My Dear Friends,
As we gather together this weekend to celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on our Blessed Mother and the apostles, we contemplate the “mighty wind” that came through the Upper Room and changed the lives of those first Christians. The Holy Spirit always brings change. It moved the apostles from prayer to action on Pentecost morning as they set out to preach the gospel to every nation. The Spirit also takes us out of our comfort zone and challenges us to strive for holiness.
In the life of a priest, the Holy Spirit is constantly moving us to where Holy Mother Church needs us most. This is why priests make a promise of obedience to their bishop not once, but twice at both their diaconate and priestly ordinations. Last week, when Archbishop Wenski ordained four new priests for the Archdiocese of Miami, he told them during the homily: “You promise obedience to your bishop. In a real way, this promise gives you the freedom to be truly a man for others; this promise allows you to enter into God’s will, into God’s plan, and witness that what you believe, teach, or speak you do so in communion with the entire Catholic and apostolic Church (5/11/24).” Obedience allows us to detach ourselves from earthly realities, from comfort, from complacency, and frees us to follow that mighty wind of the Holy Spirit that leads us to where He wants us to go.
A few weeks ago, Father Andrew received a call from Archbishop Wenski assigning him as the new administrator of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Coral Springs. It is a well-deserved honor that Father Andrew has been entrusted with a parish to lead and to bring Christ and his salvific message to the good people of Northwest Broward. The parishioners of Little Flower have always been good to our young priests, and he takes with him a wealth of experiences from his two years of ministry with us that he will no doubt put to good use in this new assignment.
So who will be our new parochial vicar? We have been blessed that Archbishop Wenski is sending us one of the newly ordained priests: Father David Zallocco. As a parish we have a long history of welcoming priests fresh off their ordination. Our two most recent ones were Father Luis Flores and Father Phillip Tran who are still beloved in this community. Father David was born in the small town of Sant’Elpidio a Mare in Italy. I invite you to go to the archdiocesan website (miamiarch.org) to read his biography and see the wonderful video he recorded describing his vocational journey. Both Father Andrew and Father David begin their new assignments on Monday, June 17th.
We call upon the Holy Spirit to bless Father Andrew in his new mission and to anoint Father David as he comes to us to begin his priestly ministry. As priests, we rely on the Holy Spirit to move us in our prayer life, to inspire us in our preaching, and to console us at the end of long days of ministry that, while they may be difficult, they bring us joy because we know we have given our all to the Lord and to his Kingdom. I ask you to pray for all priests especially our newly ordained ones and to continue to pray daily for vocations. Father David is coming here because you have been praying for him long before he even decided to enter seminary. The Spirit has heard our prayers, and we get to see the fruits of a new priest bringing us the newness and joy of the gospel. Come, Holy Spirit! Inspire and bless your priests! And bless all of us with open hearts to receive you and be moved to set the world on fire with the Word of God.
God bless you all,
