Sacred Heart in Milford celebrates Pentecost, Stigmatines

By Father Richard Scioli
and Amy Donahue

MILFORD – “Go forth and teach all nations.”
This phrase, taken from the last page of Matthew’s Gospel, became the centerpiece Sunday at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish. The parish celebrated both Pentecost and its heritage of being staffed by the Stigmatine Congregation, which uses this phrase as its motto. The Stigmatines, founded by St. Gasper Bertoni in 1816, have staffed Sacred Heart since 1913.
The celebration was the culmination of a Pentecost novena, prayed at morning Mass the previous nine days, asking the Holy Spirit to renew the Church and the world.
The liturgy on Sunday emphasized the missionary spirit of the Church. As part of the entrance procession, members of the first Communion and confirmation classes and their families carried flags of the 15 countries in which the Stigmatine Congregation currently ministers – in schools, parishes, retreat centers and refugee camps. The flags were placed in a horseshoe formation around the tabernacle.
“It was breathtaking to see the families carrying the flags of such diverse nations into the church,” remarked Laura Bon Tempo, one of the parishioners. “It was a wonderful reminder that the work of the disciples, which began on Pentecost, has reached every corner of the globe. It reminds us that, although separated by different languages and cultures, we are all one Church in Christ.”
In his homily Father Richard Scioli, the pastor, observed that the call to missionary work, instituted by Christ and carried on by his Stigmatine Congregation, is not reserved to the clergy. It is the calling of all the baptized faithful. Pentecost, he noted, should not only be commemorated as the beginning of the Church’s missionary work, but also should be used as an opportunity for the faithful to reflect on how we can all live out Jesus’ command to spread his Gospel message, starting in our own communities.
The liturgy ended with the joyous strains of “The Church’s One Foundation,” as the families joined the recessional, carrying the flags out of the church.
All present were again reminded of the great work begun in Christ’s name on that first Pentecost and continued by the Church throughout the world today: “Go forth and teach all nations.”