From Fr. E.J. - -
I hope we all had a good Easter Week. Anyone associated with our parish school experienced Spring Break. I hope Spring Break was everything you hoped it would be. Before Holy Week/Easter Triduum gets too far behind us, I want to offer a lot of thanks. In the space of nine days, we celebrated four different individual confession times, three Palm Sunday Masses, a Drive-By Palm distribution, a School Mass, a Mass with the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, two Liturgies of the Passion of the Lord, a really joyous three-hour-and-six-minute Easter Vigil Mass with seven baptisms and four additional Full Communions with the Catholic Church, plus three Easter Sunday Masses. Many of these celebrations were bilingual. All of them required various complexities including careful planning, detailed coordination, practice, and production and printing of massive amounts of worship aids.
None of these things “just happened.” I could list a lot of individual names deserving of sincere thanks. However, that would fill a few pages. “Thank you so much” is sincerely given to the Deacons, the parish staff, the Worship Commission, worship aid producers, the Latino Community leaders, the catechists, the sponsors, the maintenance staff, live-stream managers, the servers, lectors, Church musicians and choir(s), Eucharistic Ministers, sacristans, church cleaners and decorators, everyone who
donated funds for Easter flowers, and all those who arranged and watered the flowers. I sure hope I didn’t miss anyone because a lot of dedicated hands helped make Holy Week/Easter Triduum possible for all of us.
The most significant -- and usually the longest -- liturgy in a parish church year is the celebration of the Easter Vigil. A real high point in the Easter Vigil, in parishes around the entire world, is the welcoming of new members into the church after a substantial time of preparation and discernment. This welcoming is done through the celebration of Baptism, Profession of Faith, Confirmation and Eucharist. Let us warmly welcome into the Catholic Church and to St. Clement Parish those who celebrated these Rites at the Easter Vigil. Baptized are Valentin Tomas Juarez, William Dario Domingo-Arreaga, Mayle Trinidad Domingo-Arreaga, William Alexander Martinez-Diaz, Gary Clay Domingo-Arreaga, Britny Mayte Zunun-Velasquez, and Eidi Lizet Martinez-Diaz. Joining them in being received into Full Reception, Confirmation, and Communion with the Catholic Church are Maribel Arreaga-Perez, Javier Gomez Bravo, Silvia Rosa Mejia-Rivas, and Alberto Robriguez-Mendoza. Congratulations to all of you and your families. We, the parish, extend to you our prayers and support in your faith journey.
Meanwhile, the Bishops of Ohio have been in constant communication with State of Ohio medical officials throughout our pandemic time. Recent communications from these Bishops say parish churches can now have water in their fonts, can sprinkle Holy Water on the people (for example, during Mass) and can start returning to songbooks and missalettes. More changes will come very gradually.