T HE M ESSENGER The newsletter of St. Michael the Archangel Parish December 2015 Spaghe DinnerEducaonal Memorial and Upcoming AcviesF ROM THE P EN OF THE P ASTOR In this edition of The Messenger, I’m pleased to tell you about an- other effort to improve our worship life here at St. Michael the Archangel Parish. Some twelve years ago, the beautiful renovation of our parish church building was completed, with the dedication of the altar by Archbishop Pilarczyk on July 1, 2003. Since then, countless thousands of people have come to celebrate the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day, to bring new members into the Body of Christ through Baptism, to witness the commitment of life and love in the Sacra- ment of Matrimony, to find healing in the Sacraments of Reconcilia- tion and Anointing of the Sick, to bury their beloved dead, and so much more. Our beautiful worship space has served us well. It’s only natural then, that all this use takes its toll on the building, giving rise to the need for renewal and improvement. Early this year, we installed a new sound system, which many people have told me has been a real improvement. If you look around, especially at the walls of the East Transept and the Gathering Space, and the continued on page two
Transcript
THE MESSENGER The newsletter of St. Michael the Archangel Parish
December 2015
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FROM THE PEN OF THE PASTOR
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In this edition of The Messenger, I’m pleased to tell you about an-other effort to improve our worship life here at St. Michael the Archangel Parish. Some twelve years ago, the beautiful renovation of our parish church building was completed, with the dedication of the altar by Archbishop Pilarczyk on July 1, 2003. Since then, countless thousands of people have come to celebrate the Eucharist on the Lord’s Day, to bring new members into the Body of Christ through Baptism, to witness the commitment of life and love in the Sacra-ment of Matrimony, to find healing in the Sacraments of Reconcilia-tion and Anointing of the Sick, to bury their beloved dead, and so much more. Our beautiful worship space has served us well.
It’s only natural then, that all this use takes its toll on the building, giving rise to the need for renewal and improvement. Early this year, we installed a new sound system, which many people have told me has been a real improvement. If you look around, especially at the walls of the East Transept and the Gathering Space, and the
continued on page two
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SPAGHETTI D INNER
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carpeting in the Gathering Space, you will note evidence of wear and tear: scuff marks on the walls, bleeding through of wall studs, peeling and chipped plaster, and faded carpet. It’s time to freshen things up!
Our Business Manager Scott Hungler, our Music and Worship Director Brian Bisig, and I have met with a Liturgical Designer to begin thinking about how to proceed. I have assembled a committee to advise us: Parish Pastoral Council Chair Jim Konves, Parish Finance Council Chair Jerry Mussari, past co-chair of the renovation project Karen Martens, and parishioner Dee Dee Connaughton. Together we have been thinking about the need and the opportunity. We have looked at wall, ceiling, and carpet colors that would blend in well with the colors that are already part of our worship space, as well as enhance our experience of prayer in our worship space. I am grateful to all of those named for their will-ingness to be part of this process which will help me decide how to proceed.
We continue to work together, with the goal of completing the painting and car-peting by Easter of 2016. Recent bequests to the parish will cover the cost asso-ciated with these improvements.
I know that our parish staff and the consulting committee named above are ded-icated to the good of our entire parish, and are striving to take into considera-tion the needs of the entire parish, as well as the needs of Catholic worship, in relation to this project. I am grateful for the deep commitment and support of everyone who is part of our regular worshipping community here at St. Michael. And I have already expressed the parish’s appreciation to the estates of the late parishioners who made the bequest that will pay for this work—bequests to the parish are extraordinary ways of ensuring that God’s work continues at St. Mi-chael.
Feel free to talk to any of the committee members, along with myself, about this great project. We are blessed to have such wonderful space to lift praise and thanks to our good and gracious God.
FROM THE PEN OF THE PASTOR , CONTINUED
Thanks to all who supported our annual parish Spaghetti Din-ner on Sunday, October 18th! LaRosa’s once again prepared a delicious meal, and our wonderful parishioners provided de-lightful desserts! Many thanks to our new Spaghetti Dinner co-chairs Jen Bisig, Michelle Trovillo, and Angelica Vietti; our var-ious committee chairs; and our many volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without you!
It’s been a busy few months at St. Michael Parish School, and like you, we are preparing for Christmas in the Advent season, trying not to lose sight of the “reason for the season”. Our Advent theme this year is “Preparing for Jesus by Taking Satan’s Power Through Good Actions”, and we are focusing on doing something extra nice or spending extra time praying, which then takes some of Satan’s power away.
We are excited that, thanks to the hard work of parents and teachers, we are able to begin a school day volunteering program this year! This group of hard-working individuals has found age-appropriate activities for all of our students at various times throughout the school year. Some projects have already been completed: our kindergarten and first grade students packaged gifts for Opera-tion Christmas Child and our third graders raked leaves at houses surrounding our school. Later in the year, our second graders will make blankets for Project Linus; our fourth graders are planning a visit to a local retirement home; our fifth and sixth graders will volunteer at Hands Against Hunger; and our seventh and eighth graders will volunteer at Matthew 25 Ministries. These projects allow our students to put their faith in action, and help them grow in faith and knowledge.
Recently our Fifth Grade students dressed as Saints as part of their religion clas-ses. They learned about their lives and shared their knowledge with their class-mates. They also participated in a special parade to our primary grades. They are wrapping up the projects by making picture frames and placing their saints’ pic-tures in them. These will be delivered to our local shut ins. What a wonderful way to share knowledge and compassion with our community!
We honored our veterans in November by decorating our fence along Walnut Street with red, white, and blue ribbons and signs. It was a great project in which our students could participate!
The week of Thanksgiving, our students once again participated in our annual Thanksgiving food drive. Each grade was responsible for a specific item or two; for example, kindergarten students brought in a large box of instant mashed po-tatoes and a jar of gravy, and sixth graders brought in a pie. We were able to pro-vide complete Thanksgiving dinners to over 50 needy families! Because of this wonderful project, our students gained satisfaction in helping others and learned a very valuable lesson: a little help can go a long way, and they truly can make a difference!
Our fifth graders also prepared a Thanksgiving prayer service in which the entire school participated. We are thankful for Jesus, life, food, family, and letting us serve God!
Thank you for your continued support of St. Michael Parish School! We are proud to be your parish school!
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NEWS FROM THE PARISH SCHOOL , CONTINUED
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By Jody Shafer
The Health and Wellness Ministry of St. Michael Parish began in 2001 when St. Michael Parish held its first “Flu Shots” for parishioners in 2001. The shots were sponsored by the St. Michael Health and Wellness Ministry, in partnership with Episcopal Retirement Homes. Approximately 100 people pre-registered! At that time, the Health and Wellness Ministry consisted of Sally Robertson, Mary Anne Schroeck, Elaine Schutte, Chris Sayers, Muriel McArthur, Terri Blessinger, Elaine Leist, Sharon Young, Diane Reinert, Mary Craven, and Jody Shafer. We were able to offer this wonderful service to our parish for only a couple of years before our resources with Episcopal Retirement Homes ran out.
Because of this, we discovered the need to offer more health-related services to our parishioners. In 2003, we began offering diabetic screenings! Approximate-ly 45 people either pre-registered and/or came one Sunday afternoon from 1:00-2:15!
The Health and Wellness Ministry again saw the need for MORE “Healthy Ser-vices”! We asked parishioners who were registered nurses to help us with taking blood pressures, once a month, after all masses. We even had parishioners who were non-nurses help with the books. Since then, we’ve been calling on those same “25” parishioners to offer both Blood Pressures and Diabetic Screenings after all masses, the first weekend of the month.
We’ve now been offering Blood Pressure and Diabetic Screenings for some 13-14 years. During those years, times have changed, people have changed, and the ways in which we can now get our Blood Pressure and Diabetic Screenings have changed. Over the past 1-2 years, we’ve seen our attendance decrease in num-bers. It is time for some of us to “give it a break”. I regret to say that this com-ing January, we are going to stop offering these services to our parishioners. Teri Blessinger, Chris Sayers, and Jody Shafer want to take this time to say “thank you” to all the WONDERFUL nurses and non-nurses in our parish who have given their time and willingness to help in making our parish a “healthy parish” for so many years! We couldn’t have done it without you!
Thank you!
The Health and Wellness Committee of St. Michael Parish
Bishop Fenwick High School: Joseph Durham, Vincent Durham, Elaine Johnson, Megan Kowal, Alexander Kowal, Ryan Lederle, Aaron Mullen, Joseph Rohlfs, Joseph Rudy, Megan Stevenson, Hailey Welsh, Nicholas Wysong
Moeller High School: Hayden Bianchini, Samuel Bracken, Austin Brown, Bradley Buller, Cameron Clarke, Ethan Clarke, Elliott Ernst, Eric Ernst, Evan Ernst, Michael Griffin, Tyler Grinstead, Nathaniel Heister, Zachary Hoog, Patrick Klop-penburg, Kyle Lindeman, Caleb Maletta, Kevin Marklay, Mat-thew Medl, Ben Morehouse, Jackson O'Bryan, Joseph Phipps, Adam Pugh, Ryan Rufo, Owen Schneider, Liam Smith, Sean Smith, William Thompson, Cameron Tuttle
Mount Notre Dame High School: Kelsey Beitman, Carly Bowling, Clare Bowling, Shannon Callahan, Natalie Casey, Hailey Coulehan, Lauren Curry, Katherine Deloatch, Julia DeVita, Isabella DiCarlo, Denise Durbin, Emily Ernst, Megan Fiscus, Fiona Fogarty, Taylor Fothergill, Claudia Garcia, Han-nah Gordon, Mary Angela Guye, Jordan Hallau, Julia Harmon, Rachel Harmon, Amy Horton, Sarah Horton, Gabrielle Hus-ter, Rebecca Janka, Victoria Jansing, Elizabeth Johnson, Amy Koetter, Mary Krumdieck, Katelin Marklay, Kelli Niehaus, Leah Piller, Bailey Porter, Amanda Puthoff, Amber Reinert, Allison Rogiers, Emma Rogiers, Anna Rosenthal, Kate Rosen-thal, Rebecka Schlake, Hope Schneider, Taylor Shawver, Lind-sey Theis, Breann Webb, Abigail Weeks, Margaret Weeks, Emily Wittekind, Madison Wittekind, Melanie Wysong
Roger Bacon High School: Logan Wolf
St. Ursula Academy: Kelly Packer, Marion Reilly, Shauna Reilly, Claire Weisbrod
St. Xavier High School: Robert Anderson, Marcus Bauer, Benjamin Borja, James Brill, Ryan Brokamp, Jonathon Brus, Anthony Caracci, Jack Connaughton, Brendan Eagan, Gustavo Garcia, Logan Geoppiner, Andrew Hauck, Eric Hoffman, Na-than Jonas, James Krumdieck, Matthew Kuhr, Nicholas Lay, Adam Le, Brian Longo, Mark Lowe, John Marshall, Nicholas Meyer, Luke Mitsch, Cristian Monahan, Robert Morgan IV, Ethan Nurre, Benjamin Piller, Matthew Proctor, Alexander Puthoff, Aaron Rieder, Nicholas Rotsching, Patrick Rotsching, James Rucker, Daniel Stoh, Matthew Stroh, Ryan Strotman, Mitchell Trentman, John Weisbrod, Samuel Welsh, Nicholas Zarick
Ursuline Academy: Marjorie Alvord, Sabrina Barber, Isabel Baumgartner , Amy Brokamp, Kel ly Cameron, Olivia Ho-ernschemeyer, Emma Jonas, Margaret Kohlman, Anne Longo, Hannah McKaig , Kather ine Meyer , Rosal ie Mis leh , Ju l i a Olinger, Samantha Packwood, Olivia Schappacher, Grace Schlaack, Paige Thompson, Katherine Vondenbrink
H IGH SCHOOL HONOR ROLL
ST. M ICHAEL PARISH SCHOOL HONOR ROLL
Eighth Grade: Abigail Adams, Alison Adams, John Alvord, Leah Baumgartner, Madelyn Borja, Megan Brokamp, Madison Brown, Jenna Brus, Owen Capell, Anna Chambers, Andrew Deyhle, Jay Drescher, Emily Edwards, Abigail Gloyd, Caro-line Graue, Parker Grinstead, Tyler Houck, Ryan Janka, Me-lina Koch, Caroline Lederle, Kevin Lederle, Sam Linduff, Isa-bella Madrid, Jeremy Martin, Maggie McDonald, John Meder, Madelyn Meder, Cade Mercer, Jacob Mitsch, Jessica Mitsch, Caroline Moore, Delaney Muldoon, TJ O'Leary, Johnathan Painter, Nicole Perozek, Chris Richter, Liz Rolfes, Megan Shooner, Ryan Stacey, Katie Tippenhauer, Joe Toepfer, Me-gan VonLehmden, Addison Werling
Seventh Grade: Claire Anderton, Hannah Bailey, Alex Bar-ber , Raegan Bauer, Alyssa Blandford , Megan Boehl , Ben Broughton, Jason Cao, Andrew Collins, Logan Coulehan, Ab-by Dupps, Ryan Eagan, Grace Fenton, Jack Frambes, Zane Gabriel, Zach George, Ryan Hallau, Tyler Hargrave, Anna Heilers, Callie Jacobs, Ellie Jonas, Maddie-Jones Huddle, An-na Kowalski, Emily Lambert, Allison Laughlin, Jack Lough-nane, Lizzie Madyda, Dean Misleh, Luke Misleh, Kaylee Mo-nahan, Alex Nguyen, Emma Niehaus, Nate Pabst, Emma Pere r a , Mat t Roh l f s , Ryan Rot sch ing , Sam Saue r , Ben Schlaack, Heather Schwab, Evan Webb, Mary Wilkens, Alex Wolf
Sixth Grade: Lilly Benjamin, Katherine Blandford, Bailey Broughton, John Callahan, Jacqueline Cao, Julia Capell, Cam-ron Chambers, Emily Domingo, Matthew Dupps, Kall ista Edwards, Alaina Finan, Kellen Finan, Riley Finan, Stephanie Garay, Maelynn Geoppinger, Jennifer Harmon, Grace John-son, Parker Johnson, Catie Keefer, Megan Kiser, Jacob Koet-ter, Sara Linduff, Elena Madrid, Connor Marklay, Michael Mcdonald, Anna McKnight, Sophie Miller, Victoria Nguyen, Isabe l la Puthof f , David Rogie rs , Nata l ie Sage , Zachary S chwab , Mor g a n Snyd e r , Anne -Ma r i e T a rd i v on , K i r a Watchorn, Jack Wyche, Adam Wysong
Fifth Grade: Sabrina Aluotto, Chris Alvord, Ava Arsenault, Omar Banks, Matthew Brady, Jonathan Breeze, Bridget Brus, Ella Burwinkel, Gabby Clarke, Nathaniel Clarmont, Ashley Coulehan, Sean Diemar, Olivia Eckert, Charlie Fenton, Erin Gonzalez, Sarah Kate Graber, Catherine Graue, Ethan Hat-field, Kara Heilers, Brennan Hileman, Ben Johnston, Ainsley Kemp, Allyson Koch, Ellie Koetter, Nicole Koetter, Kaitlyn Krummen, Sarah Kuhr, Brooklyn Meder, Erin Morman, Ian Muldoon, Charl ie Niehaus, Jack Nuttin, John Pham, Sean Schoelwer, William Schultz, Ava Sharpshair, Nick Stroh, Me-gan Strotman, Maura Tierney
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Those Who Have Died
IN MEMORY
WELCOME, NEW MEMBERS!
Vincent Schneider Henry Cooke and family
Mike and Molly Amos and family Michael and Elizabeth Behme and family
EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENT AND MEMORIAL FUND
The following people have recently been enrolled in the Fund. They are remembered at a Mass twice a month from the time of their enrollment. Proceeds from the endowment fund are used for the educa-tional needs of the parish. Envelopes for donations are available at the church doors.
Kelly Booms Lucille and LaVern Booms
Janice Eberle Donald Trout Sr. James Wermes
Edgar Buelsing Janice Eberle
Charlene Farrell James Wermes
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UPCOMING ACTIVITIES
PEP = Preschool Education Program
REP = Religious Education Program
SMPS = St. Michael Parish School
YM = Youth Ministry
December
20 Fourth Sunday of Advent
20 No Preschool (PEP) Classes
21 No Religious Education Program (REP) Classes
24 Christmas Eve—Masses at 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m.,
and 11:00 p.m. (with carols at 10:30 p.m.)
25 The Nativity of the Lord—Masses at 9:00 a.m. and
11:00 a.m.
27 The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—
Masses as usual
28 No Religious Education Program (REP) Classes
31 Mary, the Holy Mother of God (Holy Day of Obliga-
tion)—Vigil Mass at 5:00 p.m.
27 No Preschool (PEP) Classes
January
1 Mary, the Holy Mother of God (Holy Day of Obliga-
tion)—Mass at 10:00 a.m.
3 The Epiphany of the Lord—Masses as usual
3 YM Game Night at 6:00 p.m.
7 Women Together at 8:30 a.m.
10 The Baptism of the Lord
10 YM Sharing at 6:00 p.m.
14 VIRTUS at 6:30 p.m.
17 No Preschool (PEP) Classes
17 YM Tubing
18 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day —Parish Office and
SMPS closed
18 No Religious Education Program (REP) Classes
February
10 Ash Wednesday—Masses at 8:15 a.m., 12:00 noon,
and 7:00 p.m. Ashes will be distributed at all
Masses.
12 No School—SMPS
14 No PEP Class
15 Presidents’ Day—Parish Office and SMPS closed
15 No REP Classes
23 The Light is On for You at 7:00 p.m.
25 Lenten Series at 7:00 p.m.
28 YM at Skyzone
7 YM Sharing at 6:00 p.m.
14 YM Valentine Angel Project
4 Women Together at 8:30 a.m.
18 Lenten Series at 7:00 p.m.
20-21 First Communion “Pray for Me” Weekend at all
Masses
4 Open House (SMPS) - 6:00 p.m. for new families
and 7:00 p.m. for current families
1-5 Catholic Schools Week
March
3 Women Together at 8:30 a.m.
13 Daylight Savings Time begins
20 Palm Sunday
24 Holy Thursday—Morning Prayer at 8:15 a.m., Mass
of the Lord’s Supper at 7:00 p.m., and Adoration
until 11:00 p.m.
25-3 SMPS Easter Break—No School
25 Good Friday—Morning Prayer at 8:15 a.m. and Cel-
The Messenger is published several times a year and is distributed free of charge to all members of the St. Michael Parish community. Comments, articles and photographs may be submitted to the editor, Kaylene Schwab, through the Parish Office or via email at:
Find up-to-date information on our parish website: www.saintmichaelchurch.net and on our Facebook page: Facebook— St. Michael Parish Sharonville, Ohio.
