I am certain that long before Jesus hears the words from Heaven confirming his divine identity, he hears the words “I love you” from his mother Mary and foster father Joseph. Jesus’ earthly parents help him to form his divine identity as a beloved son. This week when you introduce yourself to someone tell them you are a beloved son or daughter of God the Father. Tell someone you love that you love them and remind them that God loves them most of all!

CHRISTMAS SEASON THANK YOU 

On behalf of our entire pastoral staff and Fr. Spicer I want to thank everyone for your generous gifts, kind words and beautiful cards we received throughout the Christmas Season. I want to thank Patrick Grau our facilities director and JoAnn Fellner and our decorating crew and everyone who assisted in decorating the church both inside and out. Thank you to Maria Didonato our director of music and all our choirs and cantors for leading us in song during the Christmas season. Thank you to my assistant Scott Effertz and office manager Jennifer Gutoseky for coordinating all the volunteer ministers to serve at all our Masses. Most of all I want to thank all our dedicated parishioners for celebrating Jesus’ birth with us once again this year. Happy and blessed New Year to all of you!

BISHOP MALESIC PASTORAL LETTER 

Bishop Edward Malesic has written his first pastoral letter as the Bishop of Cleveland entitled “A Flourishing Apostolic Church.” The letter encourages the faithful of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland to pray, celebrate the sacraments and serve those in need. Copies of the letter are being included in the January edition of the Northeast Ohio Catholic Magazine that is being mailed to every household in the parish. You can also find an electronic copy on our parish website and on the diocesan we website using this link: https://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/a-flourishing-apostolic-church/overview 

I would like to personally invite every parishioner to take a few minutes to prayerfully read the pastor letter. Everything our bishop speaks about in the letter is precisely the mission of St. Columbkille Parish: Worship God, Serve Others, Grow Disciples of Jesus. Here are a few highlights:

If we compare our relationship with God to our other relationships, we know that we make time for the people whom we love most, and the people who love us most make time for us. The same is true in our relationship with God.

Our bishop says. “Seek a place to sit, quiet yourself, and learn to just ‘be’ in the presence of the living God. There are many ways to pray, and you can each figure out what form of prayer works best for your given state in life, but for the sake of your spiritual health and the spiritual health of our diocese, take at least fifteen minutes to be alone with God.

Bishop Malesic explains that “The more time we spend with Jesus, particularly in the celebration of Eucharist and Reconciliation, the more we begin to look like him, which means that when people see us, they also see Jesus. This is the point of the sacramental life: to become who and what we receive.”

The Bishop’s letter encourages the faithful to, “considering participating in the Sacraments of Confession and Eucharist more often.” At a minimum, Catholics should be attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of obligation as well as going to Confession once a year to confession serious sins. But as Bishop Malesic writes: “But why settle for the minimum when we can do so much more? Strive for more in your spiritual life. Strive for that deep and personal relationship that Jesus wants to have with you.”

People look for community in the Church, and rightly so. We are social by nature. Being made in God’s image, we are made to be a community of persons, just as God is. The Church helps us share God’s love with each other, just as a family shares love.

Just as A Flourishing Apostolic Church calls the faithful to more daily prayer and sacramental encounters, Bishop Malesic is encouraging everyone to engage in faith sharing through small groups, serving in our parishes and communities. 

The bishop explains that “Small faith-related groups allow us to recognize what is universally true about our Catholic faith in our situations. They allow us to share our faith with others in more personal, often more meaningful ways. They allow us to share our stories with each other.

We have so many ways to get involved serving others and sharing faith here at St. Columbkille from our women’s and men’s fellowship groups, to service Saturday, serving as volunteer ministers at weekend Masses, holy name society and good Samaritan outreach ministry. These are just a handful of the ways we fulfill our mission of Worshiping God, Serving Others, and Growing Disciples of Jesus.

Never forget, the Lord is with us, always!