Jan 02, 2020

Greetings,

Over the past year you have read about a St. Irene House opening in our parish. This is a house for young adult men who are looking for Catholic community, desiring to become more involved and preparing themselves for life as Catholic men. The house officially opened in December thanks to the hard work of fellow parishioners and I look forward to introducing these gentlemen to you soon. (There is one spot still open.)

There is the intention to open a similar house for women now that we have worked out many of the kinks in the set up. We are just in need of a similar situation of a house available to us. For more information on the project, to volunteer or donate to the project, or to look into how you might participate, please write to irene.house@stsebastian.org.

IN OTHER NEWS:

BULLETIN ON LINE:  Apparently our bulletin company had some technical difficulties and our bulletin had not been updated online for a spell. By the time you read this, things should be back on track.

COLLECTION:  Thank you so much for the outstanding Christmas collection. This goes a long way toward the continued stability and strength of your parish. All the Masses were wonderful but I would especially like to acknowledge the Midnight Mass attendees. During offertory, I noticed that nobody was taking up a collection! Disaster! But what could I do? I had a Mass to celebrate! Talk about a pastor’s panic! At the end of the Mass I made an announcement asking our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion to stand at the doors with baskets and for the congregation to be so kind as to drop in their collection as they left for home. And you did! Thank you so much! Shwew!

HELP FIX OUR NEIGHBORHOOD:  I have a project for you if you are sitting in front of your computer and have some extra time on your hands over the next week or so. Before I tell you what it is, I want to say that the city of Akron has been very responsive to our parish and attentive to our neighborhood. There are limited resources and man power and major work going on all over the city and I am thankful for all that they do to keep the St. Sebastian area looking good.

That being said, over the past few years I have been trying to get someone’s attention to work on our traffic circle. Not for road repairs, but to replace signs that have been knocked down (some for years with their stubs sitting there) and others signs that have been temporarily fixed and such. Perhaps if a few of you went on to the city’s repair website and reported it, we could finally get this gateway into West Akron looking a little better.

To do this, go to online.akronohio.gov/311/, click on the “Agree and Proceed” button at the bottom of the page. Click on “new request,” and follow the directions, the most difficult part of which is locating our circle on the map. I recommend just clicking about anywhere on the circle because you are likely to hit on a spot that needs attention. And then write a kind note about repairing the signs and such that have been long damaged in the circle. Maybe this will help bring some more beauty to our neighborhood.

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL:  It is right around the corner! Hope to see you there!

THANK YOU:  It takes HUNDREDS of people toiling HUNDREDS of hours to pull off Christmas day. I would like to thank everybody who had a part in cleaning, decorating, scheduling, practicing, fulfilling ministries, counting - everything. It was wonderful because of your dedication to this parish. And, of course, thank you to everybody who showed up to worship the New Born King. You were a bright spot for a weary world on that winter night!

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck