All-too-often we are confronted in our country, but also in our world, with terrible acts of hatred and violence. In recent weeks that list has grown to include places like Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. When tragedy and violence strike, one of our natural reactions is to offer our thoughts and prayers to those whose lives have been impacted. Certainly, as people of faith, that is what we’re called to do, bringing before our God the needs of people throughout our world. We must keep praying!

St. Medardus is a Saint who is popular in the northern regions of France, so chances are pretty good that here in the northern regions of Ohio, we’ve never heard of him. Medardus was born into a noble French family around the year 456 and from his youngest years, he displayed a deep care for the poor.

Our country and society seem to be becoming more divided and more hostile by the day, if not by the hour. As we see all this taking place, we certainly want to stand form in the truths of our faith and what God has revealed to us, but how do we do that in the face of a society that in so many ways doesn’t want to hear what we have to say? How do we enter into these dialogues and conversations?

This weekend, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension, marking the time when the risen Christ ascended to be with His Father in heaven. But, did you know that while we celebrate the Ascension this weekend, if you had been in a few other parts of the country...Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Omaha, and Philadelphia...you would have celebrated the Ascension on Thursday and today you would have heard the readings and prayers for the 7th Sunday of Easter? Yes, it sounds confusing. Why do some parts of the country celebrate this Solemnity on Thursday while so many other parts celebrate it today?

Sometimes we all find someone or something in life that causes us stress and anxiety. Sometimes there are things that other people do or say that drive us crazy or that leave us shaking our heads, wondering what’s going on. Sometimes there are things that other people do or say that we look at and wonder why. And, if we’re honest, sometimes there are times where others wonder or say those things about us.

Hi there, everyone! It’s Fr. John’s “Boss” Angel again! My dad told me that many people enjoyed when I helped him with his column for Palm Sunday, so he asked me if I would be willing to help him by writing a column once a month. I told him that for a few extra treats a day, I’d be willing. My dad agreed, so here we are with the second installment of Angel’s Angle’s (I came up with the name all by myself, don’t let my dad tell you any different and take any of the credit).

This weekend, allow me to wish all of our mothers and grandmothers a Happy & Blessed Mother’s Day! There are not enough words to describe all that a mother does and no amount of pay would be enough for what she truly deserves. This weekend we offer special prayers for all of our mothers living and deceased.

If I were to invite us to name a Saint, my guess is that there are a number of Saints that would be named quite frequently. Saints such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Patrick, and St. Vincent de Paul, for example, would probably rank high up there in the number of ,mentions. But, while there are many Saints that are well known and well loved, there are also many “lesser known” Saints. Saints whom we may have never heard of or Saints who, the only thing tat we know about them is their name. With the Church’s wide array of the Communion of Saints, I thought it might be interesting to, once a month in my column, give us a brief introduction to one of those Saints who we might not know as much about.

Happy Easter! As we celebrate this octave day of Easter, we celebrate what has become known in the Church as Divine Mercy Sunday. St. Faustina, who in many ways could be considered a “Missionary of Mercy” wrote, “For there are three ways of performing an act of mercy: the merciful word, by forgiving and comforting; secondly, if you can offer no word, then pray—that too is mercy; and thirdly, deeds of mercy.”

In a very special way we celebrate this Easter, not just the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the dead, we also mark a very historic celebration in the life of our parish family. On this day, 100 years ago, the story of faith of St. Vincent de Paul parish began. It’s a story that has been told many times, by many people, and in many ways over these past 100 years.

Hi Parish Family! It’s Angel, Fr. John’s companion and, as I like to think about it, his “boss.” My dad’s been a bit busy working with everyone to make sure that everything is ready for this week, so I told him that I would put together a little something for this week’s bulletin to help out.

Next week we begin Holy Week. In Holy Week, we enter into the holiest week of the Church. Our Lenten journey culminates in the events that we celebrate and remember this week, the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord. I invite and encourage all of us to make this week a holy week in both name and action.

How has your Lent been so far? As we celebrate the 4th Sunday of Lent this week, roughly the halfway point of our Lenten journey, it’s a good time for us to pause and reflect on how much we have dared to be different. Have we been faithful to our promises of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving? Or have we faltered? If we have, there’s still time to pick up and begin again so that when we get to Easter we might renew our Baptismal Promises with great vigor.

One of the major questions that we get and issues that we deal with at the Parish Office centers around requests for Sponsor Certificates. People who have been asked to be godmothers or godfathers for Baptism call up to the office requesting the Sponsor Certificate. While sometimes these are pretty easy to take care of, there are also times and situations where challenges arise. So, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the requirements to be a godparent and what makes someone a good godparent.

DARE TO BE DIFFERENT! That’s the call that Jesus placed upon my heart as we enter into this Lenten season. DARE TO BE DIFFERENT! Being different really is something we have to dare to do because being different can often be one of the most costliest things that we do in our lives. More costly than buying a house or a car, more costly than any other purchase that we might make, being different costs us, and oftentimes being different costs us dearly.

As I went about scheduling that appointment, I thought that it might be a very beneficial process to look at doing something similar in terms of our parish. So, I’d like to invite you to consider joining me for our parish “physical.” These “physicals” won’t involve blood pressure cuffs and there won’t be any needles involved (I promise).

"Repent & believe in the Gospel.” This Wednesday we’ll be invited to God’s continuous call to conversion and change as we enter into the season of Lent. Our Masses on Ash Wednesday will be celebrated at 8:30 am & 7:00 pm. Join us as we are signed with the sign of the cross, an outward sign of our call and hopefully our desire for an inward conversion more and more towards Christ.

This is somewhat of a shorter column as this past Tuesday (the day bulletin articles are due) I returned from a very restful and relaxing week away. I didn’t really do anything fancy while I was away...no work was done, including writing bulletin columns ahead of time. I just spent some time relaxing, reading (you may remember the homily I gave about my challenge to read 50 books this year...I made some decent progress towards that goal), and just being.

Have you ever found yourself getting distracted when you pray? For me, the answer to both of those questions is a resounding yes, and I would assume that it’s the same answer for you. Prayer is an essential and necessary part of our lives as Catholics and with that prayer often comes distractions.

There’s a good chance that as we hear/heard (depending upon when you’re reading this), our 2nd Reading this weekend at Mass we felt like we were at a Wedding. Though it is certainly not the ONLY 2nd reading that I’ve ever heard proclaimed at a Wedding, it is, by far, the most common. St. Paul presents to us, in this reading, a wonderful description of love, a quality that is so needed in our world today.