Dear Parish Family,
After listening to the Eucharistic discourses from John 6 the past five weeks, the words "Eucharistic consistency" keep coming back to me in prayer. The real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist means that He wants to share His entire life and being with us, that we may become another Christ for the world and live His life anew in our own. We can only do that if our entire being, all our words and actions, are consistent with who Christ is. The evil one often realizes this call to consistency better than we do as he is the first to point out our hypocrisy when we fail and the first to discourage and persecute us when we succeed.
 
Jesus also calls out the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy in not living consistently with the commandments of God. In word and external practice, they appear to be doing all the right things, but interiorly their hearts are far from God. We may find ourselves in this predicament from time to time as we fight against the deepest call of God within our hearts to live fully united to Him. When the evil one points out our hypocrisy it is to shame us, but whenever Jesus rebukes us for hypocrisy it is done in love with a call to repentance to live a Eucharistically consistent life in Him.
 
Jesus reminds us that evil can do no spiritual harm if we keep it outside our heart. It's only when we let evil into our heart that we become defiled by it. This is what Jesus means when he says "Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile." When we keep our hearts pure and focused on Jesus, we lead more consistent lives. We become more of the person God wants us to be when we kneel in Adoration before the Eucharist, when we say Amen at communion time, and when we follow through on who we say we are when we are sent with the strength of our Eucharistic Lord into our world.
 
As announced the past few weekends, this year we have Anthony Donatelli here for his transitional diaconate assignment, and Jerry Joyce here for his field education assignment for the permanent diaconate. They will be here at various Masses each weekend and serve in various capacities. Jerry Joyce will be engaged in parish leadership, liturgy, and outreach opportunities. Anthony will be greeting after Masses and preaching a few times before his ordination to the Diaconate on Saturday, October 19. After his ordination, he will be serving as deacon at various Masses. Please keep these men in your prayers as they discern and begin to live their God-given vocations!
 
Remember the St. Mary Parish Oktoberfest is coming up in two weeks on Sunday, September 15! We begin with an outdoor Polka Mass at noon, and festivities from 1-7 pm. Consider volunteering for a few hours to help us before, during, or after the event. You can also order presale tickets with special discounts, skip the payment lines, and be the first in line for food and beverages. Oktoberfest will be fun, rain or shine, so plan on coming out to celebrate!

St. Mary Parish Oktoberfest

I am pleased to announce that we will be putting together a new parish picture directory this Fall! Check your calendars and prepare to sign up for a photo session here at St. Mary's the week of October 21-26. Sign-ups will start after all weekend Masses next weekend for the next month, and we will give more details about signing up online. Our last parish picture directory came out in 2013! The directory helps put faces to names, and strengthens the bonds of our community. Please sign up for a photo session to be part of this historic new directory!
 
A parishioner recently shared with me how valuable the My Daily Prayers page is for her prayer life, and asked me to once again share this great resource from clergy in our diocese on this daily page. If you're looking for a bit of inspiration for prayer in your day, these short daily reflections may be great for you!
https://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/my-daily-prayers
 
I will be away on the Footsteps of St. Paul Pilgrimage this week and next. Please pray for me and for our pilgrims. I've asked Fr. Fabian to write the bulletin columns for the next two weekends. When I return in time for Oktoberfest, Fr. Fabian will head home to South Korea to visit family and friends. I am grateful for the gift of his priesthood for us, and for the generosity of our visiting priests who assist us at Masses each weekend!
 
I am yours in Christ,
Fr. Scott Goodfellow