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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.

I don’t know about you but I am ready to be done with this coronavirus distancing stuff! I imagine that most of you who are reading this are also fed up with our new normal. On this third Sunday of Easter, we are invited to consider how fed up the disciples may have been on the road to Emmaus. It’s not so much the road to Emmaus as it is the road away from Jerusalem! They were fed up; they were discouraged; they were bewildered and they were walking away from Jerusalem. Their hopes were shattered and they could not understand how good would come from the crucifixion of the one they thought was going to be their Savior and Messiah.

A very blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to all of you. We particularly wish to extend our sympathy and love to those who have passed during these days of isolation. Special Masses were celebrated and live streamed having contacted the families of the deceased and expressing our extreme sympathy and prayers. We have offered live streaming Masses for all of these parishioners who died from March 15 to April 13: Martin Shish, 3/15; Frank J. Masucci, Jr., 3/17; Filomena Buccirelli, 3/18; Agnes L. Clark, 3/18; Susan M. Jordan, 3/19; Robert L. Brown, 3/20; Joseph S. Kulnis, 3/24; Lily A. Blashak, 3/27; Eugene Frank, 3/27; Ennio Strizzi, 3/28; Ann M. Micaletti, 3/29; David C. Pastore, 3/30; Norma Jean Fiorito, 3/30; Pasquale Anthony Piccirillo, 4/2; Ralph A. Russo, 4/02; Mary Therese Sovesky, 4/3; Clara M. Coyne, 4/03; Charles Masters, Jr. 4/3; John J. Chmura, 4/4; Patricia Ann Clobus, 4/4; Joseph V. Bullano, Jr., 4/4; Julia Florence Bovo, 4/7; and Vincie D. Greco, 4/8.

A very blessed Easter to all of you during these surreal times! Christ has risen; He has indeed risen! We, too, will rise from the torments of this coronavirus.

This will be a Palm Sunday and a Holy Week for us all to remember! I’m sure none of us could have imagined in our wildest dreams that we would not be able to gather for the Holy Eucharist or the Sacred Triduum. As you know, things keep changing minute by minute. You can always view any of our liturgies at a different time according to your schedule on our website or on our YouTube channel, Holy Spirit Parish in Lawrence County. There is a special link to YouTube on the home page of our website.

In the face of the reality of Lazarus’ death, Martha and Mary, his sisters, as well as their family and friends were all devastated. Even Jesus Himself wept, identifying with the painful grief of death itself. The Lord could empathize and fully experience, the sufferings we endure with the illness and death of our loved ones or even ourselves. The coronavirus reminds us of the fragility of life and calls us to respect the gift of life and the bonds of love we forge during this life between family and friends.

On this 4th Sunday of Lent, we rejoice. It is often called Laetare Sunday which comes from the Latin word which means “rejoice.” We have a reason to rejoice in our Savior’s love for us. The Gospel of the healing of the blind man gives us hope that Christ will open our eyes to faith that we might see beyond the limits of this material world to what is eternal.

On this 3rd Sunday of Lent, we read the story of the woman at the well. John 4:5-42. This powerful story reminds us that Jesus thirsts for our faith and salvation. God sometimes surprises us in our ordinary lives. This woman, who was an outcast, comes to draw water in the heat of the day not expecting to encounter her Savior. She does not recognize Him until His words melt the hardness of her heart and kindle in her soul a desire for living water, a symbol of eternal life and salvation.

Congratulations to Tom McCosby of T. W. McCosby, LLC , a member of our Pastoral Council who was recently given the Pennsylvania Builders Association’s Builder of the Year award! This award recognizes builders who go above and beyond the call of duty. These are the ones who set the bar for others to emulate. We are very proud of Tom.

Thank you again to everyone who made our first Holy Spirit Mardi Gras celebration an enormous success! As you can see from the photographs, we had a sell-out crowd from the entire area. Thank you to the Mardi Gras Celebration Committee, our building and grounds staff, the dedicated parishioners who served the parish in innumerable ways and our Ambassadors of Hospitality: the largest number of youth ever at a Mardi Gras, those who manned the ticket tables, raffles, auction, the amazing appetizer tables and buffet showing that our parish is truly one.

A huge thank you to everyone who worked so diligently to make our first Holy Spirit Mardi Gras Celebration a great success! As you know Mardi Gras was a celebration started by St. James the Apostle Parish and was very successful for that community. Now that all seven parishes have been joined as one, St. James graciously shared their fundraising celebration of Mardi Gras with all of us, as one parish. Other parishes have done similar things with their own unique traditions and fundraisers. Being one parish now, the Mardi Gras Celebration hosted at the Parish Center at St. Mary’s quadrupled the size of the event. My sincere gratitude to everyone from all the former parishes who participated now in this one parish event of Holy Spirit! It just goes to show that we are much stronger as one than we were as seven different parishes. Some photographs will be in next week’s bulletin.