This Sunday we pray with Psalm 146 which reminds us of what the Lord can and will do in our lives:  frees, gives sight, raises up, loves, protects, sustains….  Isn’t this what we want for our children?  That is why we hand on the faith to our children.  Because within the faith is a person: Jesus Christ, who can do all these things for us.  Our faith invites us to put faith and trust in Jesus.  Like the psalm says, those who keep the faith will be BLESSED forever!

Beginning this coming Sunday, October 2, we will be inviting specific classes from the Parish Day School, PSR and home school programs to come to Mass and receive a blessing.  Why?  Precisely because it is necessary for them to know that we are praying for them.  They need to know that we as a community of faith are praying for them on Sunday.  But not only on Sunday but for the whole month in a special way.  For the month of October, we are inviting all the Pre-school, Pre-K, and Kindergarten classes to come to the 9:00am Mass to receive a blessing.  We will bless them after communion.  I invite all of you to keep these students in prayer this month that they can continue to allow the Lord to open their hearts to His presence in their lives so that ultimately, they can ‘keep the faith forever.’  Then, after Mass we invite all of them, with their families, to come partake in a donut as it will be Donut Sunday!  Looking forward to how God will bless our children this year.

May the Lord bless you and keep you,

Fr. Jeremy

Ps. Here’s a picture of our students from Pre-K!

On December 11, 1925, Pope Pius IX released an encyclical called Quas Primas on the feast of Christ the King.  In his writings, the Church calls us to acknowledge Christ’s kingship with our whole lives:

He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, ‘as instruments of justice unto God.’ (Quas Primas, 33).

It is beautiful to ponder the myriad ways Jesus Christ can reign in your life.  Does Christ rule in your life?  If he doesn’t, what does?  Your frantic schedule?  Your to-do list?  What gets in the way of submitting your life to Jesus in a powerful, real way?

As we approach the Season of Advent, know that there will be a number of ways you can enter into Advent and pray with us.  However, if you are to do that successfully, it means you have to let go of something first to be free to enter in and encounter Jesus the King in your life.  Are you willing to let go of something on the schedule this Advent so He can rule in your life?

Please check out the Advent schedule and ask Jesus to guide you where he wants you to spend your Advent this year.

Lastly, I want to say: Happy Thanksgiving!  It is already upon us!  I can’t believe it.  This time of the year, especially when the snow begins to fly, is when I spend time with Simon and Garfunkel music and enter into this time of winter and gratitude.  With that said, I will let Art Garfunkel share words that speak to my heart, especially in being here at this parish with you!

“Grateful, grateful, truly grateful I am, grateful, grateful, truly blessed and duly grateful.”

May God’s peace and joy be with you,

Fr. Jeremy

“For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

Today, Jesus calls us to pay attention to the poor widow who while she only gave two small coins, she gave in an amazing way.  She gave all shed had, from her poverty, from her whole livelihood.  Jesus is not afraid to point this out to his disciples to inspire them and to encourage them to give from their whole livelihood.

In light of this, I want to point out how wonderful our community is in how we give to others and help out those in need.  This past weekend, our St. Vincent de Paul Society collected bags and bags of clothes, coats, warm outerwear, etc. for the needy.  They distributed them in a number of cars to the Peter Maurin Center and to other nearby churches.  Thank you!

I also want to point how great our day school was at refilling our Food Pantry with food that will feed those in need in Thanksgiving!  If they brought in canned goods, etc. last Friday they didn’t have to wear uniforms.  Thank you for your generosity!

You also may have noticed in the bulletin the last few weeks how our very own Jessica Quentin was training for a marathon on Halloween in Canal Fulton.  She completed the marathon and raised over $5,000 for the St. Vincent de Paul Society.  Thank you to all who supported this mission!

This Monday, November 8 @ 7:00pm in the Holy Family Room will be an opportunity to learn about the Heart of the Shepherd Campaign.  Josh Stecz, our seminarian, will be there to help present what the campaign is all about and to show how wonderful the seminary renovation is going.

Lastly, I want to invite all of you to give in another way—by way of your time—by participating in our Eucharistic Devotions weekend November 12-14.  Fr. Alex Clark will be our homilist for Vespers @ 6:30pm on Sunday.  It is good to welcome back our sons of the parish to be able to help out and continue to share the fruits of their ministry and seminary formation.

May God’s peace and joy be with you,

Fr. Jeremy

Ps.  Thank you for all the love and support you gave me on Priesthood Sunday.  I echo all the kinds words back to you!  Thank you again!

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

This weekend we give thanks to God for all the priests who have loved with everything they have. It is only because of the witness of our families, parish communities and friends that we (priests) know how to love. Thank you for your witness of love that has inspired men at this parish to respond to the call to love and serve one another. Our diocese is blessed because of this parish! In a special way, we warmly welcome Ben Baratian, a seminarian from Borromeo Seminary who is in his sophomore year. He comes from St. Mary Parish in Hudson, Ohio. He will share with us his vocation story at each of the Masses and will be available for anyone who has questions about answering the call. Thank you, Ben, for being with us!

In this month of Our Lady of the Rosary I want to share a Prayer for Priests written by St. Mother Teresa. It is a prayer that asks Mary to bless and protect our priests.

Mary, Mother of Jesus, throw your mantle of purity over our priests.
Protect them, guide them, and keep them in your heart.
Be a Mother to them, especially in times of discouragement and loneliness.
Love them and keep them belonging completely to Jesus.
Like Jesus, they, too, are your sons, so keep their hearts pure and virginal.
Keep their minds filled with Jesus, and put Jesus always on their lips,
so that he is the one they offer to sinner and to all they meet.
Mary, Mother of Jesus, be their Mother,
loving them and bringing them joy.
Take special care of sick and dying priests, and the ones most tempted.
Remember how they spent their youth and old age,
their entire lives serving and giving all to Jesus.
Mary, bless them and keep a special place for them in your heart.
Give them a piece of your heart, so beautiful and pure and immaculate,
so full of love and humility, so that they, too, can grow in the likeness of Christ.
Dear Mary, make them humble like you, and holy like Jesus. Amen.

I ask you to continue to pray for priests, that we all can continue to be solely focused on the life of Jesus in all that we do.

May God’s peace and joy be with you,

Fr. Jeremy

Ps. Sean and Michelle Rich with WagRich Construction were here this week to help install a concrete walkway behind the Memorare Center. It will be handicap accessible so that all can pray and focus on the love of the Lord through the Stations of the Cross. Thank you!

When I look back on last Sunday, I am filled with joy at what the Lord continues to do for us.  It is always wonderful to see so many of you come worship the Lord.  In the afternoon, some of our parishioners went to the Loyola Retreat House to pray the Rosary and to walk in Procession led by Dc. Ray Herrick.  We thank Jo and Bill Dickey for organizing it.  We also thank Colleen McVicker and our school choir for leading us in song as we sang to Mary in this month of the Rosary.

Afterwards, many gathered on the parish grounds for a time of food, fellowship and fun!  The only goal was to simply be together.  Every age was represented.  It was fun to grill the hot dogs and hear grateful parents say they didn’t have to cook that night.  I am hoping to be able to offer more of these gatherings in the winter and the spring as a way for us to better get to know each other.

Next weekend we celebrate Priesthood Sunday.  Continue to pray for all the priests who have served here at this parish and those who serve throughout the world.  I thank you for your overwhelming support.  Your kindness and prayers continue to bless me in all I do.  I am not sure if you were aware but the Diocese of Cleveland has been working on a campaign—the Heart of the Shepherd Campaign—over the last couple of years that raises funds for the renovation of Borromeo and St. Mary Seminaries, for the priest retirement fund and for college debt reduction for seminarians.  It has been very successful as the seminary is currently being renovated.  Our very own Josh Stecz will enjoy a new dorm room next semester as a result of this.  I share all of this with you because while I have tried to be sensitive about offering the campaign here since we already had a campaign going on, the diocese is nearing the end of the campaign this year.  While we are not going to form a new campaign, the diocese has asked that we offer an opportunity for you to support this mission.  In short, we will be offering an information night on November 8 @ 7:00pm in the Holy Family Room.  You will also have an opportunity to give as we will have an in-pew appeal in mid-November.  This parish has such a wonderful reputation for supporting vocations.  We need to continue to pray for vocations and support all the different ways our members can commit their lives to the Lord.  Thank you!

May God’s peace and joy be with you,

Fr. Jeremy 

“May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.”

When was the last time you counted your blessings?  Was it on Thanksgiving?  Christmas?  This past week during hiking and kayaking, I asked those participating to take a moment and think about how God has blessed you in your life.  I invite you to do the same.   Take a moment and think about all the blessings God has bestowed upon you.  From the sunshine that hits your face to your family and friendships and so forth… God abundantly blesses us in so many ways!

Speaking about blessings, a major blessing to our diocese was Bishop Pilla.  This past Tuesday, Bishop Malesic celebrated his funeral.  Please go onto our diocesan website, watch the funeral and pray for his soul.  Fr. Ed Estok gave a powerful homily on his life.  Whenever Bishop Pilla would talk at the seminary, he always mentioned the same phrase to us: “love the people.”  There was nothing more important for him than to love the people of God.  Thank you, Bishop, for keeping us focused on love!

Another blessing to ponder is the blessing of life.  As we enter the month of October, we enter Respect Life Month.  Remember that you are invited to pray the Rosary for Life at the Upper Driveway on Manchester Rd. at 12:00pm this Sunday—Respect Life Sunday.  Bishop Malesic wrote a wonderful letter on respecting life you can find in the news section of our diocesan website.  Here are a few words from it: “All human life is precious, fragile and given directly to us as a gift by God. As such, we are brothers and sisters in our human family, made in the image and likeness of God. We are all called to live out our responsibility to care for, protect and defend the lives of our brothers and sisters.”

Indeed, life is a blessing.  Let’s make it our goal to remind people of the awesome gift of life and how blessed we are to be a part of it!

May God’s joy and peace be with you,

Fr. Jeremy

Ps. Check out the awesome blessing of our Kindergartners after Mass last Friday!

Two weeks ago, the Browns kicked off their season with a great game.  Unfortunately, they lost, but were able to redeem themselves last weekend.  In our parish over that time, a number of things kicked off.  On September 13, PSR kicked off.  It was great to pray with our children and see them in person.  Last Monday, Youth Group kicked off and had a great time with their scavenger hunt!

Our choir started back at the 11:00am Mass.  In our church, what I noticed was when the choir was singing, their voices carried over the church and it felt like a warm hug wrapping around our community.  We also kicked off the Children’s Liturgy of the Word at the 11:00am Mass as well.  It was a joy to see all of our children approach God’s word and allow His word to lead them in all they do. (Make sure to check out the Baby Choir article in this week’s bulletin, so we can continue to warmly welcome families with littles one ?).  Choir and children’s liturgy truly made me feel like we are back in action as a faith community.

While all of this was a joy to experience over the last couple of Sundays, I still acknowledge a number of our people are afraid to come worship the Lord.  I think it is important to know that here at St. Francis de Sales we are offering hand sanitizer at every entrance, we are disinfecting the pews after Mass, we are encouraging masks, Eucharistic Ministers are wearing masks during the distribution of Holy Communion.  We are doing what we can do to ensure a safe worship environment.

That being said, it has been on my heart for a while now, that we still need to offer other options that will provide the safest ways of receiving our Lord.  I consider feeding you our Lord in the Eucharist the highest priority in my line of work.  As a result, effective October 2, we will be offering 1) Mass with No Singing on Saturdays @ 6:30pm.  2) Parking Lot Communion Service on Sundays @ 1:00pm.  Hopefully this will help those who have health concerns, especially those who have been worshipping online and desire to receive the Eucharist.  Just note that this will be offered every week until further notice.  Please spread the word so that God’s people can be fed with His love!

May God’s peace and joy be with you,

Fr. Jeremy

Ps. Coffee and donuts will be offered after every Sunday Mass on October 3rd!  Enjoy!  Plus, don’t forget to bring your pets for blessing at 2:00 next Sunday.  I know my dog needs one for sure!

This Sunday we hear from the book of James, where jealousy and selfish ambition exist there’s disorder and every foul practice.  I think it is good for us to take a moment and think about jealousy in our own lives. What is jealousy? To be jealous is to show envy towards someone for their achievements or for what they have or for who they are. Like James says when this exists there is disorder in our lives. The real question is how can we re-order this disorder?

The answer lies in the following sentence. It is in the wisdom from above, the wisdom from God, the wisdom of God that will remind us of how good God is in our lives. When we remember like the Psalmist in Psalm 54 that the Lord upholds my life, that the Lord is my helper, that the Lord sustains my life, that transforms everything.

Whenever we look to someone and our hearts are filled with jealousy, all we have to do is simply turn to God and say thank you. Thank you Lord. Because ultimately it is the Lord who gives gifts to people, it is the Lord that blesses his people with goodness and achievements and makes them who they are.

Yes, when God is no longer a part of the story of our lives, things will get disordered. But when we invite God into our lives, we remember who God is and how God blesses one another. So the next time you experience jealousy For another in your life , Thank the Lord. Because the Lord blesses those around us and don’t forget the Lord blesses you too.

May God’s peace and joy be with you,

Fr. Jeremy