……from the Pastor’s Desk Bearing Fruit for God All parables make us ponder what they might mean. Today, Jesus imagines a withering fig tree that has failed to bear fruit for the past three years.The reaction of the owner seems quite normal.That fig tree must be cut down because it is only wasting space in the vineyard. Top 10 Things Catholics BelieveWed.…

……from the Pastor’s Desk SPRING CLEANING This Thursday, March 20th, is the first day of spring. Perhaps it is time we all did a little ‘Spring Cleaning.’ So many of us have accumulated much more than we need. It bursts from our closets, overflows our shelves and clutters our lives to the point we even rent storage areas. Lent might be a…

……from the Pastor’s Desk Hello Friends,I was looking through the ‘Archives’ for an idea as to what to write in this ‘Pastor’s Desk’. I found this from three years ago. Strikingly poignant, it is. With the health issues of our beloved Pope Francis, the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the Yemeni Civil War, the Israeli-Gaza-Border Conflict, the Afghan Conflict, the Ethiopian Civil…

……from the Pastor’s Desk “Where have all the Flowers gone?” You’ve heard me say that Lent was not my favorite time of the year. I am, by nature, a jovial person. I love to laugh and smile, to joke and jest. So, as a lad in the 1950’s these did not go well with the Season as it was then observed. Through…

……from the Pastor’s Desk 2025 Lenten Schedule for Holy Spirit Parish Ash Wednesday March 5th Masses: 9am Mass and 6:30pm Mass. Daily Mass during Lent: Monday – Friday 9am. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament [Holy Hour] – 2 p.m. every Friday (Except Good Friday, April 18th) Stations of the Cross – every Friday [except Good Friday] at 3pm in church. April 11th…

……from the Pastor’s Desk The Four Beatitudes and the Four Woes Huh? Well, we are most familiar with the Eight Beatitudes that we hear in the Gospel of Mathew. But today we have Luke’s version.Why the difference? Read on. When spoken from the mountaintop in Matthew’s Gospel, we can’t miss the impression that Jesus is speaking with the authority and voice of…

……from the Pastor’s Desk To Raise the World The First Reading is about the call of Isaiah: “Whom shall I send?” The next two readings are about the apostles, those who were sent by Jesus to carry his message and carry on his work. Who are Jesus’ apostles in our world? Whom will God send today? When God wants to send a…

……from the Pastor’s Desk The Story of ‘Children’s Bread’ If you’ve been to the 10:30 mass here before, you’ve noticed that we do something special right after it. It is ‘Children’s Bread’. A few of you know the origins of this custom, and a few more have asked me to tell ‘the story’. So, here it goes. Back in the 1990’s one…

……from the Pastor’s Desk Here is The Golden Rule as it is written in eight religions: Baha’i: Blessed are those who prefer others before themselves.Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.Christianity: In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.Islam: No one is a believer…

……from the Pastor’s Desk John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Junior. To some of us reading this, these names bring back memories of personal experiences during the turbulent times of the sixties and seventies; the start of the Civil Rights Movement, the Catholic Worker Houses and the beginning of the changes that are still in process today to make this…