St. Gerard Parish celebrates 100th anniversary
By Father Michael Sergi |
Greetings from Lima, Ohio! I have been here at St. Gerard’s for three months, but it didn’t take long for me to hit the road running.
We have many different ministries here, but the biggest event taking place is our 100-year anniversary. Yes, the Redemptorists have been here for 100 years, ministering to the people of Western Ohio.
During this year of celebration, we’re asking parishioners to write down their memories, and these will be collected and put in our jubilee book.
We began our yearlong celebration on October 18, 2015, at the 11 a.m. Mass. Fathers Gerry Knapp and Henry Sattler joined us for the opening. At the Mass we introduced the theme of our jubilee, which is taken from the life of St. Gerard: “Doing God’s will.”
After Mass everyone was invited to the parish hall, where we had a chili cook-off along with other goodies. We also had some games for the kids as well as face painting.
Other events are also scheduled for the jubilee year. During the season of Advent, Jim, Mike, and I will visit homes to dedicate them to Divine Mercy. Each family will receive a picture of Divine Mercy to display in a special place.
There will be a father/son breakfast with a surprise speaker.
During Lent, we’re asking families to spend 100 hours in prayer, adoration, fasting, or special almsgiving. We have also have planned a mission during Lent, given by one of our men.
In April a concert given by our choir is planned.
We will celebrate Mary during the month of May by asking people to say the rosary each day. But one Sunday at least 100 people will gather in church to pray the rosary together.
June will find us celebrating OLPH with a special Mass and dedication on Sunday, June 26.
July is the month for our parish picnic, with an Olympic theme.
Finally, in October we’ll wind up our yearlong celebration. On October 15 we’ll have a dinner celebration, and on October 16, 2016, the feast day of St. Gerard, our Mass of thanksgiving will be celebrated. Bishop Daniel Thomas will be the celebrant and homilist.
Besides our jubilee celebration, we have all our other ministries that keep us quite busy. We have our regular Masses, healing Masses, Life Teen visiting and teaching in the school, prison ministry (we say Mass there three times a week), and then there are all the meetings we attend. We also help out the priests in the area.
We have taken on three new ministries. We go to Lima Central Catholic High School and celebrate Mass there each morning. We get between 30 and 40 students and faculty. On Wednesdays, Mass is for the entire high school.
We also spend one day a week at the high school. We are available to both students and faculty for confession or if they just want to talk about what is going on in their lives. The response has been good.
We have also been asked by the two hospitals (St. Rita’s and Lima Memorial) to visit all the Catholic patients. We have gone through training. We go to Lima Memorial on Tuesdays and St. Rita’s on Thursdays and spend three hours visiting the people.
I know there’s more going on here, but I can’t remember everything.
One thing is for sure: the people are really good, solid, generous people. They will do anything for their parish community. We are truly blessed to have such great people working with us.