Happy Birthday to Rosemarie Hamski who celebrated her 90th Birthday with a party in our Parish Center on November 26th. May God bless her with health & happiness.
My dad is now at an assisted living home in Lakewood and is doing quite well there so far. Thanks for all your prayers for him this past year. I consider them answered as his health has improved and he is in a place where he will be safe and well cared for. I look forward to celebrating his 90th birthday in July of 2017.
We will not be having our Sunday Morning Faith Sessions this weekend or next but will resume again on Sunday, December 11th. We meet from 9am until 9:45 so you can attend either the 8am or 10am Mass. We will be talking about the meaning of Advent on December 11th. All are welcome to attend to learn more about our Catholic Faith (and the free coffee & donuts help our brains to be awake & ready to learn!).
We made a profit of almost $20,000 from our Parish Festival this year which is about what we made last year. Though we lost some participation due to the World Series and Ohio State games that weekend, we had less expenses than we did last year so it pretty much evened out. The Festival is primarily meant to be an opportunity for social connections but it's wonderful that we can make such a great profit on it at the same time. My thanks again to the team and to every person who worked for or at the festival. You helped us to remember what community is all about.
Now that we're past the Thanksgiving holiday, we look forward to the great feast of Christmas. It's always easier when Christmas falls on a Sunday as it does this year. Our schedule will be similar to years past: we will have a 4pm Mass on Saturday, Christmas Eve, as well as a 7pm and 10pm. On Christmas Day we will have a 10am Mass and a Noon Mass. We had our regular Sunday Mass schedule last year (8, 10 & 12) but all 3 were poorly attended since most people prefer to attend Mass on Christmas Eve. The 8am Mass on Christmas Eve had the lowest attendance last year so we will just have the two later Masses this year on Christmas Day.
I will try to remind you throughout December about our revised Mass Schedule which will begin on Sunday, January 1, 2017. So Mass on Saturday, December 31 will be at 4pm, and we will have an 8am and 11am Mass on Sunday, January 1, and this will be our weekend Mass schedule going forward. I understand that adjusting to this Mass schedule will take some effort for half of the parish, but am confident that this is the right thing to do and the right time to do it. I look forward to the 11am Mass on Sunday where we will have less spaces in the pews and so a richer experience of worship together.