Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, June 3, 2020 -- SEVEN
Spiritually Speaking
Come Holy Spirit: renew the face of the earth
By Fr. Thankachan Joseph SDB, St. Patrick Church
The Church celebrated the solemnity of Pentecost on
Sunday. Originally, Pentecost was a Jewish feast celebrat-
ed on the 50 th day after the Passover feast. By Christians,
it is a feast celebrated on the seventh Sunday after Easter,
celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples
of Jesus after his ascension into Heaven.
The Pentecost and the Happenings: The Pentecost
ranks among the greatest feasts of Christianity along
with Christmas and Easter. It is considered the birthday
of the mother Church. The Jewish Pentecost was actually
a post-harvest thanksgiving celebration. That was the
reason lots of people gathered in Jerusalem to thank the
deities for the wonderful harvest they had had. Scripture
describes that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit
descended on the apostles and the Blessed Mother as fiery
tongues. This transformed them into fiery preachers in
their own way. All those who listened to the apostles on
that day of Pentecost experienced a fresh anointing of the
Holy Spirit through the preaching of St. Peter. The early
Christians became powerful witnesses and brave martyrs
for their faith in Christ.
The Transformation on Pentecost: The Acts of the
Apostles and the last chapters of the Gospels describe the
apostles and their locked-down experiences and feelings.
“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the
doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the
Jews” (John 20: 19). Though clearly mentioned as timid,
frightened, or fearful, the disciples were transformed into
powerful speakers, as the Acts of the Apostles describes:
“Peter stood up with the other eleven apostles and in a loud
voice began to speak to the crowd” (Acts. 2:14). What
we notice is that timidity was transformed into boldness,
and indecisions were transformed into persuasions. This
is what happened on the day of first Pentecost. Now when
we take part in the Pentecost of 2020, we need to pray
to the Spirit of the Lord to come down upon our world
and also transform us, who are going through the same
lock-down experiences of the apostles of Jesus during
the first Pentecost.
The whole universe is at present in the clutches of
this pandemic called COVID-19, which has created some
fear, disappointments, anxiety, distress, nervousness, and
Marriage Licenses
The Morrow County
Clerk’s office has released
the following report of
marriage licenses:
May 20, 2020: - Bryon
Lewis Gray, 40, Luna, NM,
and Jonna Lanell Edwards,
39, Eagar, AZ.
May 28, 2020: - Ale-
jandro Montalvo Guzman,
29, Pasco, WA, and Marcela
Hernandez Morales, 31,
Umatilla.
Avery Michael-Eugene
Thompson, 25, Irrigon, and
Carolyn Grace Gunter, 21,
Irrigon.
Lexington Burn Ban
The Fire Chief of the Town
of Lexington is imposing a
closed season for open
burning effective
Monday, June 15, 2020
until further notice.
The burning ban is for the Town of
Lexington and includes all burn
barrels and open burning.
Effective June 15, 2020, the
Fire Chief of the City of
Heppner is imposing a
BURN BAN.
This also includes
Burn Barrels.
Residents can request Natural Vegetation and
Debris Piles be burned by the
Fire Department at this time.
Sign up list for Fire Department burning
assistance is at Heppner City Hall or call
Fire Chief Steve Rhea @ 541-980-4232 or
Assistant Fire Chief Eric Chick @ 541-701-4910
The closed season will remain in effect
until further notice this fall as per ORS 478.960.
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depression, misery, melancholy. The COVID-19 tries to
put us into the realm of “fear zone.” In the fear zone we
did lots of things, thinking that a scarcity was going to
happen. So, we began to grab things for ourselves. We
grabbed food items, toiletries, medications etc., even more
than we actually needed, which sometimes increased the
feelings of panic and fear and led some persons to that
realm of giving up, brokenness etc.,
The Fruits and Gifts of the Holy Spirit: In St. Paul’s
letter to the Galatians, he makes clear the difference be-
tween persons who are led by the human spirit and those
who are led by the Spirit of God. He urges Christians to
be always under the Spirit of the Lord. When we live by
the Spirit of God, the qualities of that spirit will be visible
in us. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are “love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. There is no law against such things.
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires” (5:22-24). When
we possess the gifts of the Holy Spirit, it automatically
changes us into a new being/creation. The Holy Spirit in
us helps us move from fear to freedom, from timidity to
power, from victim to victor, from silence to proclama-
tion, from being individuals to being community, from
division to reconciliation. When the Holy Spirit comes
to take possession of us, we possess the gifts of the Lord
that actually help us renew the world around us. In the
first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul speaks about these
gifts of the Holy Spirit:
1) Wisdom: Wisdom helps us to not get upset over lit-
tle problems, not to put too much stock in passing events.
We need the gift of wisdom to remember that people are
more important than things and that God’s love is more
than everything else.
2) Understanding: A person who is understanding,
accepts others just as they are and cares for the people
no one else notices. Those who understand us know our
faults and imperfections as well as our strengths and good
qualities. Such people are always ready to encourage and
challenge us, and always ready to forgive us and give us
a second chance.
3) Knowledge: The ability to know is a gift from
God; the development of this gift is our responsibility.
Developing the gift of knowledge is what education is
all about. It is important to remember, also, that human
knowledge can be used for bad ends as well as good.
4) Right Judgment: Our greatest gift as human beings
is the gift of freedom, the gift to decide for ourselves
what we will make of our lives, the ability to make good
and wise decisions. Right judgment also helps us to learn
from our mistakes and to correct the problems caused by
our bad decisions.
5) Courage: Courage is the strength to do the right
thing in spite of the obstacles and difficulties that make
it hard to do so. The gift of courage gives us the strength
and stamina we need to keep on trying, day after day, to
be the kind of Christian people we want to be.
6) Reverence: The Holy Spirit’s gift of reverence,
a deep respect for God and others and all of creation.
Reverence helps us to see the true value of every person
and of all created things.
7) Wonder and Awe in God’s Presence: Wonder and
awe in God’s presence is the gift by which we are given
a sense of who God really is and who we are as creatures
of God. What I understand by this gift is that this same
God lives in my heart, listens to my daily prayers, cares
about my tiny worries, and loves me in all my specialness
and in all my weakness.
We need to have persons with these seven gifts of
the Holy Spirit to change the world. The world stands
in need of some sort of revamp as this juncture of the
pandemic and the socio-economic realm is creating a
huge crisis. Each person needs to come out of himself/
herself for others, as agents of peace, joy, and tranquility.
Someone who possesses these gifts and the fruits of the
Holy Spirit can really be an agent of change. The Spirit
will automatically prompt him/her to be the agents of al-
teration in their surroundings and from there to the world
at large. Let our prayer be Come Holy Spirit: Renew the
Face of the Earth.
Morrow County requests move to phase
two reopening
Morrow County Com-
missioners sent a letter to
Governor Kate Brown on
June 1 requesting permis-
sion to enter phase two
reopening on June 5. As
described in “A Safe and
Strong Oregon” executive
order, the county is pre-
pared to move into phase
two after a successful 21
days for phase one.
According to the let-
ter sent to the governor,
Morrow County attested
to the requirements which
include, first responders
having sufficient Person-
al Protective Equipment
(PPE); currently having
only 13 known cases of
COVID-19 and successful-
ly tracing all contacts for all
cases; having nine contact
tracers, including two who
are bilingual, in excess of
the OHA recommendations
based on the population of
Morrow County; and has
made no substantive chang-
es to responses submitted in
the phase one application.
Morrow County has
been successful in follow-
Heppner slightly warmer
in May
According to prelim-
inary data received by
NOAA’s National Weather
Service in Pendleton, tem-
peratures at Heppner aver-
aged slightly warmer than
normal during the month
of May.
The average tempera-
ture was 56.9 degrees which
was 0.8 degrees above nor-
mal. High temperatures av-
eraged 69.0 degrees, which
was 0.3 degrees above nor-
mal. The highest was 88
degrees on the 30 th . Low
temperatures averaged 44.8
degrees, which was 1.2
degrees above normal. The
lowest was 35 degrees, on
the 4 th .
Precipitation totaled
2.48 inches during May,
which was 0.82 inches
above normal. Measurable
precipitation, at least .01
inch, was received on 14
days with the heaviest, 0.59
inches reported on the 19 th .
Precipitation this year
has reached 5.99 inches,
which is 1.29 inches below
normal. Since October, the
water year precipitation
at Heppner has been 7.37
inches, which is 3.97 inches
below normal.
ing the protocols and guid-
ance of OHA and the CDC
to keep positive cases to a
minimum, reporting only
one new case in more than
21 days. The most recent
case was acquired out of
state by exposure on the
job. This successfully meets
the less than five percent
increase threshold.
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The outlook for June
from NOAA’s Climate Pre-
diction Center calls for
near normal temperatures
and near to above normal
precipitation. Normal highs
for Heppner rise from 73.0
degrees at the start of June
to 81.0 degrees at the end
of June. Normal lows rise
from 47.0 degrees to 51.0
degrees. The 30-year nor-
mal precipitation is 1.38
inches.
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