Pastor's Column for July 29, 2018

Our thanks to all those who coordinated the Parish Picnic that many enjoyed last Sunday...and to all who setup, cleaned up, brought food or served food. Rarely do you find a hamburger that is large enough to stick out from the bun, or a hot dog that fills the bun completely! To me these are great and important advances in the hamburger and hotdog indus- tries. You probably think I’m getting too excited over this, but I appreciate the small things in life (or I should say the larger things, like hamburgers & hot dogs). Many brought food which complimented the main course, and the desserts were the icing on the cake & the cherry on the top (how about those puns). The rain held off & the weather turned out to be perfect for such an event. It was so good we’ll do it again next year.

I hear there is going to be an event (i.e. more food available) at the corner of Pearl & Broadview this Sunday so I’m going to try to check it out. As we always welcome members of the surrounding community to join us for events like our parish festival, it’s good for us to support the community out- side of our parish. Maybe I’ll see you there.

The good priests at St. Albert the Great have an annual Summer Steak Roast for the clergy so Fr. Vesely & I do our best to attend every year so I’ll be picking him up from Mt. Alverna on Friday. But you’ll have a chance to see him & say hello this weekend as he will be celebrating the 4pm Mass. He is doing great and they continue to appreciate his priestly ministry at Mt. Alverna.

Enough about food. But I do want to mention a place where food is eaten. We had a new floor put in the school cafeteria last week as the former one has several chips & cracks due to all the traffic in that space as it is the main way that people enter the building & of course our children enjoy their lunches there during the school year. Our principal, Denise Burns, was able to secure a grant for a good portion of it so thanks to her as we continue to keep our buildings safe and attractive.

Father Lux, our first Pastor, was known as an excellent administrator, though he was also pretty tough as many priests were in those days. Someone said of him, “Father did what he wanted. You could do whatever you wanted as long as he wanted it.” That sounds like a great way to lead. I think I’ll try that too. I also heard a story about how an all-male choir was singing a long Creed at Sunday Mass. Finally Fr. Lux turned around from the altar & said “That’s enough!” I guess brevity was a value for him. I would never say such a thing to our choir, even when I am thinking it (though to be clear, I would never think it either).

Pastor's Column for July 22, 2018

Today we are having our Parish Picnic—rain or shine— after the 11am Mass. If it shines, we’ll be out by the shrine area behind the Parish Center. If it rains, we’ll be in Lux Hall. Either way, we’ll have hamburgers & hot dogs, shrimp and escargot, filet mignon and lobster tails. OK, we’re only have hamburgers & hot dogs, but now that your mouth is watering, come join us for some good food and enjoyable fellowship. My thanks in advance to those who will be setting up and tearing down, cooking and serving, and to everyone who is helping you and I to have a relaxing, enjoyable time. Even if you can stay only for a few minutes, we would love to see you.

And on your way out of church this weekend, can you remember to pick up the envelope with your name on it in the vestibule of the church? By asking everyone to help us sell just a few raffle tickets, we are able to make enough money to pay some bills. The Parish Festival is less than 3 months away, so please do your best to help us make it successful financially as well as socially.

Last week we had the marble floor of the sanctuary cleaned and polished and it’s looking great. Though it looks slippery it isn’t so if you’re a lector or Eucharistic Minister, don’t be afraid to come into the altar area. We learned that marble should only be cleaned in a certain way and that chemicals or wax should never be applied to it so if there’s ever a need for something to be cleaned up, please let me know so that our maintenance crew can take care of it the proper way. We hope it will retain its shine for many years.

So back to a little history as we continue our 70th Anniversary of the Parish. In 1949 the men of the parish began building the first church on parish property right where the current drive is at. It only took a few weeks to builds as it was meant to be a temporary structure. It had exposed light bulbs and hard kneelers with no padding on them! That’s what we had in the high school seminary too...talk about penance! People still complain to me that their knees were forever altered as a result of too much praying back then.

A couple of years later, the new church, meant to be more permanent, was built and dedicated on July 3, 1951 and Mass was celebrated in it starting on December 24, 1950. This is the church where many of you went to Mass, received your First Communion, were Confirmed and married in. Later, when our current church was built, this structure was moved to it’s present location and is now used as a gym and social gathering space, but it has been named Fr. Lux Hall after our first Pastor, under whom all three church buildings were built. You can see pictures of the first temporary church & of this second church in the display case in the church vestibule. Take a look at our history!

Pastor’s Column for July 15, 2018

We took out the 2nd pew on each side of the church so that there is more seating available in these handicapped sec- tions. There are now two rows for the handicapped, and they are easily identified by the green cushions. We put the two pews we removed in the vestibule of the church so that there is more seating for when we have Donut Sunday, etc. No charge.
I would like to welcome our new Athletic Director, Rey Caraballo. Many of our school parents would know him as he was our Site Director this past CYO season & was also our score keeper for several seasons. He is a graduate of our parish school and has accepted the offer to be our new Athletic Director. Rey will be taking over the day to day operations for all CYO related sports and events.
In extending a welcome to Rey, I also want to express my sincere thanks to Matt Tullos who has been our Athletic Director during the last 4 years. Matt began working as Athletic Director shortly after I arrived here at St. Leo’s and has done an excellent job, not only in coordinating, fund- raising, planning & supervising the whole athletic program, but by opening it up to more people & more activity. As a result of his efforts, more & more people have asked about our parish school as they enter our gym building connected to it, and Matt has always given great reports to them of how much our parish school has helped his children (the oldest of which, also named Matt, is now a student at Ignatius High School and has been one of our best & faithful altar servers). So Matt has really helped expand our presence and image in the community and by so doing has helped increase our school enrollment. Matt will continue to work with Rey as his assistant so that the transition will be a smooth one. Thanks again to him and a warm welcome to Rey.
The company which has put a new roof on our rectory in the past will be installing a new roof on the two levels of our Parish Center (the old convent) as it has been leaking into the Conference Room and into the Preschool area on the 2nd floor. They will also be putting a new roof on our bell tower which has caused leaking in the sanctuary area (to the right of the priest’s chair) for several years and has created a large hole in the ceiling, which will be repaired as soon as the new roof is installed. We also need repair work done on the roof of the school/gym buildings and will most likely also have a new roof installed on the church this summer as well. We cannot fix the cracked archways of the church until we have corrected the problem that caused the cracks in the first place. The cost of all these repairs will be over $150,000 so thank you for your donations to the capital improvement fund.
 

Pastor's Column for July 8, 2018

I’d like to tell you more about the history of the parish since we’re celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Parish this year. But first I want to let you know that Bishop Perez will be here on Saturday, September 1st, to celebrate the 4pm Mass. This will be his first visit to St. Leo the Great & we will use it as an opportunity to give thanks to God for the blessings of these past 70 years. You will have a chance to meet the Bishop personally in Lux Hall after the Mass where we will have some refreshments available to you. We look forward to meeting the Bishop in person and welcoming him here to St. Leo the Great Church.

Back to our parish’s beginnings. I had already written about how the First Mass of the Parish was celebrated in the Auditorium of Ben Franklin School on Sunday, October 17, 1948, and how a bulletin announcement from Our Lady of Good Counsel (currently Mary Queen of Peace) announced the start of this new parish to be called St. Leo the Great. At the time, Our Lady of Good Counsel had their first Sunday Mass at 6:00 a.m. so Father Lux, the first Pastor, decided to have Mass at 5:30 a.m. in order to entice those who liked an early Mass!

The home of parishioner Bill Heminger was used for holy day Masses. It is a white house on the east side of Broadview (currently owned by another parishioner) which later was used as the first rectory and then the first convent. It had a little porch that Fr. Lux had extended for daily Mass. I spoke to Sr. Joseph Marie who is currently the head of Mount Alverna (where Fr. Vesely lives) as she was one of the first nuns who lived and taught here at St. Leo’s. She told me that the nuns lived in this white house on Broadview be- fore moving into the convent built in the mid 1960’s (now our Parish Community Center). Sister said that more than 10 nuns lived in that house on Broadview Road! Hard to believe that more than 5 people could live in there comfortably, but the Sisters did what they had to do.

In 1949, the men of the parish began building the first church on parish property right where the current entrance is off of Broadview Rd. It was a temporary church but at least on parish property. It took just a few weeks to build. The lights bulbs were exposed and it had hard kneelers but it would do for Sunday Mass. There is a large picture of some parishioners building this first church in the vestibule, hang- ing over the display case (which has a number of pictures from the first years of the parish...if you haven’t checked it out yet be sure to do so!).

One more thing to note: John Sabol, a long-time active parishioner who is one of our cantors and our parish archivist & historian, will be giving a presentation on the history of the parish, planned for October 18th. More information to come as we get closer to that date.