The Order of Malta will sponsor its annual Mass for Anointing of the Sick, with Bishop Earl Fernandes and Father Ramon Owera concelebrating and administering the sacrament of anointing, at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 12 in Columbus Holy Rosary-St. John Church, 648 S. Ohio Ave.
This Mass usually takes place on the second weekend in February because Feb. 11 is the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes and the World Day of the Sick.
In Columbus, the order runs the Order of Malta Center of Care, which provides health and dental care in the St. John Community Center next to the church. The center is in the former St. John School and houses a variety of social services, including the Center of Care, the St. John Food Pantry, the St. John Learning Center for adult education and the Community Kitchen, Inc.
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta (mainly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights and Dames of Malta) has been a lay religious order since 1113. Its mission is to defend the faith and provide care and service to the poor and sick throughout the world.
For more information, email hrsjevents@gmail.com. Information is available at hrsjchurch.org/service on all the spiritual and corporal works of mercy offered at Holy Rosary-St. John.
Seasons of Hope group announces next session
The Seasons of Hope bereavement ministry will sponsor a five-week grief support group from Sunday, Feb. 19 to Sunday, March 19 at Columbus Immaculate Conception Church, 414 E. North Broadway. The program, sponsored by the churches of the North High Deanery, will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. each Sunday.
To register, contact Debbie Kennedy at kennedydeborah@yahoo.com or by phone at (614) 937-0516. The deadline to register is Wednesday, Feb. 15.
Vocations office sponsors Andrew Dinners in March
The diocesan Vocations Office invites young men of high school age and older to one of its Andrew Dinners, during which participants share a meal with Bishop Earl Fernandes and learn more about vocational discernment, seminary life and the priesthood.
The dinners will take place on Tuesday, March 28 in the family life center of Chillicothe St. Mary Church, 61 S. Paint St., and Thursday, March 30 at New Philadelphia Sacred Heart Church, 139 3rd St. N.E.
Each event will begin with Evening Prayer at 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner and a talk from 6 to 8 p.m.
Anyone interested in attending is asked to RSVP to the Vocations Office at (614) 221-5565 or vocations@columbucatholic.org, no later than five days before the dinner. If you know of someone else who is in high school or college and is discerning his call, feel free to invite them.
Father Blau to present talks in yearlong series at St. Pius X
Father Thomas Blau, OP, of Columbus St. Patrick Priory will present a series of talks on “Living in the Presence of Our Eucharistic Lord” throughout the year at Reynoldsburg St. Pius X Church, 1051 Waggoner Road.
The talks are being sponsored by the parish’s men’s ministry, known as The Armory, as part of the multiyear National Eucharistic Revival sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
All will be on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon. Dates and subjects are: Feb. 11, “Why Do Catholics Have Sacraments?”; May 13, “The Eucharist in the Bible”; Aug. 19, “Getting More Out of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass”; and Nov. 18, “Praying Constantly: The Mass as the School of Prayer.” Each session will conclude with Eucharistic Adoration and the sacrament of reconciliation.
Father Blau, a Dominican friar since 1999, is a Cleveland native who came to Columbus St. Patrick Church in 2010 and has been assigned for several years as an itinerant preacher for the Diocese of Columbus conducting missions. He was appointed a pontifical missionary of mercy for the worldwide Jubilee of Mercy in 2016.
Before coming to Columbus, he was assigned to Dominican outreach at colleges in Virginia and Rhode Island. Prior to his ordination as a priest, he served at missions in Honduras and Guatemala.
Turban Project looking for volunteers
The Newark-based Turban Project is looking for volunteers who can continue its mission of donating handmade headwear blessed by a priest to people who have lost their hair because of a medical condition, usually from cancer treatment.
The project donated about 33,500 items last year and has donated more than 216,000 items since it was started in 2012 by women of Knights of Columbus Council 10820 in Dresden. It has volunteers from all faiths, with sewing groups in every state and 13 other nations.
Volunteers can visit the project’s workroom in Suite B2E of the Newark Commerce Center, 195 Union St., from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays. They also can work at home.
The project will provide precut, ready-to-sew fabric, mailing it to people outside the Newark area. How-to-sew videos for each of the four items it makes are available at its website, www.turbanproject.com and its Facebook page, The Turban Project.
Anyone wishing to cut or sew fabric; donate “bling” for the turbans; make a donation in the form of a gift card from Joann Fabrics, Hobby Lobby or Walmart; or make a monetary contribution can contact Kathy Braidich at (740) 504-6133 or mail The Turban Project, 7871 Ridge Road, Frazeysburg, OH 43822.
Deacon Kandra to speak at Sunbury St. John Neumann
Deacon Greg Kandra will be the speaker for a parish mission at Sunbury St. John Neumann Church, 9633 E. State Route 37, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, March 27 and 28, followed by a reception each evening.
Deacon Kandra is the creator of the blog “The Deacon’s Bench.” He recently retired after 11 years as senior writer for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, a pontifical association founded by Pope Pius XI in 1926. He now is a part-time consultant to the association while spending most of his time writing and traveling the nation to lead retreats and parish missions.
He earlier spent nearly three decades in broadcast journalism, mostly at CBS News, where he was a writer and producer for programs including “48 Hours,” “60 Minutes II,” “Sunday Morning” and “The CBS Evening News.” From 2000 to 2004, he was a writer and producer on the live finales of the “Survivor” reality series.
New Philadelphia parish to host mission in March
New Philadelphia Sacred Heart Church will be hosting a mission for all the parishes in Tuscarawas County at 7 p.m. Sunday to Tuesday, March 5 to 7, in the parish center, 139 3rd St. N.E. There will be a gathering time with refreshments at 6:30 p.m. each evening.
The featured speaker will be Mike Patin and his theme will be “B-eing with Jesus in Lent.” His talks will be on “Burros (Palm Sunday)” on Sunday, “Bread and Basins (Holy Thursday)” on Monday and “Bricks and Bouquets (Good Friday)” on Tuesday.
Patin lives in Lafayette, Louisiana and has worked in ministry settings since 1984, first as a high school teacher and coach and then in diocesan ministry for the Archdiocese of New Orleans. He has spoken to groups ranging from 10 to 23,000 people in more than 130 dioceses in the United States and Canada.
Knox County parishes to conduct shared mission
Mount Vernon St. Vincent de Paul and Danville St. Luke churches will conduct a shared mission in early March, with each parish hosting events.
The speaker will be Father Pachomius Walker, OP, of Philadelphia St. Patrick Church, presenting reflections on the virtues. He will be at St. Vincent de Paul, 303 E. High St., on Sunday and Tuesday, March 5 and 7, and St. Luke, 307 S. Market St., on Monday, March 6. Each talk will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
The two parishes will host separate penance services at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 8.
SPICE St. Patrick’s Day event set for March 4 at St. Catharine
The annual St. Patrick’s Day party to benefit SPICE (Special People in Catholic Education) will take place on Saturday, March 4 in the Msgr. Sorohan Center at Columbus St. Catharine Church, 500 S. Gould Road.
The festivities, which start at 6 p.m., will feature a full Irish dinner and dessert, entertainment from the Irish band the Hooligans, Irish step dancers, a silent auction, and a cash bar with beer, wine and signature cocktails.
SPICE was founded over 20 years ago at St. Catharine to support the unique educational needs of its students. Its mission is to support the parish community, pastor, administration, teachers, parents and students in fostering a deeper understanding and culture of support for special educational needs.
More information and registration may be found at the parish office at 614-231-4509 or at stcatharine.com. Tickets are $50 each. All are welcome.
Anyone with questions may call Mary Ginn Ryan at 614-354-3945.
Sister’s archival work honored
Sister Nancy Garson, OP, was awarded the Ohio Historical Records Advisory Board’s Citizen Archivist Award for creating a unified archive for the eight congregations of Dominican sisters that combined in 2009 to form the Dominican Sisters of Peace.
Sister Nancy had held a variety of positions in her original congregation, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de Ricci, and with the Dominican Sisters of Peace, but she never had been an archivist until volunteering for the role in 2016.
She supervised the moves of three collections of congregational archives from locations in Michigan and Louisiana and worked to expand the archival storage area of the sisters’ Columbus motherhouse to accommodate more records as other motherhouses closed.
Her efforts helped to create the space and the methodology to properly preserve the documents and photographs of the sisters’ 200 years of service to the Catholic Church and its people.
Sister Nancy joined her original congregation in 1983, made her first profession as a Dominican sister in 1985 and made final profession in 1989. She retired from active ministry in 2022 but continues to consult with the congregation’s professional archives staff.