Last Sunday’s Solemnity of Pentecost celebrates not only the Holy Spirit’s presence in the lives of the early disciples but also the gifts that the Holy Spirit imparts to them. We think of the traditional seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord. These are gifts that all of us receive in the sacrament of Confirmation. Saint Paul reminds us that each of us receives gifts from the Holy Spirit different from what others receive, just as the “gift” that each part of the body brings to the whole is different from what other parts of the body bring. As members of the Church, the Body of Christ, each of us has a unique set of gifts, talents and abilities that we are called to place at the service of the Church for the spreading of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What are the gifts, the talents, that you are able to offer Holy Cross Parish for the building up of our parish community, so that we are able to fulfill our purpose as a parish? Every one of us has something to offer the parish, including our sick and homebound who can offer a ministry of prayer on behalf of the parish. The rest of us are able to offer whatever particular gifts we have so that the parish can grow, strengthen and flourish in knowing, loving and serving God and neighbor, to which our parish mission statement calls us...
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