St. Clement’s 2016 Festival and Pig Roast was a grand event! It truly was . . . in spite of the huge three-hour rainfall Saturday afternoon which brought a number of challenges for some, especially our beautiful Bid ‘n Buy booth and Clement’s Closet. I heard that Friday night’s gathering was the biggest yet for a Friday night. The Mass in the pavilion Saturday afternoon was lovely—again with our largest crowd in memory for an opening Mass. And Sunday was glorious, sunny, much cooler and, according to many reports, our largest Sunday crowd in recent years. My heart goes out to members of the planning committee who worked so very hard over the past months to prepare for the weekend but had to contend to effects of the storm. And yet, while the storm had to be disquieting, they and many others pitched in to deal with the bad weather in outstanding fashion.
On behalf of the whole parish community a heartfelt thank you to Festival Chair Barb Kalb and her committee members Keith Geraci, Andy Kalb, Pat Stefener, Walt St. Clair, Jonathan Stuchell, and Joe and Kay Thoman. Thanks to all who volunteered to chair the many booths and those who took shifts in the booths. A special thank you to our maintenance supervisor Greg Vonder Meulen, his crew, and our 8th grade kids who helped set up and clean up. Thanks to the folks who took off work for several days the week before to help with set up and to keep watch at the park overnight on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Of course, we are grateful to the Village of St. Bernard for the use of Vine Street Park and all that went along with that blessing.
While it will be a while before we know the net financial results of this annual fund raiser, we can surely be grateful to God and to all who made the weekend a marvelous experience. Thank YOU for any way that you helped to make this important event in our parish life a success.
This Sunday is Catechetical Sunday which provides us the opportunity to bless and thank the Lord for all those in our parish who pass on the Word of God. Preeminently, of course, you parents are the primary educators in the faith for your children. We honor you! We honor our catechetical leaders in the parish, Ms. Emily Mulvey, DFF, and Mr. Jeff Eiser, Principal. Catechetical Sunday also affords us the opportunity to honor and bless our St. Clement teachers both in our school and in our other formation programs, such as our Sunday Children’s Liturgy of the Word, sacramental formation, the RCIA, etc. Catechists all, you mean the world to our parish! And I know you do to your students as well.
At the 10:30 AM Mass this Sunday we will formally commission our new Pastoral Council members: Bill Burkhardt, Ed Mormile, Diane Smith and Alan Siefert. They have been elected for a three-year term. All of our elected council members serve a three-year term. Council members will ordinarily be wearing a small red name tag at parish Masses and other gatherings. Please don’t hesitate to talk with them if there are any matters of concern or if you have other questions about St. Clement.
Next weekend, Sept. 24-25, after the homily at each Mass, we will celebrate communally, the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. All who are in need of healing, aged or facing surgery are invited to receive this important sacrament. It is good that we can celebrate the sacrament in the context of Eucharist. It affords us the opportunity to pray for one another. Jesus clearly wants all of us to be healed. Have a blessed week!
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