I hope you enjoyed the nice weather this week! This week, I want to provide you with a special invitation and an awesome opportunity to support Catholic education at St. Mary School and in our diocese!

Spiritual Bouquet and Jubilee for Fr. Spisak's 40th Anniversary of Priesthood
Fr. Spisak celebrates 40 years of priesthood this year on June 12. We are grateful
for his service to the Church, the Diocese of Cleveland, and to St. Mary and St. Patrick Parishes. Please see today's bulletin for information regarding a Spiritual Bouquet for Fr. Spisak, which is a chance for you to offer him prayers and make spiritual sacrifices on his behalf. We will celebrate his jubilee at the 4:00 pm Vigil Mass on Saturday, June 11 and have a reception in the church hall following the Mass which is open to the whole parish community. Please come celebrate and congratulate him on this memorable jubilee!

Your Taxes. Their Tuition - Give to the Angel Scholarship Fund!
If you are a registered parishioner, you have already received in the mail an invitation to donate to the Angel Scholarship Fund. Next weekend, I will be presenting the Angel Scholarship Fund at all parish Masses. In brief, Ohio is the 18th state to implement a tax credit scholarship program for taxpayers to turn their tax dollars into tuition assistance. The Catholic Community Foundation processes donations for this tax credit through the Angel Scholarship Fund. Donors to this fund receive a tax credit (up to $750 for single filers, and $1,500 for joint filers) to offset their Ohio income tax liability. St. Mary School in Chardon or any Catholic school in the Diocese of Cleveland can be designated to receive these tax credit scholarship funds to provide tuition assistance for students, at no net cost to you as a donor!

We have to pay our state income taxes anyway, so we might as well take advantage of this tax credit to let the state of Ohio know where we would like our tax money to go. This is a win-win for taxpayers, students, families, Catholic schools, and our parish community. I cannot stress enough the impact this tax credit scholarship can have for our schools, especially St. Mary School in Chardon where we have parish families attending for school. If you pay any state income tax at all, I strongly encourage you to give to the angel scholarship fund, and share this new opportunity with your family and friends. The more donors we have contributing, the greater the outreach we can have to families wanting a Catholic education for their children.

Read more in today's bulletin, on our website at www.stpatrickthompson.org/asf, and stay tuned for more information.