Pastor's Blog for November 25, 2018

The Church has a liturgical year that is different from the calendar year that begins on January 1st. The beginning of the Church’s liturgical year is always the First Sunday of Advent, which this year begins next Sunday, December 2nd. So the Sunday before Advent (today), the Church concludes its liturgical year with the Feast of Christ the King. This feast reminds us of the end of time when Christ our King will return and human history will be brought to an end. That may sound a bit frightening, but for us as people of faith, it is the best of news for when Christ comes again (also referred to as his “second coming,”), there will be a defini- tive end of evil and the experience of nothing but goodness and love in God’s kingdom. This is what we hope for, pray for, and work for. It is the culmination of the Gospel, the Good News that Jesus proclaims. Even the first couple of weeks of Advent carries this theme until we get closer to Christmas and recall the first coming of Jesus when he was born among us. So look for the Advent candles and the purple color and the time of preparation for the Feast of the Nativity (Christmas).

It’s always good to use the time of Advent preparation to grow in the understanding & appreciation of our faith. Since there is nothing more important to the experience of faith than the Mass which we celebrate every week, we want to provide you with the opportunity to learn more about how the Mass came to be & why it is so central to our Catholic way of life. Bishop Robert Barron, the greatest evangelist in our country today, has produced another series of videos on the Mass. This series is sure to hit home as we all pray the Mass every week (or more). I can’t speak more highly about Bishop Barron or his videos as they are a fascinating look at why Catholicism is so rich in its history and meaning. We will view these videos in the Parish Community Center on Mondays, December 3, 10 & 17 from 7pm-8pm. I know that you will walk away with a much better understanding of the Mass & it will change the way you worship here every week! Here is some information on Bishop Robert Barron:

Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He is also the host of CATHOLICISM, a groundbreaking, award-winning documentary about the Catholic Faith, which aired on public television.

Bishop Barron is a #1 Amazon bestselling author & has published numerous books, essays, and articles on theology & the spiritual life. He is a religion correspondent for NBC and has also appeared on FOX News, CNN, and EWTN.

Bishop Barron's pioneering work in evangelizing through the new media led Francis Cardinal George to describe him as “one of the Church's best messengers.”

Pastor's Blog for November 18, 2018

Johann Artbauer’s funeral Mass was celebrated last Saturday, November 10th. Johann had 4 children, 6 grand- children & 6 great-grandchildren. She also has 2 sisters. Johann had a devotion to the Sacred Heart, St. Michael, & St. Christopher. During this month of November we remem- ber her and all the faithful departed from our parish whose funerals we celebrated this past year. Their names can be seen on the table by the baptism font, along with a book you can use to write in the names of deceased loves ones you would like us to remember this month. Finally, there is a basket there with the All Souls Day envelopes you filled out with names of those we are praying for during November.

In the rectory office, the Parish Community Center and the vestibule of the church, you’ll find booklets called “Care Notes” which provide helpful information as we deal with the many challenges of life. They are easy to read and offer the wisdom of our faith and of experience. Please feel free to browse through them to see if there are any you would like to read yourself, and feel free to bring them to others whom you feel may find them useful. They are yours to keep if you wish. We’ll include a list of the topics in the parish bulletin.

I received a letter from the Bishop asking me to congrat- ulate and thank you for reaching our 2018 Catholic Charities Appeal Goal. I believe we have been meeting or exceeding this goal every year and so I’m very grateful that you reach out to the poor & those in need with both your donations and your prayers. And let me also thank you for the many dona- tions of food and other items that you bring in & put in the vestibule for use by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, who does such great work in helping those in our neighborhood. In their name, I thank you.

It’s that time of year again for us to set aside an entire day to be mindful of the importance of thankfulness and to offer our gratitude to God for the countless blessings that are in our life. I invite you to join us for Mass this Thursday morning at 9am. In line with a long tradition here at St. Leo’s, we will bless and pass out loaves of bread to be enjoyed by those sharing in the Thanksgiving meal at home. The Eucharist we will celebrate on that day, and on every day we celebrate Mass, is all about giving thanks and praise to God. Yes, we ask for his mercy and for many other things, but primarily, the liturgy is one act of praise and thanks. It is gratitude that brings us peace and removes our sadness. How do you feel blessed this year?

The deacon now has his own chair in the sanctuary. It’s actually a hand-me-down as it used to be the priest’s chair but we had a new one made for the priest or presider which has a slightly taller back to it. I always got the clothes my brother used to wear so now I finally get something new and Deacon Pat gets something used. But at least I was kind enough to give him the cushion that goes with it.

Pastor's Blog for November 11, 2018

OK, so I know I goofed up last weekend when I wrote in my column that we were having the blessing of throats after all the Masses even though the feast of St. Blasé isn’t until February. But in my defense, I was reading our month- ly “Diocesan Memorandum” before typing the article & it was giving the liturgical dates for 2019, one of which concerned the blessing of throats on February 3rd. So my mind just skipped ahead a few months. Secondly, the Deacon is suppose to stop me from making any mistakes. He obviously failed in that responsibility. But I can assure you that he pointed it out to me afterward.

I understand that John Sabol will be preparing a webcast of the presentation he gave on the history of our parish so that we can make it available on our website. That’s great news to me as I had the flu that week but heard that it was really well done. But John discovered something as he was preparing for the presentation. The last paragraph of the deed to the parish property which was executed in 1949 said that the name of the parish is “St. Leo V” (as in St. Leo the Fifth) instead of saying “St. Leo the Great” who was actually St. Leo I (the first). John said that after looking up information on St. Leo V, he was no saint, and wasn’t very great! Since it’s in a legal document, I suppose someone could argue that the property really doesn’t belong to us. But if they want the property back, we’ll give them all the bills that go along with it!

So we bring our 70th Anniversary Year to a close with the feast of St. Leo the Great this weekend (celebrated every year on November 10th). My thanks again to John Sabol, not only for his great history lesson, but for the work he & his wife Jeannie did on the display case in the vestibule. He has updated the pictures & documents there to show Christ- mases from past years at our parish, so be sure to stop there & take a look. This week we will draw a winner for the $1000.00 Sweepstakes Raffle prize so that’s a good way to end this anniversary celebration.

This would be a good time to let you know that because we made very little profit on that Sweepstakes Raffle (only about $350), we are going to tweak it a bit for next year. We will start to sell the new raffle tickets on Saturday, Decem- ber 1st. The first drawing will be January 1st. It will run until November 10th (feast of St. Leo). We will continue to have a $100 weekly winner (and again, you can win more than once in the year!). We will have (5) $200 winners on New Year’s Day, Easter Sunday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and 4th of July instead of having a $1000.00 drawing on Easter and Christmas. We will still have a $1000.00 winner though on the feast of St. Leo. Many people love to play this raffle & they make wonderful gifts, especially as stocking stuffers at Christmas.

Pastor's Blog for November 4, 2018

Congratulations to the parents of Xavier David Cintula who was baptized last Sunday. May his patron, St. Frances Xavier, and all the saints, pray for him as he is raised in the Catholic faith.

Last Tuesday many people were gathered for the funeral Mass of Bill (Boleslaw) Skora. I told them that I met Bill on January 1, 2014. I remember the day well as that New Year’s Day was my first day as Pastor of St. Leo’s. Bill had attended Mass & introduced himself to me afterward, warmly welcoming me to the parish. I have since learned that Bill had a great devotion to the saints (whose feast we just celebrated a couple of days after his funeral Mass) and especially to Mary, the Mother of God (whose feast we celebrate on January 1st, again the day I first met Bill). Bill prayed the rosary often and with Sharon, his wife of 46 years, actively passed on the faith to their 4 children. Bill will be missed by many & we join the saints in praying for him as we remember him and all the Faithful Departed on November 2nd & throughout the month of November.

We welcome Father Vesely as he celebrates the 4pm Mass this weekend and as we offer our birthday greetings to him on his 90th birthday (officially November 8th). Fr. Vesely gave us a number of relics (small pieces of bone or flesh taken from the bodies of saints) and we have placed them in wooden cabinets which hang to the right of the Sacred Heart Statue and to the left of the St. Anne with Mary statue in the back of the church. We are blessed to have them as reminders of those men & women whose saintly lives give us inspiration. Please be sure to thank Fr. Vesely for the gift of these relics. He will join Deacon Pat & I as we bless throats in honor of St. Blaise after the 4pm Mass on Saturday (Deacon Pat & I will offer the throat blessing after the Sunday Masses as well).

Since we now have a Deacon as part of our parish community, it made sense to have a more permanent chair for him next to the presider’s chair in the sanctuary. So Deacon Pat will inherit my “old” chair and a new one has been built for the priest. I spoke to the Parish Council about using the opportunity to re-stain the wood in the sanctuary as it does not match the medium oak we have in the rest of the church, such as on the pews, the stained glass window frames, the frame & rear doors of the vestibule, etc. We are using some of the funds that were left to us in a will last year and I believe it will make the sanctuary much richer in its beauty. The work will be done this week. It’s a good way to conclude our 70th Anniversary next weekend as we celebrate the feast of our patron, St. Leo the Great, on November 10th. We also have a relic of St. Leo the Great which will be on display near his statue to the right of the tabernacle. May St. Leo and all the Saints pray for us!