May 11, 2023

Greetings!

Happy Mother’s Day! Thank you for all that you do for families and for the building up of the Church. May this day be for you a blessing and a reassurance. May Mary, the Mother of Our Lord, inspire, guide and perfect you in this role that requires the wearing of many hats and the practice of many skills. You are a blessing.

IN OTHER NEWS:

PRIESTHOOD RETREAT: I will be gone the majority of this week beginning Sunday afternoon in order to act as the retreat master for the eight men who will be ordained to the priesthood on May 20. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare for the laying on of hands. And if you could spare a few extra prayers for me also, it would be greatly appreciated.

ORDINATION: You are, of course, invited to ordination on Saturday, May 20 at 10am at our Cathedral of St. John on the corner of Superior and East 9th street in downtown Cleveland. Most of you would probably best know Deacon Ian Kelly who spent considerable time here at St. Sebastian during his formation. He was a godsend in assisting us through 2020/2021. One of the reasons we got though it as well as we did was because of him and his skills.

If you are unable to make it to ordination, it may also be watched live on the diocesan website. There will be a link to it in the Angelus Letter.

ASCENSION THURSDAY MASS: There will NOT be an Extraordinary Form Mass on the traditional day of Ascension Thursday due to a lack of priests. It is not a holy day of obligation but if you would still like to attend Mass, there will be a 6:30pm Mass at St. Stephen in Cleveland.

CONSTRUCTION: There is lots of progress on all of the contraction projects around the parish. This morning I was startled to hear what sounded like thunder rolling down the street as a large bulldozer made its way down Mull Avenue. We still are awaiting the tear up of the road deck but at the moment we may still use it for parking and exiting the parish. Thank you for continued understanding and making do with our parking and accessibility situation. You are exceptionally awesome. At least this is taking place during fine spring and summer weather and walking a few extra yards for those who voluntarily park further away is not too much of a hardship. There are just a few more months of bother and then we will be so happy!

GROUNDS: Those working around the parish grounds have already been hard at it getting us in shape for the growing season! Cleaning, trimming, digging and the preparing of flowerbeds is in full swing. Whether it is around our campus or in the cutting garden, your assistance would be most welcome! Call Cathy Sivec at 330-836-2233 for details. (If you're reading this online, the crew is mulching this Saturday, May 13 from 8am-11am).

EXTRAORDINARY FORM: There was a meeting this past week with the priests associated with the extraordinary form (EF) of the Mass and the Bishop. There was little doubt in our minds that this would be the announcing of what would happen in our diocese come September, but we were wrong. We were told of the various requests that were made of Rome and what the many possibilities were, which was sent out in more detail in this week’s Angelus Letter. As of this writing, Rome has not yet responded. That being the case, we were instructed to hold the course under our original understanding, which means that the EF will continue to be celebrated at all twelve parishes until September at which time, depending on what directives have been (or not been) handed down, we will enter the next phase of what the availability of this form of the Mass will look like.

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck