engage in prayers of praise we are praising God for who & what He is. The Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraph #2639 says that praise, "lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite beyond what he does, but simply because HE IS. It shares in the blessed happiness of the pure of heart who love God in faith before seeing him in glory.”

Prayers of petition are very similar to the prayers of intercession that we looked at last week, with one difference, their focus. While in prayers of intercession we are interceding for the needs of others, when we pray prayers of petition, we are bringing, not the needs of others, but our own needs before God. We intercede for others, we petition for ourselves, I guess that you could say.

This weekend, we continue our look at the different forms of prayer by looking at prayers of intercession. My guess that this is one of the most familiar prayers that many of us pray. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that, “Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did,” (2634). Praying for the living and the dead is also a spiritual work of mercy. We offer prayers of intercession every day and every week at Mass. 

In last week’s column, we talked about what the point of prayer was and why we pray. This week, I wanted to start looking at the 5 basic “forms” of prayer in the Catholic Tradition: praise, adoration, thanksgiving, intercession, and petition. Rather than looking at all of them at one time in one column, we will look at them one at a time over the next 5 columns.

All-too-often we are confronted in our country, but also in our world, with terrible acts of hatred and violence. In recent weeks that list has grown to include places like Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. When tragedy and violence strike, one of our natural reactions is to offer our thoughts and prayers to those whose lives have been impacted. Certainly, as people of faith, that is what we’re called to do, bringing before our God the needs of people throughout our world. We must keep praying!

St. Medardus is a Saint who is popular in the northern regions of France, so chances are pretty good that here in the northern regions of Ohio, we’ve never heard of him. Medardus was born into a noble French family around the year 456 & from his youngest years, he displayed a deep care for the poor. He was ordained a priest when he was 33 & was known for the conviction with which he preached God’s Word & the influence of his example.

Our country & society seem to be becoming more divided & more hostile by the day, if not by the hour. As we see all this taking place, we certainly want to stand firm in the truths of our faith & what God has revealed to us, but how do we do that in the face of a society that in so many ways doesn’t want to hear what we have to say? How do we enter into these dialogues & conversations?

Certainly any & every death is a significant one. No matter the details, the size of the family, or anything else, losing someone we love is a very hard experience to endure. Every single member of our parish family is valued & important & when any one of us passes on, it leaves a void in both a biological family & our parish family.

Sometimes we all find someone or something in life that causes us stress and anxiety. Sometimes there are things that other people do or say that drive us crazy or that leave us shaking our heads, wondering what’s going on. Sometimes there are things that other people do or say that we look at and wonder why. And, if we’re honest, sometimes there are times where others wonder or say those things about us.

Hi there, everyone! It’s Fr. John’s “Boss” Angel again! My dad told me that many people enjoyed when I helped him with his column for Palm Sunday, so he asked me if I would be willing to help him by writing a column once a month. I told him that for a few extra treats a day, I’d be willing. My dad agreed, so here we are with the second installment of Angel’s Angle’s (I came up with the name all by myself, don’t let my dad tell you any different and take any of the credit).

This weekend, allow me to wish all of our mothers & grandmothers a Happy & Blessed Mother’s Day! There are not enough words to describe all that a mother does & no amount of pay would be enough for what she truly deserves. This weekend we offer special prayers for all of our mother’s living & deceased.

If I were to invite us to name a Saint, my guess is that there are a number of Saints that would be named quite frequently. Saints such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Patrick, and St. Vincent de Paul, for example, would probably rank high up there in the number of ,mentions. But, while there are many Saints that are well known and well loved, there are also many “lesser known” Saints. Saints whom we may have never heard of or Saints who, the only thing tat we know about them is their name. With the Church’s wide array of the Communion of Saints, I thought it might be interesting to, once a month in my column, give us a brief introduction to one of those Saints who we might not know as much about.

Happy Easter! As we celebrate this octave day of Easter, we celebrate what has become known in the Church as Divine Mercy Sunday. St. Faustina, who in many ways could be considered a “Missionary of Mercy” wrote, "For there are three ways of performing an act of mercy: the merciful word, by forgiving and by comforting; secondly, if you can offer no word, then pray - that too is mercy; and thirdly, deeds of mercy."

Happy Easter! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! He is risen! As we gather together to celebrate this joyous day, please know of my prayers and best wishes on this most holy day! Thank you to all those who have helped to make today’s celebration possible! And a special thank you to all of you for coming together to celebrate & rejoice in Jesus’ resurrection!

Hi parish family! It’s Angel, Fr. John’s companion &, as I like to think about it, his “boss.” ;) My dad’s been a bit busy working with everyone to make sure that everything is ready for this week, so I told him that I would put together a little something for this week’s bulletin to help him out.

Next week we begin Holy Week. In Holy Week, we enter into the holiest week of the Church. Our Lenten journey culminates in the events that we celebrate & remember this week, the passion, death, & resurrection of our Lord. I invite & encourage all of us to make this week a holy week in both name & action.