A Note From Fr. Bob

September 19, 2021

Dear Friends,

Grace and peace to you all!

Carnival

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support of our annual Parish Carnival!  This year’s Carnival was the most heavily attended carnival in the history of Holy Spirit Parish and possibly in the history of our community of Maryland Heights and Bridgeton.  If you attended the Carnival, you saw a very large crowd on Friday evening and an even larger crowd on Saturday evening.  The weather was perfect both evenings with moderate temperatures, lower humidity, and a nice breeze. On behalf of the parish, I want to extend our gratitude and congratulations to our Carnival Chairs, Bryan and Sue Hercules, and our Co-Chairs, Jay McFarling and Jeff and Shannon Purvis.  Thank you for your leadership and dedication. Thank you to the many volunteers who helped with the set-up, running all the booths, all the behind-the-scenes activities, like the bank, keeping the grounds clean, assisting people in need, ferrying people to and from their cars and the take-down and clean up afterwards.  We estimate that about 200 people helped in some way during the entire event from start to finish.  Amazing!  Thank you to all our sponsors and all who came and enjoyed this great community gathering!

While the Carnival was the largest we have seen, we do not yet have the final income and expense amounts. The final totals will be reported in an upcoming bulletin. Thank you again for all you do to make our parish a great community!  Blessings to all!

Catechetical Sunday

Today is Catechetical Sunday.  On this day at the 11 am Mass we offer a blessing for our Catechists.  Here is how we will begin this blessing. “For the pastoral activity of the Church, the cooperation of a great many people is needed, so that communities as well as individuals may advance to full maturity in faith and continually show forth their faith through the celebration of the liturgy, through study, and through their manner of life.”

This cooperation is provided by those who devote themselves to catechesis. Enlightened by God’s Word and the teaching of the Church, catechists impart to others an initiation or a deeper formation in those realities that they themselves have learned as truths to be followed in living and to be celebrated in liturgy.”

In this celebration we will bless the name of the Lord for giving us such co-workers and pray that through the Holy Spirit they will receive the grace they need in their service to the Church.”

Catechists serve in our School, Parish School of Religion, and our RCIA program.  They are your friends and neighbors, people like you and me called to share the faith.  Thank you to all our Catechists! May God bless you in your ministry.

Welcome to Mary Saputo

This week we welcomed to our Parish Staff, Mary Saputo, who has taken on the position of Parish Administrative Assistant.  I invite to stop in and say hello.  Mary is a member of St. John Bosco Parish and is eager to get to know all of our parish family.  Welcome, Mary!

Let’s pray for each other this week.

Peace,

Father Bob