Mission Statement
We, the members of the Holy Rosary Parish family, are the living sign of Christ’s Presence, reconciling life, light, hopefulness, and healing within our community. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to realize the full potential of our creative energies to be about the work of God in our commitment to the Lord, each other, the Church and our world.
We are a community sharing responsibility and celebration. We seek to reflect the love of Jesus in such a way that we burn with desire to be at one with Him. We pray that we are open to hear an understand the good news, while we reach out to those who have not heard it.
We come together as one, sharing the Word, the Eucharist, and the Spirit which is our Gift from God.
The plague shown can be found in the foyer of the Church of the Holy Rosary and is a thankful acknowledgement of those who very generously gave to our 2020 Special Fundraiser. A particular thank you to Eric and Ginger DeMarco for their outstanding contributions.
If you are in need of a Mass card, please email the Parish at holyrosary@aol.com.
April: The Month of the Holy Spirit
The month of April is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. To believe in the Holy Spirit is to profess that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father and the Son: “with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church)
The Holy Spirit is the Person of Love in the life of God. He is also like a breath, an aspiration of infinite Love, from which we draw the breath of life.
On the day of Pentecost the Divine Spirit communicated such an abundance of life to the whole Church that to symbolize it “there came a sound from heaven, as of a violent wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they (the Apostles) were sitting.”
But it is also for us that the Holy Spirit has come, for the group in the Cenacle represented the whole Church. The Holy Spirit came to remain with the Church forever. This is the promise of Jesus Himself. He dwells in the Church permanently and unfailingly, performing in it without ceasing His action of life-giving and sanctification. He establishes the Church infallibly in the truth. It is He Who makes the Church blossom forth with a marvelous supernatural fruitfulness, for He brings to life and full fruition in Virgins, Martyrs, and Confessors those heroic virtues which are one of the marks of true sanctity. (The Mysteries of the Rosary, Dom Columba Marmion, O.S.B.)
The Holy Spirit and Our Spiritual Life
Everything depends on the Holy Spirit’s operation in us. The more fully we allow ourselves to be drawn and guided by the Holy Spirit, the closer we shall come to Jesus and His mysteries and graces. The Holy Spirit must draw us to every good thought, word and deed. Every act of faith, of hope and of love for God requires the inspiration and help of the Holy Spirit. If our virtues and our deeds are to be truly perfect and worthy of God, they need the special and continual touch of the Holy Spirit. Even though we are endowed with all the supernatural virtues, we still remain mere apprentices in the spiritual life. We know what we must do; and yet lack the virtue and the faculty to perform these things with ease. The Holy Spirit must guide us. He must seize our intellect and our wills and guide us in prayer, in work, in the decisions we have to make, and in the difficulties we encounter every day. He must share with us His manner of seeing, of loving, of thinking, and of working.
Our works and our conduct will be perfect only when the Holy Spirit has taken complete possession of us. Therefore, in addition to the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, charity, justice, fortitude, temperance and wisdom, He gives us also His seven gifts. Thus He equips the tiny boat of our soul with sails upon which He Himself, the Spirit of God, blows. Our progress across the sea of life is then no longer slow and painful. We are propelled and guided by the Spirit. If the Spirit of God breathes upon the sails of our boat, then our journey will be a happy one. Then through the work and the help of the Holy Spirit, who lives in our soul, we shall come to the Father. (Excerpted from the The Light of the World by Benedict Baur, O.S.B.)
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/overviews/months/04_1.cfm
PRAYERS
Veni, Creator Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit, Creator Blest)
Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest, and in our souls take up Thy rest;
come with Thy grace and heavenly aid to fill the hearts which Thou hast made.
O comforter, to Thee we cry, O heavenly gift of God Most High,
O fount of life and fire of love, and sweet anointing from above.
Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known; Thou, finger of God’s hand we own;
Thou, promise of the Father, Thou Who dost the tongue with power imbue.
Kindle our sense from above, and make our hearts o’erflow with love;
with patience firm and virtue high the weakness of our flesh supply.
Far from us drive the foe we dread, and grant us Thy peace instead;
so shall we not, with Thee for guide, turn from the path of life aside.
Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow the Father and the Son to know;
and Thee, through endless times confessed, of both the eternal Spirit blest.
Now to the Father and the Son, Who rose from death, be glory given,
with Thou, O Holy Comforter, henceforth by all in earth and heaven. Amen.
Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy.
Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy.
Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy.
Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy.
Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy.
Amen. (St. Augustine)
Dear God, we abound in hope by the power of Your Holy Spirit.
Fill us with all joy and peace as we believe in You.
Holy Spirit, empower our lives to produce Your fruit of love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Amen.
