May 28, 2023 Pentecost Sunday To My Spiritual Family of Holy Redeemer and St. Anthony, The Third Person of the Trinity: Scriptural descriptions of the Holy Spirit are vivid and evocative: wind, fire, and water welling up from within. As we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, we are reminded of our great need for the Spirit and his gifts. What are those gifts? Traditionally, they are listed as: Wisdom, Understanding, Fortitude, Counsel, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. These gifts give vitality and evangelical zeal to the Church as whole, to our own local Catholic community, and to each of us as individuals. The Spirit’s power – received by the apostles on Pentecost – transformed fearful and faltering men into intrepid disciples of Christ who were willing to lay down their lives for the Lord. We desperately need such courage in our Church and in our world today. Please pray for the Spirit to fall anew upon us all. Come, Holy Spirit! Fill us with your gifts! Set our hearts on fire with love! Amen. Welcome Saints of God: I am uber excited that we are hosting St. Manuel Gonzales Garcia and Blessed Carlo Acutis this weekend! Remember that the relics are touring the USA as part of the National Eucharistic Revival. These men were Eucharistic saints for sure. They found their strength and their hope through a burning love for Christ in the Eucharist. Our broken world will not be authentically transformed by activists, by politicians, or by programs. Our world will be transformed by saints! That is the history of the last 2,000 years. Through and with and in the Eucharistic, that will be our legacy too. Corpus Christi, June 11: Our parish has been chosen as a site for one of a series of seven Eucharistic Processions that will be held in the Diocese of Erie on the feast of Corpus Christi (Warren, Erie, DuBois, Mercer, St. Marys, Meadville, and Franklin). Like the visit of the relics, this too is in conjunction with the National Eucharistic Revival. We will begin with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at 2:30 pm. The procession will form at 3:00 pm and we are taking our Eucharistic Lord out onto the streets of Warren (unfortunately, not onto the roundabout ). The route will be long enough to make the presence of Jesus known in the neighborhood, but not so long as to prevent our elderly and infirm from participating. We will go down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Country Fair, turn right onto Prospect, turn right again onto Madison, and then back to the church for benediction. Kids from our local parishes will be serving as candle bearers, cross bearers, and the like. Parents, please bring your children to this and let them “walk with Jesus.” It promises to be a meaningful experience of our Catholic piety. Memorial Day Cemetery Mass: Finally, please consider attending the 9:00 am Mass at St. Joseph Cemetery on Memorial Day, Monday, May 29. St. Joseph Parish is hosting this year, so Fr. Rick will be offering Mass and preaching. If you wish to bring a chair to sit on for the cemetery Mass, you are most welcome to do so. There will be no confessions or Mass at Holy Redeemer, as I will be visiting with my brother in Bradford and visiting the graves of my own parents and relatives. Mary, Mother of the Holy Redeemer – Pray for us! Our Lady of Guadalupe – Pray for us! St. Anthony – Pray for us! St. Joseph – Pray for us! Fr. Steve