Here's how it works!

So the blogs haven't been updated in a very long time. I have handed the website over to a group of parishioners and they are now in charge of updating it. This is one of the areas that will be updated frequently. Any question? Feel free to e-mail me!

First Communion

First Communion

First Communion will be this Saturday (tomorrow) at St. Mary's. It starts at 11:00 am

Confirmation

Talent Show

The talent show went very well! If you would like video of the show, please e-mail me (afries52@neo.rr.com) with your interests. I can give you it in VHS or DVD format.

Youth Group Yard cleanup day

We were able to clean three parishioner's yards and our church grounds.

Choir Concert

Some Photos from last weekend's "All You Works of God" Choir program.

Free Concert

"All You Works of God"

On Sunday, April 6th at 3:00 pm the program "ALL YOU WORKS OF GOD" will be presented here at St. Mary's Church. Inspirational songs and stories will be presented by members of St. Mary Parish. The St. Mary Bell Choir will also be featured. This free program will be followed by refreshments and fellowship. All are Welcome

Talent Show Registration

Registration forms for the Talent Show are now available. Please GO HERE to get them.

Happy Easter

Reverse Raffle

Here are some pictures from the Reverse Raffle this past Saturday.

Sister Agnes was presented with a few items we found in the Century House...to be specific, her old bedroom.

A Monroeville Eagle's Shirt?!

This one i think you can judge for yourself.

Finally, a piece of the carpet and a square of the wall were given to her. We cut them out of the room before the house was torn down.
Proof

Parish Mission Video

After setback after setback....i should have the videos from the Parish Mission Available by the end of this week. If you would like the high-quality tapes, or a VHS, contact me and i'll give you more info on that.

Sister Mary Agnes

Sister Agnes was in the paper today if you didn't notice...

Demolition Pictures

I have Demolition pictures available on the website now. Centuryhouse.stmarynorwalk.org

Century House Auction

At St. Mary's, we are going to be tearing down the former convent (called "The Century House"). We have already had our auction for our parishioners, now we are opening it to the public. This Saturday (the 19th), there will be a public auction from 9am to 12pm. The auction is for anything and everything in the Century House that anyone wants. From floorboards to doorknobs to trim. Whatever is in there is up for grabs. It will be set up like a silent auction. Folks interested in old architecture or that collect/salvage things from old houses may especially want to attend this auction.
For more information, please refer TO THIS PAGE (http://www.stmarynorwalk.org/centuryhouse/chouse.htm) on our website.

The address is 38 W. League Street, Norwalk Ohio.

If you have any questions, you may e-mail me (the webmaster (afries52@neo.rr.com) or call the Rectory @ 419-668-2005

A little History...

The Century House was built in 1907 for $15,000. The house is made of brick and limestone and has approximately 2200 square feet on two floors. The house was used as the pastor's residence until 1964 when the present rectory was built. The building was then renovated in 1965 and used for a convent in the fall of 1965. A hot water baseboard heating system was installed in 1974. The building served as a convent until 1989 when the sisters moved in with the St. Paul sisters. The building was then used for meetings and was also used as a dressing area for brides before weddings. It was at this time renamed the "Century House". It was again renovated for use as a preschool in the year 1992. It has been used as a preschool for 14 years. It is now used for storage.

Please Notice

Please notice that there will be no updates to the sites from Christmas until school resumes. I'll be out of the country! If you have anything for the sites to submit, please do so before Christmas!

News

The website is running well now. It is growing by the day. Go ahead, check it out, spread the word if you haven't already!

A different view

Putting along....

Just putting the final touches on the new site. I know i know, i said it would be up this weekend...TWO WEEKS AGO! I've been quite busy lately. I promise that by this weekend, you'll see some results. Then i will start working on St. Anthony's new site.

Please please, suggestions, and comments are welcome.

www.stmarynorwalk.org

New website

Hopefully by next week, we will have our new website up. We have had problem after problem with our current hosting company. This explains the status of the website currently. Sorry for any problems this may cause. If you still need to go to the website, you may do so by typing in this link .... http://home.catholicweb.com/stmarynorwalk/

Statues

z

All these statues came from France.

creeping along

First pastor

Father I. Ponchele was the first Pastor of St. Mary's Parish. He was the one in charge of gathering the community of Irish immigrants together to form St. Mary's parish. He oversaw the construction of the first St. Mary's church. He died, however, before the church was completed. He was buried under the alter in a water-tight compartment.

When the community had moved to the current day church, they decided to dig up the grave of Father Ponchele and take him to the parish cemetery. Here's an account of what happened....

If you have trouble reading it...here is what it says

"Rev. Ignatious Ponchele, the first priest to have charge of St. Mary's Catholic church of Norwalk, died 4o years ago and his remains were placed in a vault under the altar of the church. Tuesday the body was exhumed to be removed to the church burying ground. The casket was opened and the parties having the matter in charge were startled and frightened at finding the remains in a perfect state of preservation. The face was as natural and lifelike as though the dead proiate had just lain down for a sleep. His clothes also were well preserved."

Over time i will keep featuring past pastors here on the blog. If you ever have any information to add to anything i post, just let me know!

Repair Work

I've finally got the pages describing the repair work that is going on around the outside of the church up. You can see it by GOING HERE.

Achtung Bitte!

I want to bring your attention to the Century House...THIS PAGE HERE that i made awhile back has received very few visits. Even though there have been several letters sent out to all the parishioners, most still don't know what's going on. This is the best place for information about what the situation is. ALL ST. MARY PARISH MEMBERS are asked to look at this, or spread this information. The future of this building mostly lies in your (the parishioner of St. Mary's) hand!! Please give it a look! (Even if you're not a St. Mary Parishioner, it'll just make me feel better that there are more hits on that page)

-Alex

...

Updates will be slow in the coming days. I've been overwhelmed with other things i've dragged myself into.

Results

Expect a slide show of pictures from the festival by the end of the week. as well as video. Financial results will come in a month or so.

Festival

WE NEED WORKERS!

We are in a great need of workers for the festival this coming sunday (the 16th) If you can work anything, please call Deb Lucal (419-663-0942) or the rectory (419-668-2005)

Regular updates

Regular updates should be resuming now. Expect something at least once a week. The bulletins should be all updated by the end of the day. In the coming weeks the newsletter archive should be up and running.

I'm always open to suggestions. So comment away!

Also, if anyone from St. Mary's or St. Anthony's has something they'd like to contribute to the website. (such as dates for the calendar, pictures of old, or of new. ministry information or just whatever, feel free to let me know about it. These websites, after all, are for the community.

Festival

Well everyone, the festival is coming up! SAVE THE DATE! September 16th, from 11:30 am till 7:00 pm! The events will mostly be held inside the school building, but there will be games and live music outside on the grounds! For more information check out the festival page on the main site.

First Reconciliation date Change

TAKE NOTE!! First Reconciliation has been changed from from 2/10/08 to 2/17/08.

Directory Covers

Well. These may be our new directory covers. But they may change. Opinions please??? I made them...

Updates this weekend

There will be many updates on the blogs and the main sites this weekend. I'm not quite back in the groove yet.

-Alex

Garden Work

Yes, there will be some garden work going on again! Volunteers are badly needed! The work day will be on August 18th, from 8am - 1pm. For kids in school that come, we can give them service hours. There will also be refeshments for everyone throughout the day. We want to get this garden complete and back to looking like a garden. With your help, we can do that!!

For questions, e-mail me at afries52@neo.rr.com

PSR Schedule

The 2007-2008 PSR Schedule is now available. Click here to download the new PSR schedule for St. Anthony's and St. Mary's. It will be on the sidebar until PSR is over with for this year.

Newsletters

Did you notice?? I added the Parish Newsletters and the 55 Plus newsletters to the side bar over there! <<----- That'll be easier to manage than the bulletins.

Archives, anyone?

I'm thinking about starting an Archive for St. Mary's, and depending how well it works, one for St. Anthony as well. The basic contents of it would be Bulletins and newsletters. I would also incorporate all these pictures i have. Other things would find their ways in, too. Like directories and whatnot. I'll leave the baptismal records up to the diocese though. I don't want no trouble!

Anyway, tell me what you think!

Time for a new church?

And a new school?? Sure it is! (let's go back in time though, say a hundred years or so)

Here's what you'd see!


Looks a tad different nowadays don't it? (now there is no metal work on the steeple, and there is a different cross)

Wouldn't it be nice to have it looking like this again?

Take a close look at this picture. First, look at the church. There are no windows yet!! AND, there's a little tower on the back of the church, it's not there anymore.

Now the school. It housed about 80 students at it's heyday. It's not there anymore because it was condemned in the early 1900's due to huge structural problems. It looks very similar to the school at the old church.

How it'll go

So you've seen the few previous posts. It's just a flavor of what's to come, and how i'll do things.

A little history

Well we need to start somewhere, right? Why not start at the very begining?

This Church you see here was the very first St. Mary's Catholic Church in Norwalk. It was located on the corner of St. Mary's Street and Milan Ave. The Rectory of it, still stands today, and is the brick house on the south corner. It's pictured below in the modern recreation of the picture above.

This is from the inside. If you notice, the little table by the altar with the flowers on it? Well we still have it! And for the most part, it's the only thing we have left of that church. (except for most of the bricks from this church, which were used in the building of the century house. But that's a different story for a different time.)



Have you liked reading this? Well a full history of St. Mary's can be found on the main website (http://www.stmarynorwalk.com/) Just go to "Parish History by Mike Doughty" on the right sidebar!

Help is needed!!!

HELP!!! The Enrichment Garden has become overrun by weeds over the past two years. To prevent it from being all destroyed, some people from the parish will be holding a work day, Tuesday, July 10th, and 6:30 PM. About half the garden has been brought back up to some state of normalcy. Although much help is still needed, as the biggest parts still remain. Any teens coming can get service hours from this. This place just needs a little TLC.


The Enrichment Garden was once a great place to stroll around, and just to get into a peaceful mood, and to pray! Well when the schools got combined it got pushed aside. Let's bring it back to life!!

Mass in the park!

The Mass in the Park was a great turnout today! Parishioners from St. Anthony and St. Mary joined together and participated in mass at Edison Park in Milan Ohio. The turnout was great! (around 100) After the mass, many stayed for food, and games for both kids and adults. This Mass marks the weekend St. Anthony's and St. Mary's switch mass times. St. Anthony now has the 4:30 Saturday, and 8:30 Sunday Mass, while St. Mary gets the 10:30 Sunday Mass. This is in effect until January.



Some sort of Water balloon game...Father Speier was knocked out early in the game, however.

What's this for??

Well, basically, to get the word out, and to help get more exposure on the Web. Also, since i am doing this for my home parish, sister and former sister parish, which are small churches, i feel i need to attract people to the parish. This is my way of giving my stewardship dues to the parish, and to God. If you ever have any questions about anything ever on this blog, the main websites, Wikipedia articles or whatever else you find on the web, let me know!

There will be all sorts of stuff over time on this blog. Pictures of current events, news, stories, histories especially. This is just a contemporary version of the main website, and on a whole different level(the blogosphere, rather than the small, church websiteosphere)