March 14, 2010

I hope you remembered to set your clocks one hour ahead, last night, as we changed back to Daylight Saving Time. Think about that extra hour of daylight you'll be enjoying this evening as you're rubbing your tired eyes this morning.

Congratulations to Exultate on the release of their most recent CD entitled Life - A Sacred Song. And congratulations on a very successful CD release party this past Friday night.

Father Bacevicius would like to thank all who attended the March 4th celebration of the feast of St. Casimir, with a special thanks to Rita Klorys and Exultate for the special music.

The Senior Scouts Zidinys celebrated the March 11th Day of Lithuanian Independence this past Thursday with a special program featuring guest speaker Nomeda Vucianis, and music by Eugenijus Dicevicius. The St. Casimir Lithuanian Saturday School also celebrated March 11 last Saturday. The planned celebration at Lietuviu Sodyba was postponed because of Father Bacevicius' arm surgery, and we wish him a full and speedy recovery.

During Lent, St. Casimir is joining with St. Jerome's, Holy Redeemer and St. Mary's for a special Lenten spiritual series each Monday evening during Lent. Tomorrow, March 15th the Lenten observance will be held at 7:00 pm at St. Casimir. Mass will be followed by a social in the lower hall. Volunteers are needed at 2:00 pm to set up the hall; please call Hilde Novak at 216-481-1957 if you can help. On March 22nd there will be a Lenten penance service at Holy Redeemer on Kipling Avenue.

Lithuanian Catholic Religious Aid will ask for your support on this morning at St. Casimir. The members of the Cleveland Lithuanian Catholic Religious Aid committee are Father Joseph Bacevicius, Zenonas Obelenis, Henrikas Stasas, Regina Silgalis.

If you're a fan of the style of music performed by Antanas Sabanisuaskas, you may be interested in an upcoming broadcast on WVIZ/PBS Channel 25. Max Raabe and das Palast Orchester is from Berlin and the group performs European music that was popular in the 1920's and 30's. A couple of my Lithuanian friends saw Max Raabe and his group when they appeared at E.J. Thomas Hall in Akron recently, and they enjoyed the show very much. The upcoming broadcast on WVIZ is next Sunday morning at 2:00 am, so unless you're up verayset your Tivo or DVR or VCR, or whatever to record the program.

The Lithuanian Scouts of Cleveland will welcome the start of Spring by presenting their annual Kaziuko Muge fundraiser next Sunday, March 21st at 11:00 am in the upper hall at St. Casimir.

If you're a member of the St. Casimir Parish Steering Committee, the first meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 23rd at 7:00 pm in the rectory conference room. Dr. David DeLambo of the diocesan pastoral planning office will give a presentation on examples of parish council constitutions and parish mission statements.

The Holy Week schedule for St. Casimir Parish is as follows: Holy Thursday mass at 7:00 pm on April 1st, Good Friday Commemoration at 7:00 pm on April 2nd. Holy Thursday and Good Friday liturgies will be in Lithuanian and English. The Easter Vigil will be celebrated at 9:00 pm on Saturday, April 3rd, in English. Easter Sunday morning masses will be on April 4th at 8:00 am in Lithuanian, and 12 noon in English. There will be no 10:00 am mass on Easter Sunday. Confessions will be heard at 6:00 pm on Holy Thursday and Good Friday evenings.

The Cleveland Lithuanian Academic Scouts Filisterai invite you to a concert by soprano Virginija Bruozyte Muliolis entitled Welcoming Spring, on Saturday, April 10th in the upper hall at St. Casimir. Virginija will be accompanied on piano by Michael Borowitz, and together they'll perform works by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Grieg, Dvorak, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Lerner & Lowe, and others. Tickets and information are available by calling 216-631-0210.

Don't forget that Juventus is coming up on April 24th. This event will feature 168 dancers from Gintaras of Toronto, Grandis of Chicago, Spindulys of Lemont, and of course our own Svyturys performing both traditional and new Lithuanian folk dances. The dance performance will be followed by dinner catered by Europa. The evening concludes with an opportunity for you to get out on the dance floor. Tickets and information are available by calling Ricardas Sirvinskas at 440-749-2121.