Keeping the main thing the main thing
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Bishop's Decree 2-21-2020
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A huge thank you to everyone who worked so diligently to make our first Holy Spirit Mardi Gras Celebration a great success! As you know Mardi Gras was a celebration started by St. James the Apostle Parish and was very successful for that community. Now that all seven parishes have been joined as one, St. James graciously shared their fundraising celebration of Mardi Gras with all of us, as one parish. Other parishes have done similar things with their own unique traditions and fundraisers. Being one parish now, the Mardi Gras Celebration hosted at the Parish Center at St. Mary’s quadrupled the size of the event. My sincere gratitude to everyone from all the former parishes who participated now in this one parish event of Holy Spirit! It just goes to show that we are much stronger as one than we were as seven different parishes. Some photographs will be in next week’s bulletin.Read More -
Ash Wednesday will be upon us before we realize it—next Wednesday, February 26! Masses with the distribution of ashes and Liturgy of the Word with the distribution of ashes are in the column below.Read More -
On Saturday, February 1st, Dr. Stephen Conti, an orthopedic surgeon, along with his wife, Carol, brought “Our Hearts to your Soles” to Lawrence County. This program is a not-for-profit organization that fits those in need with boots which are provided through the generosity of Red Wing boots. 280 people came to be fitted for boots and were also given two pairs of socks. With the boot give-away, health screenings were also performed, and a hot meal was served.Read More -
News Flash: There is exciting news for our parish and St. Vitus School. Bishop Zubik has approved our request to change the name of the school to Holy Spirit Academy. This approval will become effective on July 1, 2020. It is a definite sign to the Lawrence County community of our commitment and that of the Diocese to support Catholic education in Lawrence County.Read More -
This Wednesday evening, January 29th, we will honor and celebrate all of our parish volunteers, with an appreciation reception at the Parish Center at St. Mary’s from 4:00 to 7:00 pm. If you are involved in any of the sacred ministries, or volunteer in any way in the parish, you are most welcome to attend. All of our parish staff are also honored at this celebration for all that they do. It is a wonderful opportunity for them to join me in thanking you for all of the assistance you provide to the staff as we work together to make Holy Spirit Parish truly alive in the Spirit of Christ! Speaking of celebrations, this week is also Catholic Schools Week. We are extremely blessed to have our own Catholic school in this area of the diocese. St. Vitus School has hung in there for many years and I am very excited to announce that we have turned the corner and are very encouraged about the future of our school! Many good things are happening.Read More
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August 4, 2019 Holy Spirit Parish in action
This week, beginning on August 7th, the first major festival of Holy Spirit Parish will begin and continue for four days! A huge thank you to everyone who has donated, volunteered and assisted in any way in making our first festival a reality! Special thanks to the festival committee which has worked for many months pulling this all together. It is a wonderful event of fellowship and fun for the entire community. None of it would be possible without many hours of volunteer help and organization. We give thanks to God for his many blessings and also for the gift of each other. See the schedule on our cover page which highlights the food special of each evening as well as the entertainment.
This past week, Sr. Annie led a summer work camp for girls in the parish of Holy Spirit. Three sisters of St. Francis and nine young teenage girls spent the week doing service projects at the parish sites of Christ the King and St. James. They also helped at the wonderful, young people’s and families’ picnic at St. James site this past Sunday. They washed tables down at St. Vitus for the upcoming parish festival and they hosted a pro-life baby shower with over 100 women and girls who came with gifts for Alpha & Omega and Catholic Charities. They ended their week visiting the Franciscan sisters in the Wexford area.
There was a fabulous family picnic for the young families of the parish hosted at St. James site this past weekend, Sunday, July 28, from 1 to 5 p.m. Thank you to Rose Butch for organizing the Holy Spirit Family Gathering and its activities, and all her volunteers, especially the core crew of Ilana Ilongo, Heather McCosby, Amy Chornenky, Jean Pascale, Joe Mercurio, Pete Pascale, Doug Butch, Lorrie Millette and Chris Baker, who got drenched in the dunk tank. See page 12 for pictures and more information. We look forward to having many such celebrations to get the families with children to know one another! Look out for their next adventure. Rose is already planning for a September 29 event from 5:00 to 9:00 pm.
God love you,
Fr. Mac
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July 28, 2019 Strategic Planning has begun
A few weeks ago, I invited all the interim Pastoral Council and Finance Council members, and some folks who have expressed interest in participating on these councils, to come to a very important strategic planning meeting on Saturday, July 27. This meeting took place from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm in McGurk Hall at St. Camillus. Facilitating this endeavor was consultant, Tom H. Murray.
Mr. Murray, founder and principle of Wexford Run Consulting, assists executives and senior managers with strategic planning, marketing, product management, and M&A activities. He leverages his expertise, structured approach, creativity, and coaching style to help executives and their teams create and implement growth initiatives.
Tom is a proven executive with over 20 years’ experience in high tech strategic planning, marketing, and product management. He has worked for high growth firms, both domestically and internationally, ranging from start-ups to multi-billion dollar organizations. His accomplishments include identifying and justifying strategic acquisition and OEM relationships, developing over 40 strategic analyses/proposals, managing over 15 product lines, conceiving and developing a $100M+ product line, and establishing the marketing foundations for two start-ups.
Mr. Murray is also an adjunct professor of Strategic Planning and Product Management courses at CMU's Graduate School holding a BSEE from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh.
Over several hours, he guided us as we studied what it means to be a parish, developing our purpose and our goals as a parish community. In addition, we explored and examined all of our resources and how best we could use them to achieve our goals.
My hope is that after going through this process together and refining it with the leadership team, we will be able to come to all of you as a whole and go through the same process together to glean your input, insights, wisdom, and suggestions. We will host town hall meetings to ensure transparency. Please watch the bulletin and the Holy Spirit Parish website (see note below) at www.hsplc.org for announcements of these upcoming meetings.
God love you,
Fr. Mac
