Pentecost! Holy Spirit, Let The Fire Fall

This Sunday, May 23 is Pentecost Sunday. It is the feast that celebrates the coming of the Spirit on the followers of Jesus’ Way in Jerusalem. This community was in hiding. It was living in an environment of fear. Yet it gathered and prayed together. It found hope in the shared experiences of seeing the Risen Christ. These men and women trusted in the promise that they would not be left orphans. They awaited anxiously to see what would happen next.

Chapter Two of the Book of Acts tells us what did happen:

When  Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.

Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered  to hear these men speaking his own language. They were amazed and astonished. (Acts 2:1 - 7 New Jerusalem Bible)

What a marvelous scene follows. The devout men hear the same men speaking and yet hear the message in their own language. They search for an explanation and even suggest that the speakers are drunk!

Peter, strengthened and emboldened by his experience of the Holy Spirit, reminds them all of the Jesus who walked among them and did the miracles and portents and signs that God used to commend Jesus to them. Peter concludes in his response to the questioners that Jesus “… has received  from the Father the Holy Spirit, who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit”(Acts 2:33-34).

At St. Maurice this is the time that we celebrate the working of the Spirit in us through our liturgy. We are commissioned to serve. We celebrate the Spirit’s movement as wind and fire in us and in the world around us today through our ministries. We celebrate the flames of love that lead us to respond to those whom we serve as they and we are.  In our ministries  we  meet Jesus walking among us because what we ”see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit” (Acts 2:33-34).

The word for wind in Acts has the meaning of wind and breath. God sends the Spirit, his wind to awaken us and shake us and open us. He calls us to service of the other. And in the service of that other we feel His Spirit, his breath, on our face. He creates us anew!

Come Holy Spirit, Let the Fire Fall!

40 YEARS OF JOY

Thank you for Sharing in the…
St. Maurice 40th Anniversary
Dinner Dance
Friday, June 11, 2010
Doors open 6:30pm
Special Anniversary Dinner – Surf and Turf
(Filet Mignon/Lobster Tail)
$20.00 per person – $10.00 12-18 yrs
Music by Joe Roppo~Cash bar~Limited seating

Tickets for this event can be purchased on the deck after all the Masses or in the Parish Office.

Don’t MISS — SUNDAY June 13 at 10:00 AM come and celebrate with us a Special Mass and then a PICNIC — fun, games and music! Join Us!

History of St. Maurice

Way back in 1969, there was a piece of property in Broward County that was known as “Smith’s Stables”. The owner had a barn where he kept a number of horses, a shop for his machines, a home with a swimming pool for his family, and a very large open field for the horses to roam. He sold all that to the Archdiocese of Miami on April 30, 1969 for $151, 763.

On June 12, 1970, Archbishop Coleman Carroll decided to use that property and established the parish of St. Maurice and asked Father David Russell to be the first pastor. Soon after, the new pastor and the people came together and worked very hard in transforming that stable into a church, the shop into a chapel, and Mr. Smith’s home into a rectory.

Father Russell was a dynamic preacher and people came from all parts of the county in order to become members of a community of faith that was filled with joy. In the month of November of that year, this new parish held its first Country Fair to raise funds to support its different ministries.

1974 was a sad time for the parish when Father Russell was transferred to another parish in Dade County. The new pastor was Father Frederick Brice. He was here for only a short time and was reassigned to another parish in 1975.

In January 1976, St. Maurice welcomed Father Sean Mulcahy as its next pastor and were blessed by his leadership for the next 22 years. Father Sean continued the tradition of the Country Fair and used the profits to support the construction of a new baptismal font, a new social hall, an education building, and to support the Hunger Program which he created to feed hungry people throughout the world. Many wonderful things happened in those 22 years.

1998 was once more a sad time for the parish when Father Sean left. In October 1998, Archbishop Favalora appointed Father Joseph Cinesi as the new pastor and during the short time he was here he remodeled the rectory and made some other improvements. He left towards the end of 1999 and Archbishop Favalora appointed Father Roger Holoubek as the next pastor on January 08, 2000. For the next nine years, the people of St. Maurice did some remarkable things. They created a new early childhood education center for small children and renovated the chapel, the restrooms, and made many other improvements. They initiated a Mass in Spanish and developed many programs and ministries for Hispanics. They created a new parish website that is probably one of the best in the Archdiocese and promoted the pastoral care to the grieving and the sick. After reading the U. S. bishops pastoral letter “Communities of Salt and Light”, the pastor came to the belief that justice was an essential part of parish life and introduced different social ministry programs like JustFaith, JustMatters, and BoldJustice.

Because of the downturn in the national economy, in 2009 Archbishop Favalora announced a restructuring plan for a number of parishes in the Archdiocese. Part of that plan was the merging of Resurrection Parish in Dania Beach with St. Maurice Parish. On October 01, 2009, the people of St. Maurice while sharing the sadness of the people of Resurrection Parish, nonetheless joyfully welcomed these good people. It was a great loss for the people of Resurrection parish but those who came to St. Maurice have enriched this parish community with their faith and love.

So that is a brief history of our parish family from 1969 to 2009. Our future? Only God knows that. One thing is for sure, however —- we have a rich  history and have been blessed by God so many times with wonderful people who are alive and loving.

Saint Maurice Church – 2851 Stirling Road – Dania Beach, Florida – (954) 961-7777