The Collar's Corner

St. Patrick and St. Vincent de Paul Parishes

Two Parishes, One Faith

January 2025

Greetings Parish Families! I pray that everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year! Certainly I want to take the opportunity to extend a special word of thanks to all those who helped to make our Christmas liturgies the wonderful encounters with the Lord's presence that I pray they were.

Thank you to our music ministries under the direction of Caleb Tate at St. Vincent de Paul and Bob Varga at St. Patrick's along with our cantors, choir members, and instrumentalists. A joyful noise was truly made unto the Lord!

Thank you to our Sacristans, Servers, Lectors, and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, along with our Ushers and all who helped us to worship well and ensure that all those who came together to celebrate, both regulars and visitors were welcomed.

Thank you to our Art & Environment volunteers who helped to arrange poinsettias and nativity scenes, hang wreaths and banners and make sure that everything was clean and in place

And certainly thank you to all of you whether you had an official role in the Mass or your role was participating from your pew. The Lord was truly present in and through every one who gathered for these joyous celebrations. May he continue to be made present in and through each of us in our work in the year ahead.

The Collar's Corner Request

Invite others to join our Flocknote community!

If someone you know wants to sign up or you want to invite someone to join and receive our monthly "The Collar's Corner," there are 2 ways to do that:

1) Go to stpatrickstvincentdepaul.flocknote.com

OR

2) Text WESTPARK (no space) to 84576

In both cases, once someone joins they'll have the opportunity to pick which parish group they are a part of.

PRAYERS FOR FR. ROBERT AND HIS FAMILY!

We continue to hold Fr. Robert and his family in our prayers at the passing of his mother Imelda Muhunde, who passed away in Uganda on New Year's Eve at the age of 95. Fr. Robert shared with me how deep of a faith his mother had and asked me to encourage you to pray for his mother and to thank you for those prayers as well.

Fr. Robert traveled back to Uganda to be with his family and to celebrate his mother's funeral Mass, which was on Tuesday, January 7th. Fr. Robert will spend the next month and a half visiting with his family and taking some time of retreat. He will return to us on Thursday, February 20th.

May the soul of Imelda Muhunde and the soul's of all the faithfully departed rest in peace! Amen.

CONFESSION ADJUSTMENT

THERE ARE 3 WEEKENDS IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY WHERE THE CONFESSIONS SCHEDULE WILL NEED TO BE ADJUSTED DUE TO THE SAME PRIEST NEEDING TO CELEBRATE BOTH SATURDAY VIGIL MASSES.

ON THE FOLLOWING SATURDAY'S THERE WILL BE 11:00 AM CONFESSIONS AT ST. PATRICK'S BUT THERE WILL NOT BE 4:00 PM CONFESSIONS AT ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. THE EUCHARIST WILL STILL BE EXPOSED AS NORMAL AT ST. VINCENT DE PAUL AND YOU ARE WELCOME TO COME TO SPEND TIME IN PRAYER, BUT EITHER FR. ROBERT OR I WILL BE CELEBRATING THE 4:00 PM MASS AT ST. PATRICK'S AND THEN COMING DOWN TO ST. VINCENT DE PAUL FOR THE 5:30 PM MASS SO WE WON'T ALSO BE ABLE TO HEAR CONFESSIONS AT ST. VINCENT DE PAUL AT THE SAME TIME.

4:00 PM CONFESSIONS AT ST. VINCENT DE PAUL WILL BE CANCELLED ON:

JANUARY 11TH

FEBRUARY 8TH

FEBRUARY 22ND

END YOUR MONTH WITH THE LORD

Mark your calendar for our end of the month Holy Hour on Monday January 27th from 6:30-7:30 pm at St. Vincent de Paul. As we celebrate enter into the new year filled with new possibilities and new hope, we are invited to spend some time in silent prayer with the Lord inviting Him to lead us and guide us in the year ahead. You can find the dates for our other upcoming Holy Hours below as well. Just a note that our March Holy Hour on March 31st will be moved to Our Lady of Angels as a part of our area-wide Lenten Communal Penance Service with Confessions. More details to come on that service as we enter into our Lenten journey.

OCIA RITE OF ACCEPTANCE

On the weekend of January 25th & 26th we will celebrate the Rite of Acceptance with the members of our OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults). We will welcome them at the 11:00 Mass that Sunday at St. Patrick’s. Though they have been gathering together to ask questions, learn about and study our faith, learning and grow in their relationship with God since September, this is the first formal step on their journey towards joining us in full communion in faith through the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. This is the time where they formally say, this is the faith I want to be a part of and make my own.

The Rite of Acceptance gets its name as it is the time where we, the parish families they seek to become a part of, accept them and promise to pray for and support them on their journey to the Easter Vigil. Symbolically they begin the Mass outside the doors of the main Church, indicating their desire to enter in and be one with us. As they are welcomed in and declare their intent and desire to join our faith, they are signed with the sign of the cross, and are now called catechumens. Please pray for Morgan, Terry, and Casey as we welcome them and accept them this weekend. Pray that the seeds of faith that have been planted in them continue to grow and that you and I may be examples of Jesus Christ alive to them.

I share this with both parish families, because even though the Mass will be celebrated at St. Patrick’s, all of us will not be present at the Mass our OCIA group is made up of members from both parish families. Secondly, as we get into Lent and celebrate the other OCIA Rites including the Rite of Sending and the 3 Scrutinies, we will rotate at which parish and Mass these rites are celebrated. So, over the course of their journey each parish will get to celebrate, pray for, and support our OCIA catechumens. We will also celebrate one combined Easter Vigil, as both parishes celebrate the risen Lord together.

Please keep the members of our OCIA journey in your prayers as they grow deeper in their relationship with and their love for our God!

Please keep praying for all those suffering in the wildfires sweeping through southern California. My heart goes out to our neighbors who have lost their homes and livelihoods. Let’s pray for them and let’s pray for our firefighters and first responders. May God keep all of our brothers and sisters safe and bring end to these fires! – Archbishop Gomez (Archbishop of Los Angeles)

Heavenly Father,
We turn to You in this time of great trial, as the wildfires rage across Los Angeles. Protect those in danger, comfort those who have lost their homes, and welcome into Your eternal embrace the souls of those who have perished.

Lord, we pray for the firefighters and first responders. Grant them strength, courage, and safety as they battle the flames. May Your guiding hand lead them to protect lives and property.

Holy Spirit, inspire us to be instruments of Your peace and love, supporting our brothers and sisters in need with our prayers, resources, and compassion.

Mother Mary, Queen of Angels, intercede for us in this hour of need. Bring hope to the hopeless and healing to the afflicted.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

JANUARY 300 CLUB WINNERS

Congratulations to the January winners of our 2025 300 Club Drawings....

1) Tom Teti

2) The Mountcastle Grandkids

3) Mary T. Stanton

Our next drawing will be held the first weekend of February, February 1st & 2nd. Good luck and we hope that you'll be a winner!

"A FLOURISHING, APOSTOLIC CHURCH"

Back on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, December 15th, Bishop Malesic issued his first Pastoral Letter as Bishop of the Diocese. With all the preparations for Christmas I, myself, did not get a chance to sit down and prayerfully read through the letter until after Christmas. Over the next few weeks I’m planning to sit down and digest the letter more and talk with Fr. Robert and our Parish Pastoral Councils (who I’m meeting with on Monday) about how we might be able to incorporate the Bishop’s letter into the lives of each of our parishes, including through our homilies and in this column. The letter itself is a very easy and inspiring read that focuses on three key areas: worship, evangelization, and service. These areas are, as the Bishop reminds us, should be at the heart of every parish ministry ands the primary reasons why a parish exists.

I would invite and encourage you to check out the letter yourself. This isn’t a letter intended just for Priests or for those in leadership, it is meant for every member of the faithful in the Diocese and lays out the Bishop’s view for our Church and our Diocese going forward. The letter, entitled, “A Flourishing Apostolic Church,” and a video introduction from the Bishop can be found on the Diocesan website….(www.dioceseofcleveland.org/a-flourishing-apostolic-church/overview). We’re also working on putting a link to the letter on each parish website. I also plan on including a link to the letter in my January “Collar’s Corner” Flocknote, and, for those who receive the Northeast Ohio Catholic magazine, the letter will be found in the January/February issue.

You can also watch a video introduction from the Bishop about the Letter here:

https://vimeo.com/1037975739

"The goal of this letter is to provide you with a resource for reflection, that you might be drawn more deeply into prayer and a more intimate relationship with Jesus. "

Don't forget to check out our websites for more information, ministry schedules, the parish calendar, etc.:

St. Patrick: https://stpatrickwp.org/

St. Vincent de Paul: https://svdpcleveland.org/