Pray For Our Seminarians - Fr. Aaron Hess

We have made it through Holy Week and are celebrating the Easter Octave and the 50 days of the Easter Season. So my first encouragement to all of you is to continue to celebrate! Easter is the longest season of the year (besides Ordinary Time), so don’t just celebrate for the day or the week and then go back to normal.  Keep celebrating with your family and your friends!

However, since Easter is done, the focus for me at least turns to all the Sacraments that are coming up for the sons and daughters of the parish. Next Sunday afternoon, around 120 students will receive their Confirmation. We also will have First Communions at our four parishes to celebrate within the month. And finally, we have ordinations to the priesthood and the diaconate.

This year, our very own Deacon Adam Berning will be ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati on May 18th. This is a great honor and a blessing for our local church to see and experience, and there will be more information given in the future detailing when his ordination and Mass of Thanksgiving will be, so keep an eye out for that. This is also an opportunity to pray fervently for him and for all those being ordained, that they may receive an abundance of graces from the Lord to live a true life of holiness and to serve their parishioners faithfully and fruitfully. Pray for him and his classmates, and continue to pray and encourage more and more vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

Including Deacon Berning, we actually have 3 men in seminary preparing for the priesthood. I know that when I was in seminary, it was always a joy to receive mail from parishioners and to hear of their support for my vocation. So if I can give you some homework, I encourage you to send a letter or a note to them from you, or from your family.  It doesn’t have to be anything special. If you have children or grandchildren, maybe have them draw a picture for them--I can say for certain that these pictures usually bring me a lot of joy, even now when I receive them as a priest! Please take the time to reach out to them, to pray for them and their vocation, and to pray that more young men and women in all our parishes may consider following in their footsteps to become holy priests and religious of God.

Deacon Adam Berning

6616 Beechmont Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45230

Jacob Schmiesing

3172 South Road Cincinnati, OH 45248

David Morand

6616 Beechmont Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45230