Severe Weather Updates – Parish Closings and Cancellations

Hurricane season begins June 1st and runs through November 30th.

St. Patrick Catholic Church follows the closures of Hillsborough County Schools for all severe weather emergencies or precautionary safety procedures. During a severe weather emergency, updates to our parish website will be made daily to keep you up to date on Parish Closures and Meeting Cancellations. Please remember the safety of our parish family and community is most important. Be safe and God Bless.

Mass Attendance:
All parishioners are urged to use good judgement when planning to travel to and from Mass. In the event that roadways are not clear and weather conditions are unsafe to travel, the faithful are reminded that the obligation to attend Sunday Mass does not apply when there is grave difficulty in fulfilling this obligation (see Code of Canon Law, Canon 1248 §2)

Parish Reopening & Updates / Closure & Cancellation Notices:

Our Parish Office Phones and other equipment throughout the campus have been affected by Thursday, September 3, evening’s storm. Our phone systems is currently being repaired. If you need assistance please email info@stpatricktampa.org or visit our Parish Office Monday thru Thursday 9am – 2pm.

Please be Safe and God Bless all of our Community and Families.

Updated: 9/10/2026 9:00 AM

There are two websites that are helpful for both hurricane planning and detailed weather information as a storm approaches. The Hillsborough County Emergency Management Office website is www.hillsboroughcounty.org/emergency  and the National Hurricane Center website is www.nhc.noaa.gov/. At the National Hurricane Center website you can pull up and watch things like the 3-day and 5-day cones for approaching storms. At the Hillsborough County website you can sign up for their E-News which is an automatic e-mail service which keeps you up-to-date with pertinent local emergency management information if you like.

Safety Precautions

• During any heavy rainfall or severe weather event, the City of Tampa encourages the motoring public to heed traffic advisories, obey traffic signs/detours, and to exercise caution when driving in and around standing water.
• Do not drive through water  it is difficult to determine how deep the water is.
• It is best to avoid driving unless necessary.
• Treat non-functioning traffic signals as a 4-way stop.
• If you see a road closed, please follow the detour signs.
• Avoid any downed or hanging power lines – they may be live.

Stay up-to-date

• Residents should also stay tuned to local television and radio stations for more information as severe weather approaches.
• Please check this City of Tampa link for up to date road closures at   http://arcg.is/1JofT7G.
• The Hillsborough County Emergency Management Office website is www.hillsboroughcounty.org/emergency
• National Hurricane Center website is www.nhc.noaa.gov/
• Sign up for Alert Tampa, the city’s official emergency alert system, to receive time sensitive notifications which will be sent directly to your email, cell phone, and in some cases, home phone.  Alert Tampa will provide you the official information you can use to keep your business, your home, and your family safe.  To sign up today, visit our website at  tampagov.net/alerttampa or call (813) 231-6184.

On the Occasion of the Celebration of the 800^th Celebration of the Transitus of Saint Francis of Assisi 1226-2026

Our dear brothers and sisters in Christ, this year we are celebrating the 800^th anniversary of the death, or transitus, of Saint Francis. The ministers General of the whole Franciscan family have called all Franciscans to celebrate what they have called the Easter of Francis of Assisi. Additionally, Pope Leo XIV has invoked a Jubilee Year, often referred to as a holy year, for all believers to share in this commemoration of Saint Francis entering into heaven. What a wonderful gift for the whole Church!

In contemporary society, we rarely think about death, not only because it reminds us that we are limited creatures, but also because it exposes the false security we get from believing that we are masters over time and life. Saint Francis, on the other hand, welcomed Sister Death with song in his Canticle of the Creatures, the Canticle of Brother Sun, because he understood that death is not the termination of everything but the end that allows us to enter into full communion with God. Indeed, life is a gift that must be given back: “Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves, that He Who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally!” (Francis of Assisi, Letter to the Entire Order #29)

At the end of his days, Saint Francis contemplated his life and discovered the presence and action of the Lord everywhere. Thus, in his Testament he repeats, like a refrain: “The Lord gave me, Brother Francis… The Lord gave me such faith in churches… The Lord gave me, and gives me still, such faith… And after the Lord gave me some brothers, no one showed me what to do, but the Most High Himself revealed to me that I should live according to the pattern of the Holy Gospel” (Testament 1-14).

The celebration of the 800^th anniversary of the Easter of Saint Francis invites us to contemplate our lives, both personally and as Catholics, with the eyes of faith, and by doing so, perceive the divine presence and action in everything, even in the difficult and dramatic situations we have experienced or are experiencing now.

It is an opportunity to thank God for all the gifts he has bestowed on us, particularly (on this occasion) for the gift of Saint Francis of Assisi and his evangelical life, which has become a light to the world reflecting the greater Light who is Christ for the world, and which today still has the strength to call out to women and men of all cultures, both inside and outside the Catholic Church.

And finally, celebrating the passing of the Poverello (the little poor one) is an occasion to remember that we are all called to holiness, and that like Saint Francis, we are invited to reflect the beauty of the gospel, because “holiness is the most attractive face of the Church” (Pope Francis, Gaudete et exsultate 9).

So, in this spirit we welcome all those who come to Saint Patrick in South Tampa to share in the light of the faith of Saint Francis, to experience the rich blessings of this Jubilee and Eighth Centenary of his transitus from this life to life with God. May you be inspired to, as Francis told his brothers at the end of his life: “Let us begin, brothers, to serve the Lord God, for up until now we have done little or nothing.”

Yours in Christ and Saint Francis,

Fr. Salvator M. Stefula, TOR                                                                                                                             Fr. Alberto F. Bueno, TOR

Pope Leo XIV Declares Jubilee Year of St. Francis of Assisi | Gulf Coast Catholic

https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/letters/2026/documents/20260107-lettera-morte-sf.html

https://www.centenarifrancescani.org/index.php/en

Reflection by: Alberto Bueno, T.O.R.

My dear brothers and sisters, today’s Gospel, picking up from where last Sunday’s Gospel left off, presents us with one of Jesus’ parables. In responding to Peter’s question on forgiveness, the Lord’s answer includes the parable of the king settling accounts with his servants. In this parable Jesus shifts the emphasis away from the burden and the difficulty of the work of reconciliation, calling attention to the utter gratuity of the gift of forgiveness. The only way to respond adequately to such a gift is to pay it forward. The servant can never repay the king, but he can act in the same forgiving manner to those indebted to him. But, as we see, he does not do this. And the king’s response is severe! The ensuing verses can be very troubling. They remind us of the ending of the prayer that Jesus teaches his disciples: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Mt. 6:12), with the added admonition that our ability to offer forgiveness is intimately tied to our ability to receive it (Mt. 6:14-15). The point isn’t that God is fickle in forgiving and takes back his forgiveness if we do not forgive, but rather, this parable is a warning of the consequences of letting our hearts become hardened in unforgiveness. A heart hardened in revenge sets in motion endless cycles of violence. The parable exposes the way that our choice to forgive or not redounds on us. The more we try to forgive and pray for the ability to forgive, even if we are not quite there yet, we open a place for God’s grace to work in us to bring us, in time, to be merciful as God is to us. Nothing we can do can take divine forgiveness away from us, but we can do things that hinder its powerful effect in us.

Queridos hermanos y hermanas: el Evangelio de hoy, retomando el relato donde quedó el del domingo pasado, nos presenta una de las parábolas de Jesús. Al responder a la pregunta de Pedro sobre el perdón, la respuesta del Señor incluye la parábola del rey que ajusta cuentas con sus siervos. En esta parábola, Jesús desplaza el énfasis de la carga y la dificultad de la obra de reconciliación para centrar la atención en la gratuidad absoluta del don del perdón. La única manera de responder adecuadamente a tal regalo es transmitirlo a los demás. El siervo nunca podrá pagarle al rey, pero puede actuar de la misma manera perdonadora con quienes le deben a él. Sin embargo, como vemos, no lo hace. ¡Y la respuesta del rey es severa! Los versículos siguientes pueden resultar muy inquietantes. Nos recuerdan el final de la oración que Jesús enseña a sus discípulos: «Perdona nuestras deudas, como también nosotros perdonamos a nuestros deudores» (Mt 6, 12), con la advertencia añadida de que nuestra capacidad de ofrecer el perdón está íntimamente ligada a nuestra capacidad de recibirlo (Mt 6, 14-15). La cuestión no es que Dios sea inconstante al perdonar y retire su perdón si nosotros no perdonamos; más bien, esta parábola es una advertencia sobre las consecuencias de permitir que nuestros corazones se endurezcan en la falta de perdón. Un corazón endurecido por la venganza desencadena ciclos interminables de violencia. La parábola revela cómo la decisión de perdonar o no hacerlo repercute en nosotros mismos. Cuanto más nos esforzamos por perdonar y por pedir la capacidad de hacerlo aunque aún no hayamos llegado a ese punto, más espacio damos a la gracia de Dios para que actúe en nosotros y nos lleve, con el tiempo, a ser misericordiosos tal como Dios lo es con nosotros. Nada de lo que hagamos puede arrebatarnos el perdón divino, pero sí podemos hacer cosas que obstaculicen su poderoso efecto en nosotros.

BINGO & DINNER

Tuesday

2026 Dates: October 13th, November 10th, December 1st

2027 Dates: January 12th, February th, March 9th, April 13th, May 11th, June 8th, July 13th, August 10th, September 14th, October 12th, November 9th, December 14th

St. Patrick Catholic Church

Social Hall

Dinner served between 5:30pm- 6:30pm. 

Bingo will start at 6:30pm.

Cost: $25.00

Includes 9 pack of 13 sheets (26 games)

and 4 specials. MUST BE 18 TO PLAY.

TICKETS SOLD AT THE DOOR ONLY.

*Meals subject to Change