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Christ is Risen; He has indeed Risen! A glorious and joyous Easter to all of you! My sincere gratitude to everyone who assisted in all of our Lenten, Holy Week and Easter liturgies. We are particularly grateful to those who led the Stations of the Cross, decorated our churches throughout the entire Lenten and Easter season and all those of you in sacred ministry, including those assisting in the parking lot and as Ushers, Greeters, Eucharistic Ministers, Altar Servers, Sacristans, as well as Musicians and Cantors. I am always personally very grateful to our parish staff for all the hard work they do behind the scenes to keep our parish on track and caring for everyone’s needs. Thank you also to all of our Volunteers who worked the Mardi Gras, Raffles, Lenten Fish Dinners, Easter Bread making, and finally Easterfest.Read More -
Today we begin the one week of the year which we call HOLY. This week was made Holy, not by anything we have done, but by what our Savior did 2,000 years ago. We call it Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday. We remember the Passion of our Lord, his burning and unwavering determination to fulfill his Father’s will. All the temptations of the devil could not sway him from embracing the brutality and cruelty of the cross out of love for us and his Father’s will.Read More -
On Thursday, March 11th, Bishop Barron gave a short reflection on the day’s Gospel, Luke 11:14-23, where Jesus casts out a demon and the people accuse him of doing so by the power of Beelzebub. This is what Bishop Barron writes:Read More -
On this joyful Sunday, we are called to rejoice in God’s love for us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16) This famous verse is a summary of our cause for joy. If you have ever been to the Heinz History Center in downtown Pittsburgh and watched the video of the immaculate reception by Franco Harris, you will notice, in the crowd, a person holding a sign that says “John 3:16.”Read More -
On this third Sunday of Lent, the Gospel concludes with this very disturbing sentence, “But Jesus would not entrust Himself to them because He knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well.” Jn 2:24-25 The plots against Him are growing stronger and stronger. He who comes out of love and with a desire to save humanity will be put to death by the very people He desires to save.Read More -
Did you call AAA to help you get your car started or for a tow, lately? Hopefully not—but there is a AAA that can help rescue us during this Lenten season. Attitude, Attachment and Action are the three A’s of the spiritual life.Read More -
On this first Sunday of Lent, it is my joy to share with you our Parish Pastoral Plan recently developed by our Pastoral Council. As we begin the Lenten season with our personal plans to reform our lives and recommit ourselves to Christ, so as a parish community may we do the same through these strategies and goals. Holy Spirit Parish Mission Statement: Know Christ, Love Christ, Serve Christ and invite others to Christ through word, Sacrament and Service.Read More -
As you know, this Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season. The liturgies for Wednesday are as follows: 7:00 am: Mass at St. Vitus 9:00 am: Mass at St. Camillus and St. Vitus 12 Noon: Mass at St. Mary 4:00 pm: Service with Ashes at St. Mary 7:00 pm: Mass at St. Camillus and St. Vitus. COVID-19 restrictions apply at all locations.Read More -
Last week, we celebrated Catholic Schools Week. We are very blessed to have Holy Spirit Academy in our parish. It is the only surviving Catholic elementary school in all of Lawrence County. Many of our former parishes had their own schools. This makes Holy Spirit Academy all the more precious. Since we are all one parish now, we all can benefit from this singular school.Read More -
In commemoration of the Feast of St. Blaise this week, priests will give the Blessing of Throats at all Masses this weekend by extending their hands over the entire congregation for the blessing, instead of the traditional use of crossed candles, in order to stay in COVID-19 compliance. As we conclude the month of January and begin the month of February, we are reminded and encouraged through the sacred scripture of God’s desire to save us. During these cold, dark days of winter, we can easily become discouraged and depressed. As we face the unrest in our nation and the long suffering of the corona virus, we can forget that we are not alone in our struggles. The Lord Jesus is the light shining through the darkness.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
