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Staffing Announcement, September 2024

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To: St. Patrick and St. Malachi Staff Members,
Parish Leadership Chairs, and Parishioners
From: Fr. Michael Gurnick
RE: Director of Liturgy and Music
Through our Collaboration initiative, and as a result of the Working Group phase, the recommendation was made to have a shared Director of Liturgy and Music between St. Malachi and St. Patrick. Accepting this recommendation, I am pleased to announce that Charlene McElwee, presently the Director of Music/Liturgy at St. Malachi, has accepted this new position as our two parishes continue to explore ways to enhance our liturgical life – together. Charlene’s extensive career in liturgical leadership, along with her experience in parish life, will be a true blessing to both communities at St. Patrick and St. Malachi. During this time of transition, Charlene will continue to minister at St. Malachi while getting to know more parishioners and the liturgical culture at St. Patrick. As a core member of our Pastoral Staff, Charlene’s office will be relocated to St. Patrick with the assurance that her presence at both campuses will be certainly be felt. Please pray for Charlene and for all of our parishioners who provide a valuable service through our liturgical life and ministries.

Pastor Column

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Dear Friends and Parishioners,

 

As we jump from this Fourth Sunday of Advent right into Christmas celebrations, may I take this opportunity to wish you and your loved ones a very blessed and merry Christmas!

 The celebration of our Lord’s holy birth reminds us of a promise fulfilled and a promise filled with hope.  As God’s promise was fulfilled with the birth of a savior, we always celebrate Christmas with the hope of His glorious return.  May the joy of this season rekindle and reinvigorate our Christian hope as we strive for peace in our own hearts, our relationships, and in our world.  Let the Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ, reign in each of us as we proclaim to the world that He is in our midst every single day.

 We certainly have had a full year of activity and I find myself very grateful for the many fruits that are so evident and for our many parishioners who continue to offer their time and talent.  Also, many thanks to those who participated in the various outreach activities and as we provide for those in need.  We are known to be a generous community – I am reminded of this often through these outward signs of kindness and charity.

 Wherever you find yourselves at Christmas, may you and your family be filled with every grace and blessing.

  Merry Christmas,

Fr. Gurnick

 

Parish Administrator’s Column, 11/19/23

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November 19, 2023

Dear Friends and Parishioners of Saint Malachi,

This week we celebrate Thanksgiving Day. As a nation we give thanks to our dear Lord for the many blessings He continually bestows upon us.

Join us for Thanksgiving Day Mass at Saint Malachi Parish this Thursday, November 23, at 9:00am, followed by a light breakfast prepared by the Back Door Ministry.

Wherever you find yourselves on this special day, let us prayerfully join together:

Heavenly Father, as we gather on this day of Thanksgiving, we remember the words of Holy Scripture that call us to give thanks in all circumstances. Lord, we thank You for the countless blessings You have bestowed upon us, both in times of joy and in times of challenge.

We are grateful for the love of family and friends who surround us, for the food on our table, and for the shelter over our heads. Most of all, we thank You for Your presence in our lives, for Your grace, and for the gift of salvation through Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Help us, dear Lord, to always maintain hearts filled with gratitude, not just on this special day but every day of our lives. May we continue to count it all joy and to give thanks in all things. In Jesus’ name, we offer this prayer of thanksgiving. Amen.

                                                                                         Gratefully yours in Christ,

                                                                                         Fr. Gurnick

 

Thank You!

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Dear Friends,

On behalf of the Staff I thank you for the lovely Christmas cards, greetings, and delicious sweets sent to the rectory,  Our gratitude accompanies prayerful best wishes for you and your loved ones throughout the New Year!

Gratefully,

Fr. Gurnick & Staff

 

Pastor Column, 01/01/23

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Pastor Column – Saint Malachi

January 1, 2023

Dear Friends and Parishioners of Saint Malachi,

Resolutions to do more exercise, to work harder, to be more attentive to family and friends.  These are just a few examples of what people hope to accomplish with the turning of the calendar and the start of a New Year.  This new chapter can often bring a new hope for so many – and this is a good thing.

I came across this beautiful prayer from St. Gemma Galgani, an Italian mystic who loved to pray and see the world through the lens of Christ’s passion:

During this New Year I resolve to begin a new life. I do not know what will happen to me during this year.  But I abandon myself entirely to you, my God. And my aspirations and all my affections will be for You.  I feel weak, dear Jesus, but with Your help I hope and resolve to live a different life, that is, a life closer to You.  Amen.

       May her prayer find a place in our hearts as we begin 2023.  We can’t predict what this year will bring but let it be filled with a disciple’s determination to embrace the Lord who accompanies us with each step, every day, over these twelve months and throughout every future chapter of our journey.

May the Mother of God, who said “yes” to a future of unknowns, intercede for us and all of God’s beloved daughters and sons. And may all the saints walk with us in our joys and sorrows, in our moments of strength and weakness, and in our hopes and fears.

Happy New Year!

Fr. Gurnick

 

 

Fr. Gurnick, 12/25/22

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Dear Friends and Parishioners,
As we celebrate the joy of this holy season I invite you to reflect upon these various quotes from three recent popes:

“On this day of joy, we are all called to contemplate the Child Jesus, who gives hope
once again to every person on the face of the earth. By his grace, let us with our voices
and our actions give witness to solidarity and peace. Merry Christmas to all!”
Pope Francis, Christmas 2016

“The things of God can wait, we think and we say. And yet he is the most important
thing, ultimately the one truly important thing. Why should we not also be moved by curiosity
to see more closely and to know what God has said to us? At this hour, let us ask
him to touch our hearts with the holy curiosity and the holy joy of the shepherds, and
thus let us go over joyfully to Bethlehem, to the Lord who today once more comes to
meet us. Amen.”
Pope Benedict XVI, Christmas 2012

“And you, Mary, the Virgin of expectation and fulfilment, who hold the secret of Christmas,
make us able to recognize in the Child whom you hold in your arms the heralded
Savior, who brings hope and peace to all. With you we worship him and trustingly say:
we need You, Redeemer of man, You who know the hopes and fears of our hearts.
Come and stay with us, Lord! May the joy of your Nativity reach to the farthest ends of
the universe!”
Pope John Paul II, Christmas 2003

May you and your loved ones enjoy the blessings of faith, family, and friends!
Merry Christmas!

Fr. Gurnick

Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Malachi

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On December 1, 2019 I on began my pastoral care of St Malachi as your Parish Administrator. Those first months were followed immediately by the onset of the pandemic. In addition to a new administrator, our parish family was forced into a new way of doing things, beginning with sustaining communal life while the world was shut down. Then rebuilding began as we crawled out of the quarantine phase and adjusted to “new normals.”  Talk about a flood of change for everyone.

Through it all, I have come to know many of you and the commitment you bring to our small-but-mighty parish.  Not without the need to address certain realities, I continue to observe the many wonderful blessings of our community, from the desire to worship well and grow spiritually to ongoing ways of caring for the vulnerable and those in most need.   We also have celebrated well as the liturgies balanced festive joy with prudence and safety.  Our Homeless Jesus statue graces our property as we continue to collaborate with good neighbors.  And our outreach ministries are being reimaged in this post-Covid era.

I especially witness these desires as we experience our Strategic Planning initiative.  It is evident that so many parishioners – and friends – love St. Malachi and remain committed to a hopeful future, whatever that may look like, as we look for creative ways to address the medley of strengths and challenges before us.

As we reach this three-year milestone together, know of my deep respect and gratitude for all those who call St Malachi their home.  For however long the Bishop has me assigned as your Administrator, may this be a time in which we continue to grow.

Be assured of my continued prayers for you, Fr Tony, and all those we earnestly seek to serve in the name of Christ the Eternal Word.

 

Advent blessings,

Fr Gurnick

 

Pastor Column, 09/26/2021

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Dear parishioners and friends of Saint Patrick and Saint Malachi,

I encourage everyone to visit www.dioceseofcleveland.org for a more detailed coverage of the life and ministry of Bishop Pilla.  Let us take a moment to honor this son of Cleveland who served as our diocesan bishop for over twenty-five years and was a national leader of the Catholic Church in the United States.

Because of his roots here in Cleveland and having served in ministry even beyond his retirement in 2006, many parishioners and members of the local area have our own memories of Bishop Pilla as a shepherd who loved his flock, who listened attentively, and deeply cared for the health of the local and national Church.  Respected by Catholics and other dear friends in our community, Bishop Pilla was deeply interested in a Church engaged with the modern world and the particular needs within our society.

Early into his role as Ordinary of Cleveland, Bishop Pilla presided over the funerals of the missionaries from El Salvador.  He retired as the diocese was entering the next phases of Vibrant Parish Life, a diocesan-wide planning strategy intended to addresses the need for renewed parish life.  During his time of service, the late bishop initiated Church in the City where suburban parishes would partner with urban parishes.  He also saw to the forming of the Center for Pastoral Leadership in Wickliffe, bringing together Borromeo and Saint Mary Seminaries, the Permanent Diaconate Program, and the Office of Lay Ecclesial Ministry, among the many other programs.

There were also great pastoral challenges and even scandals that the Ninth Bishop of Cleveland would need to address.  This included revelations of sexual abuse by clergy and other trusted members of the Church which still impacts the Church today, especially the victims and their families.

Considering the many Confirmations and other special occasions, his retirement since 2006 would not keep Bishop Pilla away from the many diocesan celebrations and opportunities for him to sustain relationships with fellow clergy, religious, and friends throughout the diocese.

As we look back on the life and ministry of the 88-year old who was called Home the other day, I am grateful to have had his hands rest upon my head and anoint my hands in 1998.  I was honored to make my oath of obedience to him as he welcomed me into the priesthood.  I was privileged to call him my bishop.

I am honored now to pray for my brother – our brother – for his eternal peace. I also pray that consolation be given to his family and to our local Church who mourn the loss of a good and faithful Shepherd.

In the hope and joy of the Resurrection,

        Fr. Gurnick  

 

 

About St. Malachi Parish

The St. Malachi Parish Mission: We are a Eucharistic People, United in Prayer, Welcoming to All and Serving the Poor.

Celebrating Over 150 Years of Faithful Service in the Old Angle!

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