As we begin our celebration of Catholic Schools Week at our Masses, I invite you to reflect on the great blessing of our Catholic education. At its heart, Catholicism is not simply a faith tradition or practice, but an entire way of life and being human after the likeness of Christ.

Please welcome our visiting priests this weekend as I am away and Fr. Spisak continues to recover after his hip replacement surgery. We are grateful for the blessing of celebrating Mass with them. We also remember this weekend the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion in our nation and has led to the destruction of over 62 million lives of the unborn, as well as grave harm to mothers, fathers, and families.

I pray you and your loved ones are well as we begin this new year and enter back into Ordinary Time. Please continue to pray for Fr. Spisak who underwent hip replacement surgery this past week and is recovering now at his private residence. He plans to return to ministry at our parish on Monday, March 14.

This Sunday of the Baptism of our Lord marks the conclusion of our Christmas season. Jesus’ baptism transitions our focus from His first thirty years of his 'hidden' life at Nazareth to the final three years of His life and public ministry throughout Galilee.

We are pleased to announce that our Fr. Redmond Memorial Scholarship is fully funded at $25,000 raised in order to offer a perpetual $1,000 scholarship to one of our graduating 8th graders attending a Catholic high school. Thank you for your generosity! If you have not had an opportunity to donate and would like to do so, please see this weekend’s bulletin or visit the parish website for more information.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. We celebrate Jesus, the Only Begotten Son, revealed to the nations. This feast gives us the opportunity to consider the many ways in which Christ makes known His presence in the world today.

Merry Christmas! I am very excited to celebrate Christmas with you this year. For those of you I have not had the privilege of meeting, my name is Fr. Scott Goodfellow, and I was assigned as administrator of St. Mary, Chardon and St. Patrick, Thompson parishes in August of this past year. What a joy it's been to be with these communities the past few months! I look forward to many more times of joy and growth to come. If you are visiting or new to our parish, please know of our parish community's prayers for you during your visit and for your travels this holiday season. We are so happy you are with us!

Dear Parish Family, I want to thank you for all the generosity you’ve displayed in the past few weeks. I realize we have had a number of opportunities to give to a number of causes and needs, and you have truly risen to meet the needs. I know that God cannot be outdone in generosity, and He invites us to open our hearts in our own generous capacity so He can fill us with His grace. May the Lord be very generous to you this week leading up to Christmas!

Thank you to all attendees, volunteers, and donors of the WOW Advent Morning of Prayer. Together, we are shining light into others' lives by having filled six large boxes of items for the Ivy Women's Center and by having raised over $1000 for this pro-life center on December 4th! Thank you also for the generous donations towards the WOW ministry.

Can you believe it's the Third Week of Advent already? Even as the days continue to darken, the liturgical colors of this weekend's Mass nevertheless 'brighten up' from violet to rose (purple to pink) as we celebrate Gaudete (Rejoice!) Sunday. The tone of the readings expresses this theme of rejoicing as daughter Zion sings for joy at the coming salvation of the Lord, and the people of Israel await the coming of the Christ with eager expectation and hope.

Happy Second Sunday of Advent! Last week I asked our parish families to do some light 'penance' work to prepare our hearts for Christmas, so I hope your Advent penance is off to a good start. If not, there's time to devote ourselves to some small work of prayer, sacrifice, or service to "make straight the way of the Lord" as we bring all those areas of our life into alignment with God's plan.

Happy Advent! I am grateful for the gift of this season to prepare our hearts for Christmas. Along with Lent, Advent is one of two 'penitential' seasons of the Church. While sometimes thought of as a punishment, penance is actually a commitment to bring ourselves back into alignment and right relationship with God. In order to celebrate Christmas well, I want to encourage all of our parish families to find simple but meaningful ways of doing penance this Advent as an grateful offering to God for all that He has done for you.

 This Sunday of the last week of Ordinary Time celebrates Christ the King of the Universe. The crowning completion of this liturgical year coincides with the humble beginning of our King with the new liturgical year we celebrate next week with Advent.

Our readings this week and next weekend turn apocalyptic since we're approaching the end of our liturgical year. A new liturgical year will begin in two weeks with Advent. As we approach that new beginning, it's important to 'end' our time well. With that in mind, I'd like to offer reflections this week and next on how the 'apocalypse' relates our end to our new beginning.

Fr. Spisak and I are incredibly grateful for our time on retreat towards the end of October and for your prayers for us. Please know that we also prayed for you! A retreat is a time of deep connection and renewal with the Lord, a check-in with the deepest reality of God's order. On our retreats, our days are structured around hours of prayer, Mass, and spiritual direction.

St. Mary's Women of the Well Prayer Group will meet on Saturday, November 13th at 9:15 AM in the Hospitality Room. We hope that you will join us. Also, please come to the 9th Annual women's Advent Retreat , "Shining in the Midst of Darkness", on Saturday, December 4th. We will begin...

  Dear Parish Family, I am excited to share more about my time on retreat in future bulletins and conversations. For this weekend, I want to call to mind a few important events and reminders.

Thank you for your prayers for Fr. Spisak's and my silent retreats. While he is back this weekend, I am still on my silent retreat until Tuesday afternoon. As I write this bulletin in advance of my leaving for retreat, I trust that the Lord has done and will continue to do great things for us as we give Him the space and time to minister to our hearts. God blesses His priests so that they may bless His people. Please let us know how our retreats went as you receive the effects of them in the year ahead!

We are moving into the heart of the Fall Season, and isn't it beautiful! Praise God for the colors of His creation! I am grateful to God every day for the gift of being called to be your shepherd. Thank you for your commitment to our parish family as we grow closer to God day by day. I invite you to be attentive to some of the following events taking place in the days and weeks ahead.

Please join us for a Memorial Mass of Remembrance at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 3rd. The Mass will honor all the deceased of the parish from the preceding year. Their names are inscribed in the Book of the Dead, which will be displayed in a place of honor in the church throughout the month of November. All are invited to come and remember the recently deceased as well as loved ones lost in previous years.