Pastor's Column for October 30, 2022

Dear Parishioners,

         Again I want to express my sincere thanks, on behalf of the whole parish, to everyone and anyone who worked before, during or after the parish festival. We had such great crowds, especially on Friday evening. The food and all the “accompanying treats” (the soft, salty pretzels, the cotton candy, the nachos & cheese, the ice cream, etc.) were really delicious. I tried as many as I could (except for the pickles…I like pickles with certain foods and in fact it seems a requirement to my palate with certain foods like grilled cheese or corned beef sandwiches…and the large pickles marinating in the big jar look so enticing, but I just can’t eat one alone without one of the aforementioned foods to accompany it. Am I alone here?) Anyway, it really was good to see so many children enjoying the games, people listening to the music (how could you not hear it?), and parishioners and visitors alike just spending time together after so much alone time during COVID. To everyone who was willing to be a part of that whole experience in any way, we thank you. Though my growing age prevents me from remaining at the festival for its duration (I’m at the age where bedtime begins earlier & earlier), I at least know that people are enjoying each other’s company when I am too tired to remain.

But mixed in with the fun of the festival was the reality of death that always looms over us but is the reason for our faith in the resurrection of Jesus and for the hope of our own rising to new life. I have celebrated four funerals in the last days with another one being scheduled. As happy as I am to see many people come together for something like our festival, I’m sad to see such good people pass from our midst through death. I already wrote about Anthony Arlia and Mildred Ancin so I would like to mention two other people whose funerals I celebrated recently. Jackie Nagy has been away from the parish for the last couple of years, living with her sister in North Olmsted. I got to know Jackie when she attended daily Mass in our chapel when I first arrived here. She was a devout woman of faith and would send cards and notes to me frequently in order to assure me of her prayers & support. She raised two daughters, one of whom (Shelly) is still a parishioner here at St. Leo’s and who has become our rectory housekeeper and cook. Both of her daughters have a living and active faith, something I’m sure that made Jackie very happy. Jackie was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary & to the Divine Mercy Chaplet. May she know now the fruits of her prayers to the Virgin Mary & to her Son as she is shown the Divine Mercy of Jesus in which she trusted.

I also celebrated the funeral Mass for Shirley Lazar, another woman of great faith who had been a long time member of our parish. She raised two children, Shelly & Jeffrey, and we express our sympathy especially to them for the sudden death of their mother. Shirley lived her faith both in and out of our parish community as she was a Eucharistic Minister here and she helped served food at St. Augustine. I always appreciated her smile and her optimistic way of seeing things. She served others with joy. Her daughter spoke lovingly of her mother’s love & faith at the funeral & as always, I extended to them our sympathy & the support of our prayers & faith. May she too rest in God’s peace.

This Tuesday is the feast of All Saints, a holy day of obligation. Mass will be at 8:30am (with the school children) & at 7pm. Wednesday is the feast of All Souls when we pray during the 8:30am Mass for all our loved ones who have died. 

Pastor's Column for October 23, 2022

We welcome Damian Mihuta into our Catholic family as he is baptized this weekend after the 11am Mass. May he know the joy of a relationship with his Creator.

We received a generous donation of $5,000.00 from the estate of Irene Venesky, a parishioner of St. Leo’s whose funeral Mass was in February of this year. We are grateful that she remembered us in her will and pray that God may reward her goodness to us.

I spoke with someone from the travel agency who is arranging the trip to Italy in March and he told me that the reservations received have been better than expected so he asked me to encourage you to get your reservations in as soon as possible if you have not done so yet so that they can make the necessary airline and hotel accommodations. Apparently many people are anxious to travel again due to the restrictions that COVID placed on people throughout the world so this is a good sign that things are returning to normal. There are no COVID vaccination or testing requirements so that is certainly good news as well. So thanks to all who have turned in their registration forms to us. If you’re on the fence, I’ll just say that I’m taking advantage of the opportunity to travel while I know I am healthy enough to do so since we never know what can block us from checking that off of our bucket list in the future. While there is no cut off date at this point, it does make it easier for the company to make the necessary arrangements if they have a good idea of how many seats & rooms to reserve so the sooner the better. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to reach out to me by calling the rectory office at 216-661-1006 or by sending me an email at jschmitz@leothegreat.org. I’m excited to join so many of you in a place that is so rich with both secular and church history. And of course there’s the pasta…never forget about the pasta!

My step mother fell last week & fractured her hip…something that the elderly & their loved ones always worry about. The good news is that she opted to have surgery which she came through just fine, which was a relief given her age. She is recovering at a nursing home and will hopefully be back with my dad at Vitalia in Strongsville by Thanksgiving.

We figured out a way to get us through those rare but frustrating times when the internet goes down, especially on a weekend while we’re live-streaming Mass. If that happens again, we should be able to use a phone and its cellular service to provide the live-stream. We’re also working to see if we can have our phone system…which also requires the internet…to automatically transfer all calls to a cell phone so that again, you won’t be inconvenienced by not being able to get a hold of us. Technology is great and extremely convenient when it works…but frustrating when it’s “out of order.” So hopefully we can remedy these two situations in the event our internet service goes down.

I’m sad to let you know that Mildred Ancin, Father Vesely’s sister, died this past Monday evening. You may recall that she fell & broke her hip after Father Vesely died & was in surgery during his funeral services so she was not able to be present for the wake or funeral Mass. While she recovered from the broken hip & surgery, she continued to decline physically & mentally. I visited with her at Mount Alverna just a couple of days before she died and was relieved to see that she was in no discomfort. She was very close to her brother and now they are together in death as they were in life. I do not know of the funeral arrangements yet but I ask that you keep her and her brother in your prayers. May they both rest in God’s peace.

Pastor's Column for October 16, 2022

Thanks to all who joined us for the 11am Mass with Bishop Malesic last Sunday as we began our year-long celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the Parish. I’m grateful especially to those who set up the luncheon in Lux Hall following the Mass. We will post some pictures of the event on our website and via our Instagram account. It was good to have the Bishop celebrate the Eucharist with us and visit our parish for the first time. We look forward to him coming again.

         This Friday I will be celebrating a funeral Mass for Anthony Arlia who died at the age of 87. I visited with him a couple weeks ago and anointed him at his home as he told me stories of his time in Italy when he was in the army. He built the house that he and his wife Rose have lived in for many years. They would have been married 50 years next month. I saw the great care that Rose had for Tony as she stood by his bedside, tending to all his needs. May she now have comfort and may her husband find peace in God’s presence.

Our annual Parish Festival will be next weekend, October 21st & 22nd. As always, I am very grateful to the many parishioners who spend a lot of time and energy planning, setting up, working at and then finally cleaning up for that two-day event. It’s a great opportunity to see people of the parish come together to enjoy each other’s company and to celebrate the faith that has sustained us for almost 75 years. Thank you especially to all those who sold raffle tickets. Per my custom, I will NOT be picking the winning tickets as it’s a sure way to make a couple of friends and a lot of enemies! Not really, but I’d still rather leave that task up to someone else. I look forward to seeing many of you here next weekend.

We have a good number of people signed up for the trip to Italy in March and I know that several others are in the process of submitting their registration forms. I’d like to encourage you to do that soon if you haven’t already & are planning on joining us. The company making the arrangements needs to know how many reservations to make for the hotels, events, etc. that they are setting up for us so while you still have time, sooner is better than later. 

Last weekend we had books available for you to take home called “Holy Moments.” It is written by Matthew Kelly who has written a number of the books we have given away at Christmas and Easter in past years and is an easy read. We wanted to offer something as we began our anniversary year so please be sure to take one home with you if you haven’t already. We’ll have another book for you at Christmas & hope you find them helpful in your spiritual journey.

I really like the idea of giving away these books to you from time to time as I find such spiritual reading so helpful for my own spiritual growth. I am always learning more about faith and it’s impact on my life, and am especially interested these days on how we understand and express faith in the Catholic Tradition. So many people do not realize the incredible treasury of wisdom that we have in the Catholic Church! And so much of that wisdom comes to us from both contemporary authors as well as canonized saints of the past. I continue to wonder how people in our world today survive without the faith and guidance that comes to us through the Church. Life is difficult enough with faith, and would seem impossible for me without faith. So thank you for the living faith that you continue to express by your presence here each weekend. 

Pastor's Column for October 9, 2022

Dear Parishioners,

I was asked to give the last rites to Joe Piazza, who had been bed-ridden for some time in his home, and he died a couple days later. He and his wife Rose were married for 59 years and had 4 children and 6 grandchildren. They were formerly members of Corpus Christi while Rose served as the cook for 25 years at Our Lady of Good Counsel, presently Mary Queen of Peace. We celebrated Joe’s funeral Mass on Friday, September 30th. May he rest in God’s peace as we commit our prayers to him and our support to his family.

I received word today from Father Vesely’s niece that his sister, Millie Ancin, has entered Hospice. You may recall that she took a fall just after her brother’s death and so was not able to attend his funeral Mass, and while she has been recovering nicely from that injury, she has been declining in other ways. The family decided it would be best to move her toward the goal of comfort care. I fondly remember the many dinners I enjoyed with Millie and her brother when we would go out after the 4pm Mass on Saturday evenings. Please keep Millie in your prayers during this time and ask for God’s grace on her family members who are tending to her care and comfort.

This weekend we welcome Bishop Malesic to St. Leo’s for his first visit to our parish. He will be celebrating the 11am Mass to help us begin our year-long celebration of the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the parish. You will have the opportunity to meet him personally and welcome him to our parish in Lux Hall after the Mass, where refreshments will be available. You will find the Bishop to be a very gentle and personable priest who has genuine concern for the people he shepherds in this Diocese. We are grateful that he is making the time to be with us today. 

Throughout this anniversary year we want to share some information with you concerning the beginning and history of our parish in the hopes that it will help us all to appreciate the unfolding of God’s plan and vision for this Catholic community of faith. So here is a bit of information I found from the booklet used in 1988 for the 40th Anniversary of the parish. The first Mass of the newly founded parish was celebrated at Ben Franklin School Auditorium on Sunday, October 17, 1948. There was a simple announcement in the bulletin of Our Lady of Good Counsel (again, currently Mary Queen of Peace) which spoke of the birth of St. Leo parish and gave the parish boundaries. Good Counsel parish had a Mass on Sunday 6am so Father Lux, our founding pastor, decided to have the first Sunday Mass at 5:30am for those who liked an earlier liturgy. There is a white house on the east side of Broadview Road that was used as a rectory (residence for the priest) and later this became the first convent of the parish. It had a little porch that Father Lux extended for daily Mass. 75 years later, we remain grateful to Father Lux for all he did to begin a community that would stretch (so far) 75 years into the future.