In today’s Gospel, the Apostles ask the Lord: “Increase our faith.” We can never tire of asking for an increase in the gift of our faith.

Registration closes on October 19th for the WOW 10 Year Anniversary meeting.

Everything we have is a gift! The Father entrusts His gifts to us in the measure we are capable of receiving them. If we wish to receive greater gifts from God, we need to prove ourselves trustworthy and capable of receiving them. I think of Jesus words in John 17:24, "Father, they are Your gift to Me" which reminds me that people are the gifts whom God entrusts to us. As every spouse and parent understands, the entrustment of persons is an exceptional gift that calls forth the great responsibility of love.

This weekend, we hear the story of the Prodigal Son, which may be Jesus' most profound parable. The word prodigal means excessively wasteful. It's easy to read this parable only through the lens of the wasteful extravagance of the younger son. Going deeper, we may see that the older son was also prodigal, in the sense that he wasted so much time at home without ever really drawing close to his father in his heart. What I believe Jesus draws out at the deepest level is the prodigality of the father who lavishly immerses both of his sons in the richness of his mercy.

In this week's Gospel, Jesus uses some strong and disturbing language with the crowds following Him: "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." How should we understand these words which seem so definitively cold and dismissive?

As we embark on a new school year, we can’t help but think about the bulletin board in the school lobby, whether you are in our day school or our PSR program, you should stop and take a look. You can’t miss the train that is there. It reminds us of a journey. This journey that we are all on. The bulletin board behind it says, “Engineered by God, driven by Faith”. We know we are created and loved by God, that we learned at an early age. But faith is what keeps us driven as we journey through life.

I'm excited to share that a date has been set for my Pastor Installation! On Sunday, December 11, Bishop Malesic will install me as Pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Thompson at the 9:30 a.m. Mass and Pastor of St. Mary Parish in Chardon at the 12:00 p.m. Mass. I am grateful for the Lord's call and the Bishop's request for me to serve here as Administrator this past year, and look forward to serving with you for many years to come.

As I mentioned in my bulletin column last week, there are a few liturgical updates and reminders I would like to offer in light of comments I've received in general, at our Listening Sessions, and in view of the National Eucharistic Revival. These remarks focus on our unity as a family in Christ as a Church, fostering a welcoming environment, and deepening our respect and reverence for the liturgy.

St. Paul reminds us that we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. These are of course the angels and saints who witness to the merciful love of God in Christ Jesus. The Greek word for witness is martyrion from which we get the word 'martyr.' Witnesses of Jesus give their lives for the sake of the Gospel. They sacrifice everything for the sake of the Lord and His glory.

Ladies, high school age and older, are invited to the WOW prayer group's next gathering on Saturday, Aug. 13th, at 9:15 a.m. in the Hospitality Room. We meet for a little over an hour. We hope that you will join us for prayer, discussion, and fellowship!

I wrote a few weeks back about the National Eucharistic Revival that all our dioceses and parishes are taking part in over the next three years. The mission of this Eucharistic Revival is to renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The vision is to inspire a movement of Catholics across the United States who are healed, converted, formed, and unified by an encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist—and who are then sent out on mission “for the life of the world.”

St. Mary’s in Chardon and St. Patrick in Thompson are delighted to welcome Greg Clack and Kelly McCloskey to their parish staff. Together with Fr. Scott and the parish staff, they will help grow and beautify the parish. Here’s a little more about them:

This is a monumental week for the Diocese of Cleveland as Bishop-Elect Michael Woost is ordained to the episcopacy and becomes an auxiliary bishop for our diocese. I am excited to attend his episcopal ordination this Thursday, August 4 at 2:00 p.m. in the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

A lot is happening over the summer at the St. Mary’s playground! We are looking forward to having a new playground completed by the start of the school year but we need your help! We are looking for volunteers to help with playground installation.

Are you anxious and worried? If so, I'm sure you can find common ground in Martha's experience in today's Gospel. Like many of us, Martha is a hard-working servant of the Lord busy doing many good and wonderful things for the Lord. She loves Jesus.

Do you love the Lord with all your heart? I sure do hope so! When being in relationship with God is the number one priority of our life, everything else snaps into place. Love for God is based on remaining in a relationship with Him, to be in persistent dialogue with Him, and to have God at the center of all our thoughts and actions. Love is more than a fuzzy feeling we have for someone, or thinking fondly about someone. Loving the Lord with all our heart commits us to Him with every fiber of our being, in good times and in bad.

Happy Fourth of July weekend! I invite you to come to Mass on Independence Day at St. Mary's on Monday, July 4 at 9:00 a.m. Please also note that the St. Mary daily Mass schedule changes this week: the Tuesday Mass time is changing from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. (our new School Mass time), and Friday Mass time is changing back from 1:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Science confirms that the human life of an individual begins at conception and our experience tells us that all human life is precious, fragile and given directly to us as a gift from God. We are brothers and sisters in our human family, made in the image and likeness of God. We are all called to live out our responsibility to protect and care for one another, whether born or unborn.

We've certainly had a lot to celebrate the past two months! Together, we've celebrated the Easter Season with all of its holy days, Fr. David Verbsky's Mass of Thanksgiving, Deacon Larry's 25th Jubilee, Fr. Spisak's 40th Jubilee, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.

Happy Father's Day! God our heavenly Father has made the gift of fatherhood precious as He has called our earthly fathers to be like Him in every way. He calls us fathers, married men and priests, to grow in our fatherhood by making a generous gift of ourselves for the building up of our families, our society, and our Church.