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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.

AUGUST! Can you believe it’s already August? And we are STILL struggling with this coronavirus pandemic! I don’t know what’s worse, the pandemic or the political turmoil as we gear up for a presidential election? One thing is for certain, these are very surreal and challenging days! My sincere gratitude to all of you who are remaining faithful to the Lord and assisting your neighbors. I am particularly grateful to those of you who stepped forward to help serve our parish. This parish of Holy Spirit is extremely important to this community. You provide not only a source of spiritual hope and inspiration, but also many corporal works of mercy from serving thousands of families over these many months through our food pantry, to thousands of phone calls made to all of our registered parishioners as well as the many cards sent to those who are sick or grieving the loss of loved ones, to many sacrifices so many of you have made to support our parish financially and through other in kind donations!

Holy Spirit Parish has 59 parcels of property and 29 buildings! As you know, we have followed all the regulations and guidelines to divest ourselves of St. Lawrence site and property given the unusable state of St. Lawrence Church. The church was not able to be used for the past four years. With our council’s approval and the approval of the bishop, the property has been sold to Gary Pezzuolo. Gary is a lifelong member of the parish and lives in Hillsville. We are very grateful to Gary for all his assistance in what is a very difficult reality for everyone. Of course, all the sacraments celebrated there live on in the lives of everyone touched by God on those premises. We are very sensitive to the fact that all our properties, especially our churches, have significant meaning in the lives of our people. We do not take this lightly.

It is hard to believe that we are already in the middle of the month of July! I know that we, as a parish, are very excited about the newly established Holy Spirit Academy and our prospects for this coming school year. Here is an update from our principal, Ed Sharbaugh, regarding Holy Spirit Academy.

Congratulations to our First Holy Communion children as we begin to celebrate this wondrous sacrament with them this month. Because of the Covid-19 restrictions, we have to celebrate several First Holy Communions and are not able to do large classes as we have in the past. A huge thank you to our catechists and parents for their tremendous service to the children in preparing them for a sacrament. And for their cooperation in accommodating the schedule brought on by the virus. Watch the bulletin and the website for photographs from these various ceremonies.

A blessed 4th of July weekend to all of you. We certainly give thanks to God for our nation and we know this is a time we need to pray even more fervently for the future and well-being of our country. This country which was  established on Judeo-Christian values has fallen far from that foundation. We are reaping the fruits of such a departure. Our return to those Judeo-Christian values is imperative now more than ever! Please join me in praying for our return to God and our return to religious freedom, a return to family-values and a respect for human life at all  levels and among all people.  

This is a glorious weekend for us at Holy Spirit Parish. Deacon Matthew Hawkins was ordained Fr. Matthew Hawkins on Saturday, June 27th, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Pittsburgh by Bishop Zubik. We look forward to his return to celebrate his first Mass with us on Sunday, July 5th, 2:00 p.m. at St. Vitus. Seating will be extremely limited due to coronavirus restrictions. Everyone who attends will have to wear a mask and sign in as part of the Diocese required protocol.

A blessed Father’s Day to all the men of the parish. A great deal of the conflict and unrest in our society, and particularly our country, can be traced back to broken homes and broken hearts. Many of those whom I encountered in my years at YDC as juveniles in trouble had poor father figures or no father figures in their lives. Not to have a relationship with a good father and mother sets a young person up for a very troubled, and often times tragic, life! In all of the solutions proposed by politicians and others regarding the unrest in our country, none of them seem brave enough to mention the obvious—the disintegration of family!

On Saturday, June 27, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Oakland, our own deacon, Matthew Hawkins, will be ordained a priest for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Finally, the opportunity to celebrate Mass with you publicly! What a glorious weekend this is in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and particularly in Holy Spirit Parish. On this Holy Trinity Sunday when we reflect on the self-revelation of God, one God in three divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we are encouraged to be united in faith and love. As there is a divine unity within God Himself, so may there be unity among His people!

A glorious and happy feast day to all of you Holy Spirit parishioners on this day of Pentecost! This is our parish feast since it is the day the Holy Spirit descended on the Blessed Mother and the Apostles. It is the birthday of the Church and the birthday of our parish, named in honor of the Holy Spirit. May our patron, the Holy Spirit, fill your minds and hearts with the love of God and the peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

Given the bulletin deadlines, unfortunately, I can’t give you an update on what we are doing. The pastoral staff is meeting this Tuesday and the Finance and Pastoral Councils will be meeting Tuesday evening to discuss our plan for reopening the parish based on the Bishop’s directives. Unfortunately, because of the bulletin deadline, this has to be in on Tuesday and therefore the update will have to come via live streaming, our website, YouTube, Flocknote, and Facebook. As I dictate this bulletin message, I can tell you that the Bishop has issued a large document with directives regarding how we can proceed with getting back to celebrating the sacraments with all of you. We hope to be able to announce what church building will be available for you to access in order to provide private prayer. You will need to follow the guidelines posted on the doors of the church and also to sanitize the space where you have been praying before you leave. Many people who go to the gym realize that routine. You’re always to sanitize the equipment after you use it as a courtesy to those who will follow you. We hope to have a sanitation product available for you to use. But it will require that you sanitize your spot before you leave. We will have no idea in what part of the church you have been and that will be your responsibility to do that for the sake of the person following you. We thank you for your cooperation. Click on the title for the full message.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” John 14:1   These words of our Savior should bring us great comfort and encouragement. Even in the face of these trying and surreal times, we refuse to be discouraged or depressed. We are a tenacious people of faith. As the bishops and government officials continue to struggle with how to get our community back to normal, we as a parish community also are eagerly preparing on our end. I have presented to the bishop a number of plans that the Finance and Pastoral Councils have suggested for us to begin again to have Mass with all of you. Click on title for full message.

A very blessed Mothers’ Day weekend to all of the women of the parish as we celebrate motherhood and womanhood. We acknowledge those women who have brought forth new life into the world and also those women who nurture new life and eternal life in others. On Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, I am always mindful of those families who have adopted children. This is the powerful example of God, himself, who adopts us, and who was adopted himself! We know that St. Joseph was the foster father of Jesus. There is a beautiful country song, I believe by Randy Travis, entitled And I Will Raise Him Up. It describes a foster father who took a little boy into his care and raised him up as though he were his own child. The song even refers to St. Joseph.

Does it feel like you’re coming out of the tomb of this pandemic? There is light at the end of the tunnel. Every day we get a little closer to emerging from social distancing and getting our lives back to some form of normal. Although we may never be back completely to the way we were. Hopefully, by the grace of God, good things will come from all of this.