David Cachat, Husband of Catherine

Mike Sasso, Husband of Mary

Monday, July 22
9:15-10:30 AM Legion of Mary (Rectory)

Tuesday, July 23
9:30-12:00 PM Bountiful Basement (Rectory)
7:30-9:00 PM New Beginnings (Rectory)

Wednesday, July 24
4:30-7:00 PM Bountiful Basement (Rectory)

Thursday, July 25
9:00-12:00 PM Bountiful Basement (Rectory)

Please pray for the sick and hospitalized of our parish: Kevin Banghart, Carol Baum, James Bound, Rita Bruening, Robert Burke, Hazel Campbell Gertrude Cotman, Adam Crisan, Diane D’Aurelio, Clare Dettmer, Joseph Emrick, Robert Geiss, Bernice Glowacki, Agnes Hill, Grace Humphrey, Dreama Johnson, Nancy Johnson, Karen Kelley, Stepheny Kiss, Elizabeth Koch, Sr. Jeanne Koma, Rosemary Martin, Ursula Montague, Karen Musser, Leonard Novak, Barbara Ostrom, Pat Prokop, Betty & Homer Roach, Darlene Sasz, Genevieve Schill, Theresa Schulz, Emma Shockley, Anna Simko, George Sleger, Richard Smith, Elena Spatola, Helen Stanonik, John Stoyka, Dennis Tomcik, Ellen Turner, Brian Tyburski, Lynne Tyburski, Anne Vanuch, Theresa Voss

Banns I Kelly Baker & Cecelia O’Connor

Banns II Peter Keane & Amy Miller

Banns II Jimmy Jackson & Rebecca Johnson

At the last Core Team meeting that we had before Fr. Joe went on vacation, he talked about how his next few articles would be about outreach. His last bulletin article reflected that conversation to you. He has been thinking about this for some time and I'm sure has a number of ideas that we will all hear about later.

I don't know exactly what he has in mind, but I do know that one of the most challenging tasks we have is to reach out to others. I also know that outreach doesn't just mean to people that we hope will become part of the Ascension faith community. It also means touching each person we meet for whatever that relationship can offer: for friendship, for service, for community building, for working for a common cause, for promoting justice, for support, etc.

Perhaps the most poignant expression of what outreach can mean and why we do it came on Sunday as I attended St. Paul AME's annual interfaith service. Unlike other so-called interfaith services that I have attended that included mostly Christians of various traditions and perhaps a representative from one of the local synagogues, the only Christian churches represented here were St. Paul and Ascension. There were people from the Bahai faith, the Muslim Mosque, The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (The Unification Church), the Buddhist Temple and from The Nation of Islam. It was amazing! But the core wisdom of the event came in a statement made by Rev. Gena Thornton during her sermon.

She said, with great passion, "I didn't invite you all here to make you into Christians. I invited you here to make me one!"

The church assembly became loud with a chorus of 'amens' because somewhere in each of us we know how true that statement is.

I have pondered her words many times in the past few days as I have found myself in the middle of my own experience of "outreach potpourri". Sunday began here at Ascension at the 9am mass so that I could make my way to St. Paul in time for their interfaith service. Before the service, as each of the ministers introduced ourselves, the Buddhist priest said his name (Venerable Shih Ying-Fa), then looked at me and said that we were neighbors. It turns out that for the past two years there has been a Buddhist Temple right in the middle of our neighborhood. I had noticed the Cloudwater Zendo, but did not realize what it was. After the service, I spoke with him again about how we could be better neighbors and he immediately invited me to come for a tour of the temple. I had to stop back at Ascension, but then went, with another woman from Ascension, to the Cloudwater Zendo. He was pretty surprised that we came and explained in wonderful detail what they did and how so much of their practice was consistent with some of the great Catholic mystics, like Thomas Merton and Meister Eckhart.

From there I came back to Ascension into the middle of the first family softball game sponsored by our athletics committee. There were new people there, too! With children playing t-ball, all ages playing softball, and a backdrop of hotdogs and chips, this terrific group of people said so much about who we are as church, without saying much at all. Everybody was welcome. Everybody had a great time. Everybody pitched in to help clean up. I think everybody went home thinking about the next time we did this….and hopefully who they might ask to come.

After that I went to a picnic with folks from several of the diocese's gay/lesbian support groups, some of whom brought friends who had never been able to come before. Over a dinner of (more!!) hotdogs, we talked about our connections to church and it was clear that these groups have been instrumental in keeping folks connected to church even as they struggle with some of the difficulties. The day soon came to an end, but the events of outreach into which I was being drawn were far from over. The very first phone message I answered on Monday was a request by Earl Pike, of the AIDS Taskforce of Cleveland, to come down to Public Square at 7:15am on Wednesday morning to hand out cards to promote awareness of the overwhelmingly bad statistics of the AIDS pandemic.

I have to say that I have never done anything like that before, but I simply had to go. Katie Corbett and I met there, with about 75 other people, passed out cards as we greeted people coming up from the RTA and closed with a rousing chorus of "We Shall Overcome". I met a pastor from the Antioch Baptist Church, some AIDS Taskforce board members, someone from the mayor's office and from the NAACP. It was quite an event!

I share all this with you, not to chronicle what I do, but to reiterate the spirit of Rev. Gena's words: I didn't go to all these events to make any of them Christian, I went to make myself one. I went because I need to be with as many good, holy, sinful, hurting, broken people as I can so that I can find ways to be the holy person God is calling me to be. I went because the foundation of Christianity is love, and it is people that we are called to love, not ideas or principles. I went because I believe that somehow I can be a better Christian if I try just a little harder to love more people, new people, unfamiliar people.

Each of us are good and holy in our own ways, and we can learn from that. Each of us is sinful, hurting, broken, and not as holy as we are called to be, and we can learn that as well. And in our learning, we create an openness to relationship, a reflection of God's love for all people, and perhaps even an attraction to participation in the Ascension faith community.

Certainly these past few days have been unusual in their variety and scope. (I wouldn't have the energy to do this all the time!). But for all of us, each day we live holds opportunities for "outreach potpourri"…….if we only look for the chance to be touched by another of God's people.

Thursday, July 25
5:00-11:00 PM Bingo (Fogarty Hall)

Saturday, July 27
5:00-11:00 PM Bingo (Fogarty Hall)

THANK YOU…for last Sunday’s collection: $4,830.55

Vantage Federal Credit Union will host a summer of fun with PRIZES and FUN EVENTS! 5681 Smith Rd., Brook Park, OH 44142, (216) 367-8000. Friday, July 26 – Free Popcorn in the lobby from 10am to 5 pm. Saturday, August 3 – Free Face Painting from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm. August 9 – Talk to Enterprise Car Sales from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm. August 17 – Aaron Bonk, Juggling Philosopher from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm. August 23 – Free Smoothie from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm. August 31 – All-Out Cook-Out for the whole family from 10:00 am – 12:30 pm.

The Congregation of St. Joseph invites you to join us as we host Tom Stella on Saturday, August 24, 2002, from 9:30 AM – 3:45 PM (with Liturgy at 4:00 PM) at St. Joseph Center, 3430 Rocky River Drive. The cost, which includes lunch, is $25 before August 16 and $30 after August 16. Call Sr. Helen Ann Brown at (216) 252-0440 for registration information.

Sunday, August 11, 2002, Confessions from 9:30 to 10:20 am, Mass at 10:30 am. A meal will be available at 12:00 noon – cost is $6.50. Rev. George J. Jaskulski, ofm Celebrant. Devotions at 1:30 pm. For more information of the Pilgrimage & the Dinner, please call Sr. Thomasine or Paula James at (216) 581-3535.

Mark your calendars for our Annual Joint Parish Picnic with St. Paul AME Church. Sunday, August 18, 2002, after our 11:00 AM Mass until 6:00 PM at Emery Park.

Watch the bulletin for more information.