Saturday, December 9th – 4:00 PM
Norm Hanko/Fred & Diane Wolf
Sacristan: Dan Scherry
Greeters: Penny & John McClaflin
Lector: Rita Daniels
Gifts/Ushers: Penny & John McClaflin
Euch. Min.: Alice Muniz,
Tim & Alice Ross
Servers: Walt Pleban,
Paul Hartenstein
Sunday, December 10th – 11:00 AM
Rose Ockenga/Bob & Germaine Matus
Sacristan: Cheryl Nolan
Greeters: Leon Shinsky,
Larry Nagy
Lector: Marty Tansey
Lit. of Word: Samantha Morris
Gifts/Ushers: Leon Shinsky,
Larry Nagy
Euch. Min.: Heidi Skrada,
John & Cheryl Nolan
Servers: John & Jenna Skrada
Money Counters for Dec. 3
Shawn Burke,
Barb Fashing
On the Ramp Lectern:
If you wish -- 3-page letter from Bishop
Thomas on 3rd Anniversary accomplishments and
the Advent Confessions Schedule in our Deanery.
Saturday, December 2
8:30-9:30 AM Breakfast with Santa
3:30 PM Confessions
4 PM MASS
Sunday, December 3
9:30 AM PSR Confirmation mtg.
10:40 AM Confessions
11 AM MASS
Monday, December 4
Tuesday, December 5
Wednesday, December 6
6 PM Exercise
Thursday, December 7
Mass for Immaculate Conception 7 PM
Friday, December 8
7 AM Morning Prayer for Immaculate Conception
Saturday, December 9
3:30 PM Confessions
4 PM MASS
Sunday, December 10
9:30 AM PSR CONFIRMATION
10:40 AM Confessions
11 AM MASS
This Week’s Scriptures
Monday Isaiah 2:1-5
Ps 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
12/04 Matthew 8:5-11
Tuesday Isaiah 11:1-10
Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17
12/05 Luke 10:21-24
Wednesday Dan 5:1-6, 13-14,16-17,23-28
Wednesday Isaiah 25:6-10
Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6
12/06 Matthew 15:29-37
Thursday Isaiah 26:1-6
Ps 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27
12/07 Matthew 7:21, 24-27
Friday Genesis 3:9-15, 20
Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12
12/08 Luke 1:26-38
Saturday Isaiah 30:19-21, 23-26
Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
12/09 Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5, 6-8
2nd Sunday Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
of Advent Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
2 Peter 3:8-14
12/10 Mark 1:1-8
Parish Staff
Pastoral Leader: Sr. Carroll Schemenauer
440-839-2023
Parish Chaplain: Fr. Kishore Kottana
419-929-4401
Finance: Cece Mees
440-839-2023
Administrative Assistant
Catechetical Leader
Webmaster
Sr. Rosemary Hug
Finance: Diane Wolf
(440) 839-2185 (H)
Maintenance:
Steve Matus
Youth Leaders:
Kristie Jarrett, Jenn Nolan,
& Libby French
Dear Parish Family,
This is Advent, the preparation of our hearts for Christmas. What does this mean…the preparation of our hearts? To illustrate what it may mean, I’d like to quote from an exchange of letters during the Civil War.
A soldier from the Iowa regiment had lost a leg and an arm. The young man wrote to his girl back home saying that in view of his changed condition, he felt it only right to release her from their engagement. She wrote back, “As long as you have a body sufficient to hold your soul, I will cling to it.”
In this context “soul” and “heart” mean the same: that inner core, the deepest reality of our being, the part of you and me that a good person values most. If you ask, why are we here on earth? The answer is: to form a heart to love God and to love others. To prepare our hearts.
We can see this in the first reading. Isaiah says, “O Lord…we are the clay and
you are the potter.” Most of you have been
in a potter’s studio – or at least seen one
on television – how he forms that moist
clay into a beautiful form. So God
does with us. He sometimes has to shake up our lives in order to form us.
If you are around small children, life can become a string of unexpected and sometimes embarrassing events. As an auntie, I tried taking three small children to the zoo. Oh well, I tried. I learned the hard way that moms and dads have better control than I had. Children have a way of subverting the plans even of those who may seem to be in control.
God does something similar. He is the God of surprises – some small, others huge. What matters is what we do with those unexpected things that constantly interrupt our lives. C.S. Lewis said, “What one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life – the life God is sending one day by day.”
Plans are important and routines help us get things done, but you know God often uses the unexpected to get our attention. He uses tribulations to form us like a sculpture, to prepare our hearts. Interruptions constitute our real life – the life God sends us each day.
God is trying to do something in our lives, but we aren’t listening. Pope Benedict once said, “We are no longer able to hear God – there are too many frequencies filling our ears.” All this noise anesthetizes us, makes us drowsy.
Several decades ago the valley near Pittsburgh had steel mills that hammered day and night. The people near them got so used to the constant pounding that they slept through it. In fact, it lulled them to sleep. But one night an accident shut down a major mill. The pounding noise stopped. Everyone woke up.
That’s what Jesus wants to do for us. It’s easy to sleepwalk through life – to think that nothing really matters. The truth is every moment you and I are taking some form – for good or bad-and one day like clay placed in the oven, that form will become permanent: either turned toward God or away from him. Jesus wants to wake us up, to stop sleepwalking. “Be alert!” he says, “Be watchful!” And like those people in Pennsylvania – to wake up we need silence.
The first step in preparing our hearts is silence so we can see God at work in the unexpected and awkward moments – those interruptions and trials. As one spiritual writer expressed it: “Who of us does not need a regular time of silence and peace, a time to let the events and trials of life fall into perspective – Jesus’ perspective?”
Sr. Carroll
Last Week $ 2,167.25
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M.T.D. November 9,947.73
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A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Margarits Huerta and Bob Donnelly. May each of you enjoy your Birthday in special ways with family and friends.
Please pick up your ADVENT BOOKLET this weekend after Mass. One per family, please. But please do pick one up and spend a few minutes each day with “preparing your heart” for Christmas!
RETIREMENT FUND FOR RELIGIOUS is next weekend Dec. 9 and 10th. There is an envelope in your collection box for Retirement Fund for Religious. You have been very generous in the past. The Sisters of Notre Dame thank you sincerely for the generosity of these funds for our retirement sisters. They surely are our prayer-warriors. Thank You for whatever it is you can give to this cause. Place in next week’s collection basket along with your family collection envelope. Bless You.
Fr. Kishore’s Advent Confessions schedule: Sundays of Dec. 3, 10th and 24th at 3 PM at OLOL for an hour. During Reconciliation, there is Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. At other times and including Advent, one half hour before daily Masses and before the Saturday 6 PM and the Sunday 8:30 AM Masses. FR. KISHORE’S BIRTHDAY is coming up on Sunday, December 17th. We will have a large box wherein you can place your birthday card to Father. Both on Saturday (16th) and Sunday (17th) bring your birthday card for Father with you and place in the big birthday box. Then on Sunday, December 17th, after Mass we will assemble in the Hall for a beautiful birthday cake and home made cookies and some candy and present Father with his box of cards. It will be a wonderful time for all of us to celebrate Father’s birthday and to visit with friends. Father will surely appreciate your messages of encouragement and gratitude.
JUST TO GIVE YOU A BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF WHEN ADVENT ENDS AND WHEN CHRISTMAS EVE BEGINS…liturgically, of course. This weekend is 1st week of Advent; next weekend is 2nd week of Advent (Dec. 9-10); Dec. 16-17 is the 3rd week of Advent; Dec. 23-24 (11 AM) is the 4th week of Advent.
After Dec. 24 11 AM Mass, the liturgy committee asks that if several people can help decorate the plain tree that will be already up, we will be ready for Christmas Eve, Sunday, Dec. 24 with the FAMILY MASS at 4:30 PM and the other MASS at 7 PM, both by our Celebrant, Fr. Jim Peiffer. The next day is MONDAY, DECEMBER 25th, CHRISTMAS DAY at 11 AM with Fr. Kishore as Celebrant. We would like to get back to an older tradition of asking people to come at 10:30 AM for your 11 AM Christmas Mass, and our choir will inspire us in the Christmas tradition with beautiful hymns and traditional carols. When could we possibly sing our Christmas songs if we don’t take time to do this on the wondrous day of Christmas itself!