Grab the Sandpaper!
Do you remember the table your family had when you were a child? Even now you can probably see its color and shape and even some of the marks it had from use. Nellie had similar memories. So when she inherited her family’s table she was eager to restore it to its original look. Over the many years of use it had become scratched and dinged, painted and antiqued.
Nellie began the long process of stripping away years of wax, varnish, paint, and grime. Then, she filled in the gouges and sanded away the scratches. She refinished the table with a fine, clear resin that brought out it's beauty she had remembered.
Something unexpected happened to Nellie as she worked on that table. She began to recall so many memories: the Sunday suppers with her family, the birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays celebrated, the lessons she learned and the lively discussions spoken around that table. Nellie discovered not only was the table restored, but in the process, she experienced a restoration herself. Within her grew a renewed sense of gratitude for her mom, dad,sisters, and brothers, and so many others who sat around that table. She felt her spirit transformed by the memories of the many blessings she had received at that table that was such a heart of her family's home. You probably can understand those and recall similar feelings as well.
Lent is meant to be a time of such restoration for each one of us. It is a time to strip away the pretenses, deceits, and excesses of our lives, to clean away the grime of selfishness and cynicism, to fill in the gouges of estrangement and sand away the scars of hurt and resentment. Lent invites us to restore our faith and trust in the compassion and strength of our God, the skilled Craftsman of our lives.
Anyone who has ever restored a piece of furniture realizes the hard work in stripping and repairing a piece to its original beauty - but knows, as well, what fulfilling work it is. Over these next forty days, take on the hard work of restoring your life into the beauty God envisions and desires for you. You, too, could discover some unexpected blessings!
Father Don
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Stations of the Cross: tonight, at 7pm in the Church. All are welcome to join.
If you wish to watch from home, you can! We will be live streaming from our website ( www.stlads.org).
Special Note: We will either be live streaming our stations or having another Churches stations live streamed on our website every Friday of Lent, so check it out!
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This Parish is kind, caring and ever so generous, and I can't thank you all enough for your compassion. BUT: please know that if you get an email from me, or any other Parish Staff member asking for gift cards, please ignore. This is a typical email hack, where someone will go to our Church website, copy my email address, and send out emails with my name on them. I would never ask you or your family members for gift cards as gifts for friends. Please ignore any emails that are written in that way. Thank you! |
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For Lent, we ask that you and your family consider donating food to our
St. Vincent de Paul Society, who are still distributing food to those that need it most.
This week, February 21-27 we are collecting canned veggies and fruit.
When you bring in your food items, place them at the designated locations near the church doorways.
Thank you in advance for your kindness and care of the needy and the poor!
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Lenten Season Speaker:
Chris Lowney
Monday, February 22nd, at 7pm in the Church or via Zoom
Title: Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Zoom Church: Reflections for Lent.
The Zoom/webinar information
The password is 2345.
Chris will donate his speaker fee as well as any free will offering to the POCF, Pilgrimage of Our Children’s Future (pocf.org), an organization that funds education and healthcare for
impoverished children in developing countries.
Along with Chris’ talk, he will be assisting us with a book discussion during Lent on March 22nd, 7pm-8:30pm in Cullen Hall/Church. The discussion is about his book, Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Does. If you are interested in joining in person or virtually, please sign up in the Parish Office.
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St. Ladislas is participating in a Diocesan-wide survey! We welcome your input.
Please help us by completing a 10-15 minute survey online. The survey can be
accessed through an online link from February 17 thru March 17 and will ask you to reflect on your own spiritual growth. Your feedback will assist our parish’s efforts to help you grow. All responses will be confidential and the parish will only receive information about the community as whole, not on any one individually.
Here is that active link: Visit the “Called for More” section of our Parish Webpage OR
We are trying to get the highest response rate possible. Your collected information will be invaluable to Fr Don, the Parish Council and our various ministries as we plan for the future and strive to be the best disciples we can be. St Ladislas will receive the results this spring/summer at which time we will share what we have learned with the entire parish.
If you prefer a paper copy, you may pick up a paper copy of the survey in the parish office. The Parish office is open daily from 9 AM—5 PM. A printable version of the survey is also available to at:
To submit the completed paper survey, please return the completed survey to the parish office by March 17. To make special arrangements for getting a paper copy, please contact Laura in the parish office (440-835-2300).Thank you for helping with this important project!
“We are a better Parish with your input than we are without it.”
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