We celebrated the Mass of Christian Burial for Clare Belcher on Saturday, December 2nd. When speaking to her son at the cemetery, he told me how he never once heard her use bad language and lived her life helping others. Her obituary described her as a “dear daughter”, a “beloved wife”, the “kindest mother” and a “loving grandmother.” What a great way to honor someone who honored the im- portant relationships in her life. May she know how she is God’s beloved daughter.
The “Mary” that I asked you to pray for in last week’s bulletin was Mary Hillman, a parishioner who was in hospice at the time but who has since died. I prayed the last rites for her with members of her family and one of the Sisters who ministers at Holy Family Hospice, and we had her funeral Mass this past Tuesday. Mary would have been 104 this Wednesday! Every year since I’ve been here I’ve mentioned her birthdays in December since she reached her centennial birthday. But Mary is known for much more than her longevity . She has always been a very devout Catholic who has lived in an apartment directly across from our school building. She would walk to church even in very inclement weather and would take the bus when going longer distances. May she find rest after a long, prayerful life.
This Tuesday is my step-mother’s 98th birthday and gratefully she is doing as well as my dad is health-wise. Dad’s only 90 so he has a way to go before his 98th but I hope they both live to be centenarians. (I had a hard time finding out how to spell that word...my spell checker kept changing what I typed to “centurion.” That was a professional officer of the Roman army and are spoken of in the Bible...not quite what I was looking for!). Happy birthday to Mildred.
We received a number of very small pamphlets called the “5 Keys to Freedom from Sexual Sin” which address the very large problem with pornography in our world today. They are available on the tables of the church.
You probably knew this already, but Bishop Perez is now on Twitter! (If you don’t know what Twitter is, you can disregard this news). If you’d like to “follow” him, he can be found at @BishopNPerez in the Twitterverse.
I won’t be with you this weekend as I will be visiting some friends (and if she’s lucky, even my sister) down in Florida this week. I can tell you that their Christmas trees look so out of place in such a bright, sunny and warm climate. As for me, I say (or sing) “Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!” Yes, I actually like snow. Lots of it. But only until February. Then I want the sun back. Here’s hoping I see the white stuff when I return. In fact, I may as well stay in Florida until it starts to snow in Cleveland. Will I be home for Christmas?