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Congratulations to our seminarian, Chris Baker, who was assigned by Bishop Zubik to begin his graduate studies this fall at St. Vincent Seminary. Please keep in your prayers our 90 children and their parents and families as these little ones have received their First Holy Communion during the month of May. We are truly blessed as a parish to have these young families. Please join me in welcoming and encouraging them to become more fully involved in the life of our parish. Now that these children have received their First Holy Communion, it is more important than ever that they and their parents participate in the Holy Eucharist every weekend.Read More -
A very blessed Mother’s Day weekend to all the women of our parish. We honor our dear mothers, both living and deceased. We also honor all women who may not have borne a child physically but have nurtured life in others as a godmother, an adoptive parent, or a woman in religious life. For all of these amazing women in our world, we give thanks to God and ask His special blessings on them.Read More -
On this special weekend, we will celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker at St. Joseph the Worker Church on Saturday, April 30th, at 4:00 pm. Following this Mass, there will be a simple reception to provide an opportunity for fellowship and camaraderie! Last weekend, I highlighted the blessing our amazing, young parochial vicars, Fr. Brendan Dawson and Fr. Benjamin Barr, are to all of us. This weekend, I would like to highlight our holy deacons, Deacon John Carran and his wife, Robin; Deacon S. Daniel Kielar and his wife, Karen; and our religious Sisters of the St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, Sr. Ann Bremmer and Sr. Veronica.Read More -
A very blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to all of you. In keeping with our tradition, there will be a special Divine Mercy celebration this Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm at St. Vitus Church. The Divine Mercy Holy Hour is scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm and include Adoration, Chaplet, Confessions & Benediction, and Veneration of a Relic of St. Faustina.Read More -
Christ is risen! He has indeed risen! May all of you be filled with Easter peace and joy! No matter what our trials and tribulations, for all of us who believe in the resurrected Christ, we have a reason to rejoice. We know that our Savior lives. Because He lives, so do all of our loved ones who have passed from this life to eternity! God has extended to all of humanity the possibility of the forgiveness of our sins and the gift of eternal life.Read More -
A blessed Holy Week to all of you. This Sunday, Passion Sunday, we begin the highest holy days of our Catholic faith for the year. No matter what you have been able to do, or have failed to do, for the season of Lent, let us all be determined to make this week truly holy. If you have never attended the sacred Triduum, this is the year to do it.Read More -
A huge thank you to all of you who take your faith so seriously and have diligently been putting your faith into action. By this, I mean all of our wonderful volunteers, especially those who help with outreach through our Social Ministries: Angel Trees, Bereavement, Calls to the Bereaved, Journeying Through Grief, Grief Support, Charity Baby Shower, Greeting Card Ministry, Food Pantry, Connections, Illumin8, Blankets for Confirmation, Rosary Crafting, Stitching Angels, Easter Baskets for Catholic Charities, Our Hearts to Your Soles, Phone Ministry, Prayer Network, Soup Ministry, St. Vincent De Paul Society, the Knights of Columbus, Men of Faith and Women of Faith.Read More -
Congratulations to Jean Pascale who turned 80 this week on Tuesday, March 22nd. Many of you know Jean and her husband, Pietro (Pete), because of their tremendous volunteer service to Holy Spirit Parish.Read More -
Thank you to Fr. Brendan Dawson, Cathy Frank and the entire RCIA team for their devoted service to our Catechumens and Candidates seeking the Easter sacraments. This past Sunday, Bishop Zubik welcomed 2 of our Catechumens, Marcy Duddy and Joel Mekler, at St. Paul Cathedral in the Rite of Election. We are very blessed to have 6 Catechumens altogether: Vanessa Booher, Marcy Duddy, Price Gipe, Mariah Gipe, Amanda Madden and Joel Mekler, who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil before receiving 1st Communion and Confirmation.Read More -
Congratulations to Dr. Joe Ross who received the Order of Acolyte on March 3rd at St. Bonaventure Church with his deacon class. Please keep Dr. Joe and all the Deacon candidates in your prayers as they prepare for their ordination, scheduled for October 1st. Please watch the bulletin and the website as we come closer to this monumental occasion for plans as to how you can participate in the celebration.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
