This past Wednesday we celebrated the funeral Mass for Tom Kinder who was 89 years old and who had been married to his wife Johanna for 60 years. They had celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary this past September. They have been long time members of St. Leo's and we remembered the long list of organizations and ministries that Tom was involved with in our parish, most memorably his involvement with the Holy Name and St. Vincent de Paul Societies as he was President of both, and his ministry to the sick & homebound by bringing them Holy Communion as a Eucharistic Minister. We know he will be welcomed into the kingdom after a lifetime of love and service. We continue to hold his wife Johanna close to our parish family and hope she knows of our prayerful support especially during this time.
This weekend James Lahiff, member of St. Leo the Great, and his bride Amanda Meyer, began their married life this Saturday. I celebrated the wedding of James's brother Michael exactly 6 months ago at St. James Church in Lakewood. We congratulate James & Amanda & pray that their married life will bring many years of happiness to them, perhaps even 60 years or more.
This weekend we also welcome the children of our parish who are receiving the second Sacrament of Initiation as they celebrate their First Holy Communion during the 4pm Mass on Saturday. Our prayer and hope is that they will be with us every weekend to celebrate the Eucharist & join our community in prayer. Our thanks goes out to all those who helped them prepare for this Sacrament, especially our 2nd Grade teacher in the parish school, Megan Monroe & her aid, Mary Corbo, our 2nd grade PSR teacher Joann Duranek, & to Sister Erin, Mickey Stitt, Julie Slattery & Macrina Dodson for their help in preparing for this celebration.
We received another quarterly check in the amount of $2500.00 from the Rooted in Faith Foundation, thanks to your continued commitment to that appeal. Thank you for your mindfulness of our parish's financial needs as you offer your financial gift to God each week at Mass.
In addition to the Rooted in Faith contributions, we also benefited greatly from the profit for the festival that we had last October. The total profit was $18,500, and that is a wonderful addition to our budget which is always being stretched by the continuous need for repairs and upkeep on our large campus. Again my sincere gratitude to all the people who contributed to that profit by their time, hard work or participation during those two days. I'm looking forward to our next annual festival which is scheduled for October 15 & 16 this year.