This, That, and the Other...

Weddings/Engagements/Ordinations

Chris and Alexandra Kelley(TECs 111 and 67) got married on October 1, 2016.

Josh and Kayla Lavery got married on April 21, 2017. Both made TEC 106.

PJ and Kristina Martin got married on June 10, 2017.

Carly Sidol(TEC 85) got engaged to her fiancé, Cameron on December 10, 2016.

Rev. Jim Cosgrove was Ordained to the Priesthood on May 19, 2017. His first assigment is at St. Christopher Parish in Rocky River.

Babies

Steven Bacher(TEC 73) and Mary Bacher(TEC 81) are delighted to announce the birth of their son! Kolbe Ignatius Bacher was born on Saturday, October 29th, at 2:36am. He weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces and was 19 1/4 inches long.

Patrick and Stephanie McCarthy welcomed the birth of their first child on November 19, 2016. John Patrick McCarthy was born at 6:04am weighing 6 pounds 11 oz and 18 inches long.

Jurell and Bridget Sison are expecting their first child this coming November 2017

Graduations/Jobs

Taylor Long(TEC 101) graduated this past May with a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Kent State University. She will be continuing her education to receive a Master's degree in School Counseling. 

Brittany Cermak passed her boards to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist in August 2016 and graduated with a Master's of science in nutrition from Case Western Reserve University in December 2016. She is now a Registered Dietitian at the Northeast Ohio Neighborhood Health Centers.

Lea Wilson(TEC 114) graduated from the Animal Care Program at the Medina County Career Center. She'll be applying to Tri-C to become a Veterinary Technician.

Bethany Clark(TEC 116) graduated from Walsh University a Bachelor's in Nursing and is employed at Summa Hospital.

Haley Wargo(TEC 110) graduated with a Bachelor's in Family Studies from Kent State in May of 2016. She plans to continue her education in social work or education.

Meet Your New Spiritual Director: Fr. Tim Roth

This past January, Fr. Tim Roth graciously accepted the position of being TEC's new Spiritual Director. We are so happy to welcome him in this role. Want to know more about Fr. Tim? Read on! Fr. Tim has also written a letter to the community about his enthusiasm for his new role, and how TEC truly shaped his Faith and his life.


My dear friends in the wonderful community known as TEC,

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ — AKA, what’s up!(Not sure if St. Paul would actually approve of that translation). By now, you probably haveheard that I was discerned and subsequently asked to serve as the new spiritual director for our TEC community, succeeding Fr. Tim Kalista who served as the visible image of Christ, the ‘captain’ of this ‘ship’ we call TEC, who helped ‘keep our boat afloat’ for 6 years as spiritual director. (Okay, okay, easy with the TEC imagery). As a stubborn, skeptical 17-year-old teen on TEC 61, I remember sitting at a table listening to witnesses while scanning the room for potential female companions, wondering what was for lunch, and desperately hiding from Mr. Sneaky. (I’m just being honest!) Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that, 13 years later, I would be sitting in the rectory of St. Angela Merici Parish in Fairview Park as a priest ordained 3 years, writing a letter as the new (humbled and thrilled) spiritual director of the TEC community—the very community that provided me with the foundations for my vocation!

It leaves me breathless to ponder how the Holy Spirit worked in my life and through the lives of others during those 13 years. My experience of TEC helped to jumpstart my personal relationship with Christ and prompted me to establish a habitual prayer life. It motivated me to become more involved in my home parish and led me to seek many other opportunities to grow in my faith. It fueled my faith in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and enflamed my desire to spend time in adoration of our Lord. It allowed me to experience in a very real way God’s ‘agape’ love embodied and made visible through the unseen, unheard, unrecognized, self- giving, self-emptying, self-sacrificing example of Wheat. It opened my eyes to see God’s constant presence and activity in my daily life. It inspired me to unabashedly live out my faith in the midst of a secular world and the chaos that was high school, striving (to the best of my broken ability) to be an authentic Christian disciple despite the judgment, ridicule, hostile stares, and harsh words of others.

As a result, for the first time in my life, everything began to make sense because it was driven with a renewed purpose. Confident that God was for me, Christ was with me, and the Holy Spirit was advocating for me, I felt that I was seeing clearly for once, and the small things that I used to worry about seemed to fade in comparison to the bigger picture of God’s plan for my life, his great love for me, and my newfound life in Christ. It is abundantly clear to me now how my experience on TEC served as the seedbed for my vocation as a priest by laying significant foundations, providing me with the space to consider God’s call, and allowing me to hear the voice of Christ speak to me more clearly: “Will you follow me?” “Will you feed my sheep?” “Will you serve the Church as my priest?” In other words, TEC lived up to its mission—it helped me to encounter the living Christ.

For all this (and probably for infinitely more reasons than I am aware of), I am eternally grateful for my experiences on TEC, for all of the friends I have made who have positively impacted my life and discernment to the priestly vocation, for the TEC community, its lay leadership, and all of the priests who have served from its inception and throughout its history. (I genuinely feel as if I am standing on the shoulders of giants). I am truly, truly blessed to have been given the opportunity to give back to this community who has given me so much by serving as its spiritual director.

Please pray for me that, by the grace of God, I do not allow this boat to sink! (Just kidding!) I am very much aware that it is by your support, effort, and prayer that keeps this community alive and well, but most of all, that this entire community is inspired, guided, and led by something greater than ourselves—God the Father, through his Son, Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit— without which none of the great work of TEC could be accomplished. I hope that reality brings you as much peace and comfort as it brings me. Once again, I am humbled and thrilled to be discerned as the spiritual director of our community to help lead it and guide it, by the grace of God, and with the help of so many others. Please be assured of my continued prayers for all of you, for all future TECites, and for the future of this community as a whole. May God bless you now and always.

In Christ,

Fr. Tim Roth


  Fun fact about Fr. Tim, anyone? He likes sloths. Never forget, Jesus loves you more than this sloth loves that tree.

Thankfulness

We have so much to be thankful for. I will be the first one to say that I easily take for granted so many things I have been blessed with. Things like clean water, a place to sleep, not being persecuted for my Faith and what I believe in, living in a safe community, etc... I instead tend to look at all the things that make my life difficult. And I've come to understand that it is these difficult moments and things that I should be most thankful for. We were never promised an easy life, and when we are able to overcome these moments through the Grace of God and prayer, we are one step closer to eternal life with Our Father.

Let's not focus on the bad in this world... let's focus on the good. There is still so much good!


Here is what our Tec Community is Thankful for:

- I am thankful for my loving family, my nieces and nephews who bring me continuous joy, my perpetual TEC family, for forgiveness, for love, for naps, for movie scores, and for laughter!

-Outside of the TEC community (which I truly am grateful for), I am so thankful that my Dad is cancer free. Truly a miracle.

-I am grateful for friends,family and health! I am extremely grateful for my TEC family they have been my prayer warriors thru years of illness ! Love you all!

-I am thankful for children, their beauty and birth give us at least one reason why God is Love.

-I am thankful for my children, my family/TEC family , & the blessings of this year. Looking forward to a new year & new adventures.

-I moved back to Cleveland after graduate school, I did not know many people, especially those that shared the Catholic faith. I am thankful that the TEC community has allowed me to encounter many inspiring people and to make great friends that share in my faith and lead me towards becoming the best version of myself. (Thanks Matthew Kelly)

- I'm thankful for my brand new grandson John Patrick

-I am thankful for my family, friends, two jobs that I love, coffee, movies, books to read, this TEC family, and above all, my Lord and God and everything that goes with that!

How to Add TEC to your Virtus Account

Every TEC, many new tecites have to add TEC to their Virtus profile before working a weekend. Actually figuring out how to do that though can be similar to looking for a needle in a hay(or should I say wheat) stack. Man I crack myself up.

Anyways, I made a video tutorial for all those who might have trouble!!

Hello TEC family! As mentioned in Desi's post, this is our new Pelican, in the form of a blog. Some of you might be wondering, what will be on this blog? Some of the content will be up to you. After conducting some interviews, a lot of people in the community want to know more about, well, the community! Our community is so large that we often don't get the chance to know both new and old members. So share with us! If you have special announcements(engagement, marriage, new baby, new priest, new job, school achievements, etc...), let us know, as we would love to give you another dose of affirmation :) You will also see posts about upcoming Tec's, events, opportunities, helpful information, and more. 

If you would like to share something with the community, you can e-mail board secretary(me!!), at sakurtz92@yahoo.com.

Thanks everyone. Looking forward to getting this blog started.

Sarah Kurtz