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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There is a famous saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing!” There is some debate about who first said these words. But there is no debate about their accuracy! As I write this bulletin message, the unjust assault of the Russians upon the Ukrainians is fiercely underway. As of this moment, the Ukrainians, in their bravery and courage, have been able to hold off the assault on their capital city of Kyiv. (The pronunciation and spelling of the name of the capital city depend on the source of the spelling and pronunciation we use. Kyiv derives from Ukraine’s language and Kiev derives from Russia’s language.) This awful battle reminds me of the biblical story of David and Goliath. Goliath had the power and military equipment, but David had God and that was all he needed!

I would like to introduce to you one of my heroes, Sean Roy. He was my altar server at Saints John & Paul through my years there and then he went off to college. It is his deep faith and perseverance in the face of great adversity that inspires me to this day. On January 15, 2022, I was blessed to celebrate his wedding at St. Mary of the Mount Catholic Church on Mt. Washington, Pittsburgh PA. This is his story.

Respecting human life from conception to natural death is ultimately respecting God. We respect the will of God when we respect creation as he intended it to be. This reality goes far beyond just when life begins and when life ends. It is also the reality of how life is to be lived. There is a tendency in our culture today to fall victim to what is called “false compassion.” This is when the laws of God are set aside for human convenience. Truth is not something that is established on a subjective foundation but on an objective one. Those who say you have your truth and I have mine live in a world of utter confusion. There is an objective truth outside of ourselves. This is the truth of natural law and God’s will.

With this beautiful Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we conclude the Christmas season and begin Ordinary Time. But there is nothing ordinary about this miraculous event. It is called a theophany. This means that all three persons of the Blessed Trinity are made manifest. The Father is revealed in the voice from heaven that declares, “This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” The Holy Spirit is revealed as the dove descending on the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son, who is in the flesh. So this is obviously an extremely important event in the life of our Lord and therefore an important event for all of us.

A huge thank you to everyone who assisted with our Advent and Christmas liturgies. A very blessed Christmas to all of you and your loved ones. Thank you to our Worship Committee, and the Art & Environment ministry, headed up by Marla Brown, for your wonderful work for Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas. Also, thank you to all our music ministers and choirs. Your music and song lifted all our hearts most fittingly to God. Thank you to our Ushers and Greeters, Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers and Altar Servers for your fine service to the parish as always. I’m also very grateful to our parish staff for their dedicated service and going above and beyond, especially during these high holy days of the year.

Welcome to Fr. Rick Thompson. He is a retired priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh living at the retreat center in what was the Girl Scout Camp Elliott in Volant. It is now called Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and there is a youth ministry retreat center there known as Dry Bones Ministry. Fr. Joe Freedy is part of that organization.

Blessed and joyous Gaudete Sunday! We are encouraged to rejoice in the Lord. Too often we focus on the burdens and difficulties of life, so that we fail to see the constant outpouring of God’s generous love and mercy. Our very life itself is a gift. It is the wonder of it all born in humility that makes true joy possible.

There are truly diabolical forces assaulting our world and our church. One only has to listen to the evening news to realize the evil that seems to be building on a daily basis in our country and in our world. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ took the devil very seriously. In fact, his life on earth was a tremendous battle between himself and the evil one. We know that He ultimately has won the battle. He has destroyed the power of Satan. But we must embrace Christ and the salvation He offers us. Satan still wages war against us. He is powerful, insidious, and unrelenting. We have to take the devil seriously. He is most powerful when he is denied. This is when the devil dupes us the most.

What will people say when you or I die? We have buried over 300 of our parishioners since last September. We remembered all of them in a special Mass last Tuesday evening, November 2nd, on the Feast of All Souls. May their passing not be in vain. May it cause all of us to take a moment to face our own deaths. We are all going to die, some sooner than others. But thinking of our death can make each day of our life more meaningful and precious.

To learn about our feasibility study, copy the code on the left to your cell phone for my video message about where we are going from here. The video is also available on the homepage at hsplc.org and on our YouTube channel at: https://bit.ly/macmessages1