St. Peter-St. Denis Parish in Yonkers will host a Spanish-language Pentecost Retreat on Saturday, May 18, the eve of Pentecost Sunday.

The annual gathering is set to begin at 8 a.m. and end with a 7 p.m. Mass. It will include confessions and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The event choir will be el Coro Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Choir), which is based at the parish.            

“This is always a good reminder for the community, and it keeps the parishioners active, alert on what’s happening within the liturgical season,” Abril Mejia, a member of the parish staff, told The Good Newsroom. “So it’s always good that we do things like this with the community,” she added, noting the retreat focus will include the importance and significance of Pentecost.              

Mejia said the retreat’s main presenter will be a Catholic speaker named Milton Lopez. She said Father Jose Helio, parochial vicar at St. Peter-St. Denis, will also speak and celebrate the closing Mass. The retreat is for adults 18 and over.                       

On the Feast of Pentecost, the Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, gathered around the Mother of the Lord (Acts chapter 2). The feast is celebrated on the 50th and final day of the Easter season, and it marks the beginning of the Church’s mission to the world.    

Other New York archdiocesan gatherings 

A pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima will be at St. Elizabeth Church in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan on Thursday, May 16, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The day will include a procession, talks on Fatima and the Eucharist, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, praying of the Rosary, and a 7 p.m. closing Mass. There are 13 Fatima pilgrim statues, which travel the world on a mission to spread peace and hope.  

St. Elizabeth and several other parishes in Upper West Side will conduct a Via Lucis (Stations of Light) on the evening of Friday, May 17. Faithful from each parish, led by clergy, will walk toward the Mother Cabrini Shrine, where a Mass will be celebrated at 8 p.m. 

The Via Lucis celebrates the 50 days from Easter to Pentecost. It is a devotion created to mirror and complement the Via Crucis, which follows the course of Jesus’ passion, death, and burial. The Via Lucis reflects on the joy and hope of the Resurrection during the Easter season. It focuses on the events that followed the Resurrection, especially the Lord’s appearances.

The annual Spanish-language Pentecost Vigil at St. Patrick’s Cathedral is set for Saturday, May 18. It will begin at 7 p.m. and likely last until midnight as it did in 2023.