Jan 21, 2021

Greetings,
I hope you had as great a celebration of St. Sebastian Day as I did; thanking the great saint and praying for your parish (it isn’t too late. She can always use your prayers!) How fortunate we are to have St. Sebastian as our patron saint in these dicey times. As you know, he is to be invoked against contagious diseases and he also one of the patron saints of a happy death along with St. Joseph who we are recognizing this entire year.

Sebastian is also considered the model for the lay apostolate. He was neither ordained nor a religious, but went about the world in the career he has chosen to follow, one that was deadly hostile to the faith but they way, and did what he could to spread the faith and be of support to those whose faith was wavering. In this time when so many people cannot make it to the sacraments or to other activities at the parish, more than ever is the Church as a whole reliant on all of its members to keep the faith alive and active; fostering prayer and learning in the home, reaching out in charity, showing example and offering the faith to others, making the Church burn alive in its embers until once again we meet in safety and fires can roar once again!

St. Sebastian, pray for us.

IN OTHER NEWS:

IN RESIDENCE: This past Monday, the last of the seminarians living here the past few month had their negative COVID tests and returned to the seminary. Monday night it was just Fr. Simone and me for dinner which took a minute or two to become accustomed to. But we adjusted well and quickly once we armed wrestled over who job it would be now to empty the dishwasher. But as it turns out, our new solitude will happily pass.

Mr. Charlie Bulger, a St. Charles Borromeo seminarian will be moving in to the rectory at the end of January. The seminary asked if he could stay with us before returning to studies next fall in order to give him some experience in rectory living as well as some ministry. So keep an eye out for some offerings (maybe some online) that may be coming up from him.

You may have seen Charlie in our sanctuary a bit these past few months. So his face should be familiar to you. Once again it will be nice to have a seminarian around during COVID to help out when he can when things are uncertain. Welcome Charlie! Please keep him and all of our seminarians in your prayers.

Joe Ho will still be coming in on Thursday evenings to help out with RCIA as part of his seminary training. So he will be around from time to time. Also, we heard from Fr. Marty Miller who over the past ten years or so has been coming in on Wednesdays and Thursdays for workshops and confessions and staying at the rectory. He has not been in for a number of months due to PA and OH regulations concerning COVID. Most recently he said that there is a possibility that he may be returning some time in February if things hold together, although from last reports, it sounds as though winter confinements are giving COVID a resurgence. So we shall see.

PETER MAURIN CENTER: In one of my communications with you last week I shared with you a letter we received from the Peter Maurin Center. This past weekend was St. Sebastian Parish’s turn to man the center. This report was sent in from Marcy Smith:

Thanks to you all, we had another successful meal at Peter Maurin Center. We served 125 meals to hungry Akronites and left them set up with To Go containers and plasticware for several weeks. The meal was taco casserole, rolls, salad, fruit and cookies. We also left them with some food for Tuesday.

Keep an eye out for when next it is our turn to volunteer if you would like to be of assistance. In the meantime, please pray for the center, the volunteers and those whom they serve.

God bless,
Fr. Valencheck