Keeping the main thing the main thing
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On this third Sunday of Advent, we celebrate the joy that comes from knowing Christ as Emmanuel, God with us. Christmas is approaching very quickly and the knowledge that God loves us so much He desired to become one of his creatures that inspires great joy in our hearts.Read More -
Today is the Second Sunday of Advent. Advent is a short season for the preparation for the celebration of Christmas. It is a time of great hustle and bustle. There are many parties and obligations and shopping, decorating and busyness that the stress of it all sometimes robs us of spiritual peace and growth. In the midst of all the commotion, let us help each other find a little calm and peace to pray and center ourselves once again on the true meaning of Christmas. God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son that all who believe in Him might have eternal life. The greatest gift of Christmas is Jesus Christ. May we not miss HIM in all of the distractions.Read More -
On November 19, the Pastoral Council met and established the Mission Statement for Holy Spirit Parish. A mission statement is the WHY we exist. It can become a prayer for all of us.Read More -
On this first Sunday of Advent, we begin the new liturgical year. May it be a time when we all renew our faith in Christ and recognize His divine presence in these beautiful sacraments we are privileged to celebrate and in our brothers and sisters in Christ. The miracle of Christmas is not just Jesus the Son of God taking on human flesh, but Jesus also being willing to dwell inside each of us. This indwelling of Christ is made manifest when you and I live in harmony with Him and do his work. My sincere thanks to all of you for living out your faith in Christ by your service to one another in this community.Read More -
This week, our nation celebrates the great holiday of Thanksgiving. For us, as Catholics, we celebrate Eucharist or Thanksgiving every day, and especially every weekend. We give thanks to almighty God for the gift of life, of family, of friendship, and especially the gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who suffered, died and rose again that we might have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life! It is a lonely holiday for an agnostic or atheist! To whom do they give thanks?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
