Dear Fellow Parishioners, As we gather to celebrate Mothers’ Day Week, we bless the gift mothers are to their family and recognize the gift they are to our community. For many of us it is our mothers who pass on the faith and encourage the whole family to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ and our Catholic Community. Their encouragement and enthusiasm in passing on the gift of faith is rooted in the example of the women who followed Jesus and became the Holy Women who have given us the example of what it means to “choose the better part!” (Lk 10:42) The seeds of faith have been planted, are you willing to let them grow? Do you have a desire to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ and the community? As we prepare to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, I am inviting you to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in your own spiritual journey. The tradition of praying to the Holy Spirit Novena is to pray 9 days until Pentecost (The Friday after the Ascension which this year is May 10th-May 19.) But you can begin at any time. Here are two links to the Novena: https://www.paulist.org/app/uploads/2019/04/Paulist-Fathers-Novena-to-the-Holy-Spirit-print-version.pdf http://catholictradition.org/Tradition/holy-spirit.htm On Pentecost Sunday, as a parish community we will begin asking the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our community in the process of deepening our relationship to each other and to Jesus Christ by praying to the Holy Spirit following communion each week. We will also be praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirt for all those who will be gathering in Rome with Pope Francis in the month of October, discussing the future of our Catholic Faith. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Let us pray. O God, who have taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. Happy Mothers’ Day Week! Fr. Bill P.S. Next Sunday, May 19th is Pentecost Sunday – Remember – WEAR RED!