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Some of you have expressed concerns about the coronavirus vaccine. Fr. Brendan Dawson is the head of our COVID-19 Safety Team, charged with keeping our parish in compliance with all of the coronavirus precautions. The members of the Holy Spirit Parish COVID-19 Safety Team are: Fr. Brendan Dawson, leader, Pastoral Team; Deacon John Carran, Pastoral Team; Marla Brown, Pastoral Council; Dr. Joseph E. Ross, Healthcare Professional; Dr. Sheila Burick, Healthcare Professional; Rose Butch, Maintenance Team; and Susan Dexter, Communications Team.

2020 is behind us, and here we are January 2021! Unfortunately, the turning of the clock, the passing of the year has not changed the reality of the continuous battle between good and evil. The church begins this new year always remembering the dignity of human life from conception to natural death. Respect for human life is at the heart of a peaceful society. Why do we still see all this unrest in our country? When the fundamental dignity of the human person is disregarded, there is always injustice and violence.

On this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we have a theophany, the manifestation of all three persons of the Blessed Trinity. The voice from the heavens declaring, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” illustrating God the Father. We have the dove descending from the heavens illustrating the Holy Spirit, and the Son, Jesus Christ, coming out of the baptismal waters of the Jordan River.

On this Feast of Epiphany, we celebrate the manifestation of the Lord. We know the story of the Wise Men, coming to the Christ Child and presenting Him gold, frankincense and myrrh. These gifts are very specific and symbolize something of the nature of the Christ Child. The gold symbolizes that He is a king, frankincense that He is divine and the myrrh that He will suffer and die for us. The fact that the Magi are not Jews, but come from the East also proclaims that the Christ Child has come to save all people not just the Jewish people. He is the Savior of the world!

On this Feast of the Holy Family, we wish to celebrate the family of Holy Spirit Parish. You are an amazing family and you are doing amazing things in the name of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph! In this special bulletin, you will find a listing of the amazing number of accomplishments you have achieved through your selfless service in the name of Christ. We have tried to make this as complete a listing as possible, but we are sure there may have been a few things we have missed—plus, space is limited. 

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, in the name of the entire staff, I wish to express to all of you a very blessed Christmas which we will be celebrating on Thursday and Friday of this week. A huge thank you to our wonderful staff who have been so dedicated throughout the pandemic and have served me and all of you so faithfully. We are extremely blessed with the personnel we have at Holy Spirit Parish. Our priests, deacons, religious and laity truly are a fabulous team. The caring and concern they have for each other is truly Christ-centered and makes our working together a peaceful and joyful experience.

This is Gaudete Sunday! We have a reason to rejoice! Jesus is our Savior. He has conquered sin and death! We know these are challenging times. But we also know that as people of faith, we are not alone in facing the challenges of life. Thanks to all of you for stepping up and living your faith by persevering in praying for others and for doing what you can to assist those most in need. Living our faith when it counts is a joyful thing. Now is the time; it counts more than ever!

Why does the Advent season seem to pass so quickly? Before you know it, we are celebrating Christmas. It seems to me, it is very much like our lives. We are born, we learn to walk, we go to school, and in a blink of an eye life is over.

On this 1st Sunday of Advent, we begin the new liturgical year and move from Year A to Year B liturgically. That means we will be reading primarily from the Gospel of Mark throughout this new year. On this special weekend, we also begin our new Mass schedule which is as follows: Saturday, 4:00 pm Mass St. Camillus; 4:00 pm Mass St. Vitus; Sunday, 8:00 am St. Mary; 9:00 am St. Vitus, 10:00 am Sears parking lot, weather permitting; 11:00 am St. Camillus.

How appropriate for us to celebrate this feast of Christ our King. It is a powerful reminder that our citizenship is not in this world but in the next. In spite of all the unrest surrounding the election and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the McCarrick report, we Catholic Christians should still have great inner peace. You might say, or ask, “Father, how can this be?” It should be and is possible because the source of our peace is Christ and not the world in which we live, or the powers that rule the world.

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to participate in liturgical ministries such as usher/greeter, Eucharistic Minister, altar server, lector or sacristan. You have gone through the COVID-19 training and are making it possible for us to celebrate more Masses indoors. The entire parish owes you a great deal of gratitude. Because of your time and devotion, we are going to be able to provide two more Masses on Sundays, 9:00 am Mass at St. Vitus and an 11:00 am Mass at St. Camillus. So, on the first Sunday of Advent, the last weekend of November, the 28th and 29th, our new Mass schedule will be as follows: Saturday evening 4:00 pm Mass at St. Vitus and 4:00 pm Mass at St. Camillus, on Sunday morning: 8:00 am Mass at St. Mary, 9:00 am Mass at St. Vitus, 10:00 Mass, weather permitting, at the Sears parking lot, and 11:00 am at St. Camillus.

During my homily on All Saints Day, I preached about the fact that we are all called to be saints. We do not become saints after we are dead. We are saints during our life…meeting the challenges of our day and using our God-given gifts and talents to DO God’s will!

On this glorious weekend, we celebrate All Saints Day. We pray in the Creed that we believe in the communion of saints. This is the doctrine that all human souls live beyond the grave through the grace of God. There are those who have lived virtuous lives sometimes after a painful, sinful life, but are redeemed by the blood of the Lord and now reign with him in heaven. We believe that these saints can intercede for us on earth in our struggle against sin. There are countless saints of all nationalities and professions, young and old, male and female.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Rosary walk for the respect of all human life from conception to natural death and for our Lady to intercede for our country during these challenging times. It was a beautiful witness to our faith in Christ and our love for our Blessed Mother. Major thanks to the New Castle Police, the Blue Army, our teens and young families, Seminarian Merv, Sister Annie, Fr. Anthony, Vicki, Marc and Susan for video and photos, the New Castle News and their photographer, Maria Basileo.

On the Catechetical Sunday, please join me in thanking all of our catechists and catechist volunteers as we begin this new school year. Of all the things we learn, learning of our salvation is of eternal value! All other knowledge is temporary and passes away.

On September 19th, we will begin hearing confessions at St. Vitus Church instead of St. Camillus parking lot. When you enter St. Vitus Church from 11:00 am until noon, you will celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation, not in the confessionals, but in the cry room, the priest sacristy or the main entry where the original baptismal font is.

Welcome to September, a month of great transition. We will begin our school year at Holy Spirit Academy on September 8th. Please keep our students, teachers and faculty in your prayers. A very grateful shout-out to all of you in our community and beyond who assisted in raising much-needed revenue for our school. As you can see from the thermometer report on our matching fund drive (Page 9), we have far exceeded our goal of $250,000. God has blessed us tremendously through the amazing generosity of many individuals and we are now at $ 298,574!!!!

On September 12th, we will have our first weekend liturgy at 4:00 pm in both the St. Vitus and St. Camillus worship sites. There has been a lot of preparation for this and we ask for your help and patience.

On Monday, August 17, the New Castle News pictured the Distinguished Young Woman 2021 winner, Zoey Elaine Ondako of Holy Spirit Parish, on its front page. Of 18 finalists, Zoey was one of six who were from Holy Spirit! They were Adriana Marie Antuono (David & Lena Antuono), Alexandra Marie Columbus (Nichole & Doug Columbus), Alyssa Irene Cumpston (Lorine Bish & Timothy Cumpston), Morgan Kate Jones (Stephanie Jones-Covelli & John Covelli), Alexa Rose Vitale (Jeff & Heather Vitale) and winner, Zoey Elaine Ondako (Larry & Bess Ondako). Distinguished Young Women combines the chance to win college scholarships with a program that offers Life Skills training to prepare young women for the world after high school. Congratulations to Zoey Ondako and the other young women from Holy Spirit.

Congratulations to Patrick Neve, our youth director. Patrick and his wife, the former Phoebe Johnson, were married by Fr. Anthony Sciarappa on August 1, 2020 at Ascension Parish in Melbourne FL. Also, welcome, Thomas Belsterling, our new middle school Faith Formation Coordinator who provided the following information.