This being my final bulletin article as your pastor, I want to thank all of you for working with me to accomplish many great things for God in my years serving you. We have begun a number of wonderful ministries for the glory of God and the benefit of the people of the parish. I have been enriched working with so many of you in bringing these ministries to you and I thank you for your faith, energy, trust and love in following the lead of the Holy Spirit.

I take this opportunity to formally welcome three visitors for the summer, each of whom will be serving you over these next few months. Fr. Augustine Twum-Obour is a priest of the Diocese of Sunyani, Ghana who was ordained in 1991 and will be with us until September. He is a pastor back home in Ghana who is spending some time in New York to relax while he serves us. He will be living at St. Lawrence and most of the time will be serving there. Fr. Augustine Adjei-Boachie is also from Ghana from the Diocese of Goaso.

We conclude our reflection on the fruits of the Holy Spirit today by looking at self-control and chastity. These two fruits share some common aspects in that they both temperance and purity of heart and intentions.

We continue our look at the Fruits of the Holy Spirit by studying faithfulness and modesty. These two fruits speak to a steadiness of life when one allows the Holy Spirit to guide the soul to fidelity to the Word of God, the commands of Christ and the demands of the covenant as well as to simplicity, humility and purity.

The next fruits of the Holy Spirit that we look at are generosity and gentleness. These two fruits are very typical of a person whose heart is aflame with the Holy Spirit and who allows the blessings of giving to others and honoring others to enfold the soul.

Today we will look at two more fruits of the Holy Spirit: kindness and goodness. As with all the fruits of the Holy Spirit, these two fruits grow from the infusion of the Holy Spirit into the soul that comes to us both through sacraments of the Church, especially Baptism and Confirmation. As we submit to the promptings and guiding hand of the Holy Spirit, these fruits manifest themselves.

Today we continue our study of the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit. We already looked at the first two of them, charity and joy, two weeks ago and today we continue with the fruits of peace and patience.

I share with you part of a message from Sr. Lucy Marie of the Sisters of Life on this feast of Pentecost. May the Holy Spirit guide us with the wisdom, truth and courage to do the will of God!

Dear Friends,

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Charity is also called love and as a fruit of the Holy Spirit it perfects the ability of the disciple to act with the heart of Christ and to express in deed the love that resides in the heart according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in truth. It brings about the unselfish, other-centered way of life that makes a disciple donate themselves for the good of all. In the passage on the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5, the word love derives from the Greek word agape.

Last week I shared with you some short prayers connected with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Developing the understanding and meaning of the precious gift of the Holy Spirit given to use in baptism and sealed in us at confirmation, I begin a reflection today on the twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory.