This week, as we enter into the season of Advent, we begin a new Church year, a new opportunity, a new invitation for the grace of God to be unfolded in our lives. What we celebrate in Advent is not so much our coming to God, but that we have a God who comes to us. What we see revealed in Jesus is that we have a God who takes the initiative, who doesn’t wait for us to make the first move towards Him, but rather who takes the first step towards us.

This Thursday, we pause to remember all the blessings in our lives. Gratitude is a foundational attitude of the Christian life, remembering and giving thanks for all that God has done for us. There’s not one person who can say that God hasn’t done anything for them, that God hasn’t poured out some blessing in their life.

At least to me it seems like it was just summer a month ago and yet here we are just over a month away from the Christmas & New Year’s holidays. Soon the Advent wreath will be up in Church & the Christmas decorations soon will follow as we celebrate these great events in the life of our faith. I wanted to share with you this weekend our upcoming schedule for Christmas and New Year’s so that we could all start to plan & prepare.

I remember when I was just starting out playing the flute, taking music lessons. Every week I would go to my aunt and uncle’s music studio (they still own it to this day) and in the room where my teacher and I would practice he had a poster. The poster had a picture of Uncle Sam pointing out and it bore the saying, “I want you to practice!” I think back to that poster as I think about our latest Parish Council meeting discussion, because that’s basically what our discussion was focused around.

Two years ago this Sunday, I made what I believe to be my most important staff member hire at both parishes. Many have met her and many have been welcomed and greeted by her when visiting the parish office. Her name is Angel and I guess that you could say that her “official staff title” is Special Assistant to the Pastor.

One of the Catholic vocab words that we are probably very familiar with is the term Holy Days of Obligation. These are days that we are obligated to attend Mass on. The first & primary Holy Day of Obligation is Sunday, but there are also 9 other Holy Days of Obligation throughout the liturgical calendar. 

This weekend we welcome our Fr. Kishore for our annual appeal.   Next weekend, on Sunday, October 24th, we will be celebrating the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick at the 9:00 am Mass. Those who are chronically ill, the elderly, those struggling with serious physical/mental illness, or those preparing for serious surgery are invited to sit at the end of the pews on either side of the aisle (or in the front row) and following the homily at Mass the Priests will come to lay hands and to anoint you with the Oil of the Sick.

Next weekend, we will welcome Fr. Kishore Bathula, who will be joining us for our annual Mission Appeal. Since we will be doing the appeal on the same weekend at both St. Patrick’s & at St. Vincent de Paul, Fr. Kishore will share with us at the beginning of the 4:30 pm Mass @ St. Patrick’s and then during the normal homily time at the 5:00 pm Mass @ St. Vincent de Paul.

  One of the great forms of prayer in our Church is intercessory prayer. So many of us have people and causes that we pray for on a regular, sometimes even daily basis. We pray for people who are sick, people who have died, we pray for peace, we pray for the unemployed, just to name a few. There are many ways and forms that we could ask our Lord’s intercession, one of those ways that we are very familiar with is through the offering of Masses.

This weekend is truly a time to rejoice as we kick off the celebration of the 100th anniversary of our parish family! Thank you for all that you do and are to help make this parish what it is. I want, in a special way, to thank Bishop Malesic for being with us this weekend to help us begin our anniversary celebration. The celebration may start here, but the celebration doesn’t end here. I look forward to celebrating this great event in many ways over the course of the year ahead.

How can we reconcile having faith with the faults and failings of the Church that have been done over time It can be a tough proposition, as we hear the Church proclaim the news of a good and loving God, but then hear and see a very human Church living that divine mission out, to reconcile the two.

 Where are we going? Every journey that we set out on in life has, among other things, a destination, the place where our journey is taking us. Maybe the destination is to the store to pick up some bread, or to the restaurant to grab dinner, or to a family member or friend’s house to visit. Our destinations may vary, but rarely do we set out on a journey without having at least some idea of where we are hoping to go.

 Over the course of the past many years, our parish family has made a tremendous difference in the lives of so many people. Just last weekend we kicked off our celebration of 100 years of faith & life at St. Vincent de Paul. We have only been able to do that through the generosity of so many, those of us who call St. Vincent de Paul home now and those who have given and sacrificed so much so that we can be here and worship today.

The Church prepares adults for Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist through a process called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The RCIA is designed to form the mind and heart in Christian discipleship through study of the basics of the Catholic faith, prayer, and fellowship.

PSR will be having registration on August 28 & 29 right after Mass near front door vestibule area. This for all children ages 3-5 Preschool/Kindergarten and grades 1-8. If you child has a developmental disability we are able to accommodate their education. Please call Virginia Hueter for any questions.

On this solemnity, the Church affirms that the Blessed Virgin Mary has been taken, body and soul, into “heavenly glory.” To be in heavenly glory is not to be located at some particular spot above the earth, but to have entered fully into the mystery of God. What is true of Mary now will be true of all the saved in the Kingdom of God.

One day about a week ago, after daily Mass, a parishioner stopped me with a question, why do we put a part of the host in the chalice at Mass? It’s a good question and one that I thought more than just 1 parishioner might be wondering about so I thought that I would answer the question here.

Boy Scout Troop 176, who has been chartered with St. Vincent de Paul Parish since 1929, will be hosting a Pasta Dinner on Sunday, August 15th, from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM, in the Parish's Social Hall. The Dinner is $7, and anyone under the age of 3 is free. Cost includes...

From August 7th-August 15th, 9 different Churches in the Diocese of Cleveland will be open from 8:15-9 pm for the praying of Night Prayer. You are welcome to pray at the same Church each night, join for one or two nights, or travel to all 9 churches to pray.

I just wanted to write a quick note to say thank you for all the prayers & support at the passing of my father. On behalf of my mom, my 2 brothers & me, my dad’s sisters, & our entire family, thank you!