Dear Parish Family,

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity that we celebrate this weekend helps us appreciate the personal way that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us. The Catechism writes, "God communicates Himself to man gradually. He prepares him to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ" (CCC 53). We see the gradual revelation of God in the beginning by God breathing His Word at creation, then in the covenants he established with His people, in the commandments and law, through the prophets, and finally in and through the Person of Jesus Christ. 

In the fullness of time, Christ explicitly reveals the Holy Spirit who had already been perceived implicitly from the beginning. Again from the Catechism, "Through His grace, the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to 'know the Father and the one whom He has sent, Jesus Christ' (cf. Jn 17:3). But the Spirit is the last of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be revealed" (CCC 684). We would not be able to know God the Father or the Son at all if the grace of faith from the Holy Spirit had not been given to us. 

As God has chosen for all of time and creation to be upheld and known by Him, He likewise has chosen to give knowledge of Himself to His creation through this gradual revelation culminating in the revelation of the Person of Jesus Christ. God could have chosen to simply give us a law to follow. Instead, He gave us His Son, that in following Him we might share His divine life in an unimaginable way. I invite you to thank God for the personal way He has chosen to reveal Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and for the gift of being able to share in His life through Word and Sacrament.

Fr. Spisak Farewell Mass and Reception
This weekend we say farewell to Fr. Spisak who served as our Parochial Vicar for the past four years. Fr. Spisak will preside at the St. Patrick Saturday 4 pm Vigil Mass with a reception in the lower hall afterwards, and at the St. Mary Sunday 12 pm Mass with a reception in the banquet room afterwards. We thank Fr. Spisak for his ministry and priestly presence with us, and congratulate him on his new assignment as part-time Parochial Vicar at Communion of Saints Parish in Cleveland Heights. Fr. Spisak, we know you will be a blessing to the people of God there just as you have been a blessing to all of us here at St. Patrick and St. Mary Parishes! We send you forth with our prayers and blessings.

I am yours in Christ,
Fr. Scott Goodfellow