EAST PROVIDENCE — “Pentecost is not over,” assured Blessed Elena Guerra of Lucca, Italy, more than a century ago in a letter to Pope Leo XIII. Today, her inspiring message is as strong as ever for the faithful at Our Lady of Loreto Parish, who share in her charismatic devotion to the Holy Spirit.
On Sunday, the parish Brazilian community welcomed a first-degree relic of Blessed Elena’s body, at an enthronement ceremony during Mass. The venerable relic of the religious sister and foundress of the Oblate Sisters of The Holy Spirit, is a reminder to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.
The relic was donated to the parish by Eduardo and Inés Soares, who received the relic through a raffle in 2005 after visiting the Azures. The couple shared that the relic is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit gives us so much,” said Eduardo. “It always fills our hearts.”
Elena Guerra was born on June 23, 1835 and died in her hometown on April 11, 1914. Pope John XXIII, who beatified Blessed Elena in 1959, referred to her as a modern day “Apostle of the Holy Spirit.”
According to “Voices of Pentecost: Testimonies of Lives Touched by the Saints,” written by Dr. Harold Vinson Synan, Blessed Elena felt passionately that Pentecost was continuous and universal, going on in every time and every place.
“We do not have to envy the apostles and the first believers,” she said in one of the 12 letters she wrote to the pontiff in the early 1900s. “We only have to dispose ourselves like them to receive him well, and he will come to us as he did to them.”
Blessed Elena, who developed a special devotion to the Holy Spirit after becoming a religious sister, felt that the Holy Spirit would bring about unity among the churches and great conversion.
Father Dean Perri, pastor of Our Lady of Loreto, said that the relic will remain in the church for veneration and will be part of the devotional life of the Brazilian community.
The pastor shared that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI encouraged the importance of devotions as a source of renewed strength in the life of the parish.
“We want them to share in their cultural devotions,” said Father Perri. “Anything that promotes a deeper devotion is welcome and Blessed Elena was inspired by a devotion to the Holy Spirit and adoration.”
