It was with great joy that I received my assignment letter from His Excellency Bishop Elias Zaidan to be your associate pastor at St. Maron Church in Cleveland, Ohio.
It is officially the first place I have been assigned following my priesthood ordination which happened in Lebanon on June 9th, 2018. I was born and raised in Lebanon in a Maronite Catholic family which provided for me a good Catholic education which taught me how to value our faith and traditions.
Today, I bring with me to this parish all I have learned and experienced on my spiritual journey either in Lebanon, Italy or in the United States, to serve you, your families and your children.
A priest leaves their family and many other things behind to serve Jesus, who said: “Whoever has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life”. (Matthew 19:29).
Now, you have become my family. It is God’s will to be serving at this parish at this period of time. Together we will make a lot of memories. I will share with you your joy and your sadness and I will hold all of you in my daily liturgies and prayers.
A priest without people cannot do anything. It takes both sides to build a community. Together we can make our parish grow and glow by putting Christ as our priority. Let us discover together what God wants from us to do for His Church. Each one of us has many different gifts, a different call and different interests. If we put all of that together we end up having a successful, productive and a prayerful community.
I thank you for the warm welcome that you have shown to me during the festival. I look forward to what God has in store for my ministry at St. Maron Church in Cleveland. God bless you!
Father Elias Yazbeck
Associate Pastor