“i am the vine, you are the branch- es. whoever remains in
TRANSCRIPT
All Meetings held via “Zoom” unless noted
MONDAY 10 MAY / Acts 16:11-15/Ps 149:1-6, 9/Jn 15:26—16:4
Register for Weekend Mass at Pacelli May 15/16 thru Thursday
8 AM - St. Peter Parish
6:30 PM - Grief Support Meeting
7 PM - Point Catholic Women’s Bible Study, Zoom/Min. Ctr.
TUESDAY 11 MAY / Acts 16:22-34/Ps 138:1-3, 7-8/Jn 16:5-11
8:15 AM - Public/Live Stream MASS (+Irene Skibba) FSB 9:30 AM - Staff Meeting/Prayer 4 PM - Salvation Army Meal Ministry 7 PM - Point Catholic Men’s Bible Study, Zoom/Min. Ctr.
WEDNESDAY 12 MAY / Acts 17:15, 22—18:1/Ps 148:1-2, 11-14/Jn 16:12-15
8:15 AM-Public/Live Stream MASS (+Norbert Guzman) FTM
12 PM - Wild Goose Wednesday Video Series
6 PM - Reconciliation, Ministry Center Library
8 PM - Point Catholic Public Late Night Mass FSB
THURSDAY 13 MAY / Acts 18:1-8/Ps 98:1-4 [cf. 2b]/Jn 16:16-20
8:15 AM - Public/Live Stream MASS (+Mary Ann Powell) FSB
9 AM-3:30 PM - Eucharistic Adoration -3 PM Divine Mercy Chaplet
3 PM - Point Catholic Rosary, Ministry Center
4PM - Point Catholic Campus Ministry Committee Meeting
FRIDAY 14 MAY / Acts 1:15-17, 20-26/Ps 113:1-8/Jn 15:9-17
8:15 AM - Public/Live Stream MASS (+Albert Kubisiak) FSB
6:30PM - Stephen Ministry Training
SATURDAY 15 MAY / Acts 18:23-28/Ps 47:2-3, 8-10/Jn 16:23b-28
9 AM - Stephen Ministry Training
9-10 AM - Reconciliation, Ministry Center Library
7th Sunday of Easter / 15/16 May Acts 1:1-11/Ps 47:2-3, 6-9/Eph 1:17-23 Mk 16:15-20
5 PM - Public MASS (+George Berger) FSB
8 AM- Public/Live Stream MASS (+Marge Ostrowski) FSB 10 AM - Public MASS (+Harold & Alice Smith) FSB
6 PM - Public Mass (+For the people of Holy Spirit Parish) FSB
“I am the vine, you are the branch-es. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit . . . .” John 15:5
Last weekend, young shoots grew into stronger branches on the vine of Christ as the first seven of nine children from our parish gathered ‘round the Table of our Lord to share in the joyful feast. In the presence of Jesus, and many family members, friends and neighbors, we cele-brated a day full of blessing and promise. Let us continue to pray that Ashton and Tanner Eckes, Lyla Fahney,
Mollie Ladick, Miley Melichar, Nallia Murphy, Lucy Skibinski, Daniel Szalkucki and Christian Yarbrough grow green and lush and sturdy in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit and through our love and support. Won’t it be wonderful to see the fruit they bear?
Fr Associate Pastor
Family Life Director [email protected]
Haiti Missions Coordinator [email protected]
, Administrative Coordinator
, Campus Ministry Director
, Finance Director
, Faith Formation Director
Liturgical Music Director
PASTORAL COUNCIL Katy Czerwinski, Bill Fehrenbach, Imelda Horvath, Bob Ostrowski, Paul Peterson, Chet Przybylski, Dave Rosenthal, Nicole Smith, Joanna Slattery, Ginny Williams,
Susan Zach
FINANCE COUNCIL Chairs: John Clifford, Vern Schroth
Joining Our Parish: Fr. Steve would be
glad to talk with you about parish membership.
Send him an email at frtsteve@holyspirit-
stevenspoint.org or call him at 344-9117 to make an
appointment.
Celebrating Baptism: Baptism is cele-
brated at Lord’s Day Mass at various times of the
liturgical year. If you want to raise your child in the
Catholic faith and celebrate your child’s baptism,
please call Fr. Steve for more information. Parents
celebrating the baptism of their first child are asked
to complete a baptism orientation seminar.
Caring for the Sick: If you or a loved one
are seriously ill, homebound or anticipating surgery,
please call Fr. Steve to schedule a visit and/or the
sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.
Campus Ministry: Point Catholic is the
name of Holy Spirit’s outreach to college students
attending UW-Stevens Point and Mid-State Tech-
nical College. You can learn more about campus
ministry at our web site.
Dear Holy Spirit Parish:
“Jesus looked up to heaven and prayed….. may they be one.” (John17:1,11)
In the mysticism of John’s Gospel past, present and future…. res-urrection, ascension and eternal life all blend together. In this sev-enteenth chapter of John, Jesus speaks sometimes as if he is going to leave, and sometimes as if he has already gone. Sometimes he speaks as if he is here with us and sometimes as if he is already in glory with his Father. Throughout, like a song’s refrain, he prays that those who still experience separation from the Fa-ther and from each other will come to experience the unity he and the Father know.
It is not only Jesus who is sounding mystical these last weeks of the Easter sea-son. In visiting with some of our college seniors they sound a lot like Jesus: half here, half already gone. Final exams start next week Monday and gradation is that Saturday. They are still students as they have been the last fourteen or fif-teen years of their life, yet they have grown so much that in many ways they are already the capable hard-working adults they will be for the next 40 or 50 years. Next week at the 10:00am and 6:00pm Masses we will call forward and bless those seniors who have been a part of Point Catholic Ministries. We will pray as did Jesus, that they will know the Father is in them and that they are in the Father. So, may they be one.
The following Sunday, May 23rd is Pentecost. At the time this letter was being written some doubt was cast on whether or not the painting would in fact be finished in time for us to return to the Church that Sunday. The detail painters were not able to start last week as originally anticipated. They will start this coming Monday. I bear some responsibility in that Joel, the project manager said weeks ago “there is a good chance you could be in by May 23.” In my excitement I began to announce it as a sure thing. So please stay tuned as to when we will celebrate the completion of Phase II of our Building Project. It will be the first Sunday we are able to celebrate weekend Masses in the Church again. As much as I look forward to celebrating in a fully renovated Church, all this moving around and uncertainty about location has really made clear that the Holy Com-munion is not location bound but happens where ever “people are one.”
Regardless of whether in the Church or at Pacelli, we will still hold Parish Coun-cil elections that weekend. Please see the list of candidates in this bulletin. If you are not attending Mass in person that weekend just email or call in your votes. We have excellent candidates! Our parish council has really grown close through this last year of tough decisions and uncertainty. Our June meeting last-ed three hours! No , we were not arguing. In fact, we sounded a lot like Christ. We were imagining what Holy Spirit Parish could be. At times we were on earth, at times some place beyond it, and at moments in heaven!! You will hear more about our prayer for Holy Spirit parish, but the heart of it you know: “may they be one.”
Memorial Day weekend, at the 8:00am Mass we will be Commissioning our first group of Stephen Ministers. Their final training session is Saturday the 29th. Seven of us will be commissioned and “sent” to work. Joann Chase and Sherry Boyce will begin interviewing people interested in having a Stephen Minister assist them. More will be shared but there is a good explanation of what Ste-phen Ministers do on the parish website under the “Family Life” Tab.
Through all of our comings and goings… just keep praying: May they be one.
Recognize God in Ordinary Moments
Choosing to Love One Another
Love one another. The greatest commandment, the sim-plest commandment — and if you’ve ever loved anyone, you know it’s also the hardest.
I’m man enough to admit it. I’ve seen one or two of those cheesy Hallmark movies that are especially popular around the holidays. Boy meets Girl. Boy and Girl encounter a cata-strophic roadblock to their relationship — they’re coaches of rival high school volleyball teams, or he runs a dog ken-nel and she works at a feline rescue, so it could never, ever work out, right? But sprinkle a little movie magic over the whole situation and Boy and Girl find what Hallmark tells us is true love.
I could make a list of all the things that are inaccurate about these movies, and something I would put right near the top — maybe even above the sometimes-unbelievable storylines — is the idea that love is a feeling.
See, I’m not sure if it’s accurate to call these movies love stories. Attraction stories, sure. But if you’ve ever forgiven someone who’s hurt you, nursed a dying parent, gotten up for an infant’s night feeding or let your kid have the last piece of cake, you know that real love is a verb. It’s some-thing you do. And it is almost always a choice.
Love one another. How often do we hear this? How often do we think about what it really means? How often do we take a moment to consider the action Jesus is asking us to take and the choice he is asking us to make?
Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS ©LPi
Of time talent and treasure
HOLY SPIRIT PARISH GIVING Week Ending April 30, 2021
Autodrafts & Debit/Credit Cards……….$7,596 Envelopes…………………...……..$5,010 Offertory……………….…...……$157 Total….…………...………$12,763
DIOCESAN ANNUAL APPEAL Goal……………….$123,605
Pledged……$105,090 Balance to Goal…………$18,515
% of Goal Achieved…...85%
Participation Goal……..500 families # of Donors……..394 families
% of Donors Goal Participating…78.8%
PLEDGE TO THE APPEAL ONLINE AT: HTTPS:/DIOLC.ORG/DONATE-ONLINE/
Appeal Testimonial
Why the Diocesan Annual Appeal is NOT “just an-other request for money”
We all receive many requests for donations, but how do we prioritize where our money goes? At our house, we start out with looking at which organizations have the greatest needs.
The Diocesan Annual Appeal supports two categories that stand out for us:
First, there is the Parish Minis-tries Support category. What is that? Part of it provides grants to parishes to meet the financial needs of their schools. One of our favorites is financial need-based tuition assistance to families with children in our catholic schools. Do you know 12% of fami-lies in Portage County live below the poverty level and would qualify for catholic school tuition assistance?
Another category is Charity, Missions and the Wider Church. One of our favorites in this category is St. Law-rence Community Services that provides individually tai-lored assistance with rent, mortgage, food, utilities and financial education. It serves 19 counties right here in Wis-consin. In Portage County alone, about 8,500 persons live below the poverty level.
Please pick a need and make a donation.
Brian & Rita Kozlowski
Point Catholic Rummage Sale
THANK YOU so much to all who made the Point Catholic
Rummage Sale an incredible success! We raised $5,731 in
sales and generous donations! We are well on our way to
sending a big group of students to SEEK this December!
Pastoral Council Election
The following parishioners have been nominated for membership on the Pastoral Council. We are electing 3 new members to serve on our Council.
There are 12 members on the Pastoral Council plus the pastor and the deacon. Each year 3 members are elected by parishioners and one member appointed by the pastor.
A term of office is three years, but a candidate may choose to run for a second term.
Election will take place at all Masses, and via email and phone, the weekend of May 22/23. New members will
be announced the following weekend and begin their term in July.
My name is Steve Bergin. A medical prac-tice opportunity brought my family to the area in 1979. Stevens Point has proven to be a great place, as K.G. Willett used to say, “...to live, work, play and pray”. I’ve prac-ticed medicine as an Obstetrician-Gynecol-ogist until my retirement on June 30, 2020.
My wife, Sue, and I are former members of Newman Univer-sity Parish and are excited to be members of Holy Spirit Par-ish. I’ve been amazed and impressed with the growth and vibrancy of the parish’s local ministries. As a member of the Parish Council, I would work with my counterparts to further advance the mission and vision the parish was founded on.
My name is Jim Haine. I am a retired Profes-sor of Business and Economics from UWSP. My wife Madeleine and I are the parents of a daughter and a son. We have four grandchildren. I was very active in the governance of the Newman Parish, and was Chair of the Pastoral Council. When New-
man merged with St. Stans, I decided to reduce my involve-ment for a while, but would now like to get involved in parish governance again.
My name is Richard Hoffmann. I am a cra-dle Catholic. Much of my education has tak-en place in the Catholic school system from elementary to post graduate work. After attending the seminary for 8 years, I changed my focus and was hired as a Junior High English teacher in Loyal, Wisconsin and
retired after 36 years. I was also a coach there for High School Forensics, One-Act Play and other plays and musicals. I also worked at Renaissance Learning in Wisconsin Rapids for three years. I completed the La Crosse Diocese four year Biblical Study Program. I was the DRE at Christ the King in Spencer and St. John the Baptist in Marshfield. I was also on the RCIA team there as well as at Holy Spirit. I was professed as a Secu-lar Franciscan in 2008 and commissioned a Spiritual Assistant for the Region in 2019 .My first wife died after almost 31 years of marriage. We had one daughter and two grandchildren. I
married JoAnn Chase 8 years ago this June and I have been an active member of Holy Spirit ever since.
My name is Sandy Retzki. I guess I am will-ing to throw my hat in the ring because I am excited about where the parish is head-ing since we combined parishes. With the exception of several years after getting mar-ried and living outside of the Stevens Point area, I've been a part of Holy Spirit Parish
(legacy St Stanislaus) since I've been in 1st grade. I was fortu-nate that my parents gave me a Catholic education and my husband and I were able to do the same for our 2 sons. We were married at St Stan's, our sons received their sacraments at the parish as well. I have been involved as a Lector, Eucha-ristic Minister, Foundation Committee Member, Student Sup-per Coordinator, had a leadership role in the Capital Cam-paign and have been a committee chair for past fundraising events at the Parish. I would be honored to work with the current Pastoral Council in setting the future direction of our vibrant Catholic family.
My name is Joanna Slattery. I grew up in Ashland, WI, attended St. Norbert College, and have been a parishioner here at Holy Spirit since I moved to Stevens Point nine years ago. I work as a high school English teacher in Amherst. Since joining the parish as a freshly minted college graduate, I have
gotten married and started a family. I now have three children (I can hardly believe it myself): two-and-a-half-year-old Josie and six-week-old twins, Francis and William. Josie attends the Pacelli daycare and I am currently on maternity leave with the twins.
For the past three years, I have served on Parish Council as a way to give back to this community. I have worked to support social justice causes as well as be an important voice for young families. For example, I advocated for the addition of the Mothers Room in the new Parish Center, a room that shows our openness to young families. I would love to continue to serve this parish and am excited to see all we can all accom-plish together.
Salvation Army Meal Ministry
For years Holy Spirit Parish has provided dinner every Tuesday evening for our Sal-vation Army neighbors. We are looking for people who would be willing to prepare dinner and drop it off at their door. (Keeping yourself and them safe). If you
are able to help contact. Patty Noel at 341-1473 or [email protected].
“The saints show us that we can praise God always, in good times and in bad, because He is the faithful friend, and his love never fails.
Follow Pope Francis (@pontifex) at www.twitter.com
GIFT CARDS Available at Ministry Center
GIFT CARDS are a winning proposition. Using Gift Cards benefits our parish, our Catholic schools and YOU! — Buy Gift Cards at the Min-istry Center during weekday business hours: Mon.-Thurs. 9 am-3 pm, Fri. 9 am-noon., or at the Pacelli Catholic Schools office.
Fair Trade Sales This Summer
Many of us know about, purchase and love Fair Trade
products. They are products from committed brands and
are better for farmers, better for the environment and bet-ter for ourselves.
Holy Spirit’s Fair Trade Sales Project is organized by Point Catholic students under the leadership of Emily Stani-slawski, our Student Social Justice Coor-dinator. With summer fast approaching we’re looking for volunteers to sell Fair Trade products after Masses monthly over the summer until students return.
If you want to promote social justice, environmental sustainability and fair trading relationships, along with making these products available to our parishioners please contact Emily at [email protected]. It’s not a big commitment - volunteers sell products after whichever Mass they choose to attend on a Fair Trade sale weekend.
Pacelli Shredding Party
Bring your documents to be shredded at this annual community service and fundraising event on Thursday, May 13th between 3 and 6 p.m. at Schulfer & Associ-ates, LLC 1417 Main Street. Shredded Food for sale in-cluding Shredded Chicken Sandwiches, Shredded Cole-slaw, Shoestring Potato Chips and more. The goal is to raise $3,000 towards the Accelerated Reader program promoting reading, literacy and comprehension in our elementary schools.
Elsewhere
HELP SUPPORT SENIORS IN OUR COMMUNITY: The Portage County Nutrition Programs need YOUR HELP to return to 5 days of hot meal delivery in July. Volunteers deliver so much more than a meal - it’s a warm smile, a friendly “Hello” and a check-in.
Routes are available weekdays, take approximately 1 to 1 1/2 hours and are located throughout Portage County.
Please contact Kristi Cooley 715-346-1413 or Tasha Beestman 715-341-0850 by May 15th with questions or to volunteer.
ST ANTHONY RETREAT CENTER OPPORTUNI-TIES: Seeing Yourself (And Others) As the Beloved, a retreat based on St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s reflections Song of Songs, will be presented by Lee Ann Niebuhr, OFS. At the retreat, May 15-16, Lee Ann will help us to recognize ourselved as Beloved of God, and also come to see that all of humanity is God’s Beloved, and God’s will for us is to love God & God’s Beloved in return.
Care For Our Common Home, a retreat presented by Sr. Roselyn Heil, FSPA will be offered May 21-22. What does Earth teach us about the Creator and ourselves? On this sixth anniversary of Laudato Si, gather to delve deeper into the wisdom of Mohter Earth and explore ways we can and do care for our Common Home.
For more information, or to register for either of these retreat opportunities visit www.sarcenter.com or call 715-443-2236.
SEEKING EMPLOYMENT? Are you 55 or older and seeking employment? Low-income seniors may qualify for paid job training opportunities. To learn more, call the Clark County Job Center serving Wood and Portage Counties for this opportunity at 715-743-4631.
Troop 298 Aluminum Can Drive
Holy Spirit Boy Scout Troop 298 will hold an aluminum can drive on Saturday, May 15, from 8:30-10 a.m. in the church parking lot. For home pickup of cans, please call John Strojny at 341-3624.
Transitions of Grace
Baptism: Last weekend we welcomed Maverick and Bo Melichar, children of Cody Melichar and Andrea Vazzano to faith through the waters of baptism.
