Pentecost
My Dear Friends in Christ,
What a deluge we experienced last Saturday night! There were many flooded roads throughout North-western Ohio. And by contrast, in India there has been so little rain that drinking water must be trucked into villages. Let us all be mindful of the many people suffering because of too much and too little rain. Farmers in both situations are anxious about their harvests for their own families’ liveli-hoods, and for the many people they feed through their efforts. Bishop Thomas has asked us to pray for fair weather and for farmers to be able to plant and grow their crops.
We celebrate this weekend the second most solemn day of the year, the feast of Pentecost. Easter and Pentecost are the two oldest feasts celebrated in the Church, and the two are intimately connected. To-day we complete the Easter season, the most important period in the liturgical year, and celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and the birth of the Church.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus stood with his Apostles and said, “Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to unite all of his followers into one body, the Church, to continue His work. Though we come from different places, with different spiritual gifts, we are transformed by the Holy Spirit to be greater than the sum of our parts as the Body of Christ.
Last weekend, the Body of Christ grew with the baptism of Hudson Hayes Alfaro, son of Joshua and Christina Alfaro. We also celebrated the wedding of McKenna Drouillard and Dr. Patrick Tate. We congratulate both families and pray for God’s continued blessings to rain down upon them!
There are two very important bulletin articles that you should read this week. The maintenance committee has been working on security and facility use. Our churches and facilities have been around a long time and over the years, many people have had keys to the buildings. We are taking inventory of the keys to our buildings to try and get a complete list of who has them. We have had parish-ioners pass away and were surprised when their family turned in a ring of church keys. Please notify our Facilities Manager if you have keys to any facility as noted in the bulletin.
The other page are parish facility usage policies and fees which go into effect on July 1, 2019. It has been some years since these were revised, and we found that we were charging significantly less than other parishes. The changes bring us closer to the practices of other parishes and will help Epiphany manage financially, especially in times of uncertain rental of properties.
Finally, we are launching the Mega Moolah Mania ticket sale this week. Many of you picked up tick-ets to sell at Mass last week. More are available near the doors at all churches or through the parish office. Last year, this fund-raiser turned out to be very good for our parish. We start fresh with a new batch of monthly drawings in July, so sell or purchase your tickets soon, and don’t miss any chances to win!
Together let us serve the Body of Christ!
Rev. Gilbert Mascarenhas SAC