Mother of Sorrows Community Festival

A big thank you to all who helped out and supported at this year's festival.

Star Council News Update

Great news, it is official we have been congratulated by our new State Deputy, John Fitzpatrick for the Star Award, See his correspondence below. Also, good news I was congratulated as Diocesan Membership Chairman for the Greensburg Diocese having more Star Councils than any other Diocese, which contributed to the State Council winning Circle of Honor from Supreme.

Don Granata

Grand Knight, 4226

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Worthy Grand Knight,                                       Acknowledgment  letter for Star Council

Congratulations on achieving Star Council during fraternal year 2025-26! This award is reserved for the best and brightest councils in our Order and you should be justly proud.  Pennsylvania would not have achieved Circle of Honor without your success in meeting/exceeding your membership goal and so many councils you helped in achieving Star Council.  I appreciate the hard work your council put into membership growth and programs last year.  Nothing of value is easy. I am asking your council to make achieving Star Council again a top priority this new fraternal year.

I have attached this year's award criteria.  Your district deputy will go into more detail at your next district meeting.

We cannot afford to take the summer off. It is critical that we get off to a great start.  Leverage your summer programs into great recruiting opportunities. Now is the time to build your team for another successful year.  Our parishes and communities are counting on us.

We have developed a solid membership incentive plan to reward high performing individuals and councils. Please see the attached incentives for the 1st quarter.  I hope to see your council in the running.

If you have any questions, please let me know.  I look forward to working with you!

Fraternally,

John Fitzpatrick

State Deputy

Food Bank Donations

The KofC will be collecting dish detergent for the September MOS Westmoreland County Food Bank. All donations can be placed in the deck boxes outside MOS social hall or drop off at the hall. All donations to be received by August 24th. The goal is to provide 250 dish detergent bottles to MOS Westmoreland County Food Bank for distribution. Please bring your dish detergent donations to the next council meeting on August 12th. If dropping off at the council hall please notify Don Merola (donjoann1025@gmail.com). Also, if you are attending our Council Annual Picnic on August 30th you can bring the donation with you.

Diocesan Men's Ministry

That Man is You 

Brothers,

As some of you may have heard we are starting a new men’s ministry *That Man Is You* (TMIY) at Mother of Sorrows parish inviting all men from MOS/STJ/STM/STS. 

We’re kicking off on Friday, September 18, and it’s a great opportunity to sharpen one another, dig into Scripture and modern insights, and focus on becoming the men our families need us to be. 

The program is free, our rhythm is simple: we start at 6:00 AM with breakfast, video teaching 6:30 AM, small group session 7:00 AM, and wrapped up by 7:30 AM so you can get on with your day or head to daily Mass. It’s a solid room of young men spearheading this who are all trying to do the right thing, become better Catholics, better husbands, better fathers, and better men.

Consider joining me and supporting this new initiative.

You can save your seat right here REGISTER IN 30 SECONDS: https://programs.paradisusdei.org/join/8C729C 

God Bless,

https://programs.paradisusdei.org/join/8C729C

Chuck Bell

charlesmbell@hotmail.com

St. John/St. Mary

Catholic Men's Fellowship Group

St. John/St. Mary’s CMF meets weekly (Saturdays 7am at the St. Mary’s Social Hall in Export & via Zoom). More info or to get on mailing list can be found. Current topic: Catechism. All are invited.  here: https://StJohnStMaryParishes.flocknote.com/CMF

Habitat for Humanity

• Work is continuing on the home started several months ago. Progress photos will be shown here are the various milestones are reached.

For those who may be interested a group of volunteers meet every other Wednesday to assist several other volunteer groups in this very important project. Please contact Jim Snitger at jsnitger@hotmail.com or at 412-334-4932 for more details.

Thank You

Jim

Labor Day Origin and History

Observed the first Monday in September, Labor Day is an annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers. The holiday is rooted in the late nineteenth century, when labor activists pushed for a federal holiday to recognize the many contributions workers have made to America’s strength, prosperity, and well-being.

Before it was a federal holiday, Labor Day was recognized by labor activists and individual states. After municipal ordinances were passed in 1885 and 1886, a movement developed to secure state legislation. New York was the first state to introduce a bill, but Oregon was the first to pass a law recognizing Labor Day, on February 21, 1887. During 1887, four more states – Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York – passed laws creating a Labor Day holiday. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday.

Who first proposed the holiday for workers? It’s not entirely clear, but two workers can make a solid claim to the Founder of Labor Day title.

Some records show that in 1882, Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, suggested setting aside a day for a "general holiday for the laboring classes" to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that machinist Matthew Maguire, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday.

Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, New Jersey, proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.

According to the New Jersey Historical Society, after President Cleveland signed the law creating a national Labor Day, the Paterson Morning Call published an opinion piece stating that "the souvenir pen should go to Alderman Matthew Maguire of this city, who is the undisputed author of Labor Day as a holiday." Both Maguire and McGuire attended the country’s first Labor Day parade in New York City that year.

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed a law making the first Monday in September of each year a national holiday.

Many Americans celebrate Labor Day with parades and parties – festivities very similar to those outlined by the first proposal for a holiday, which suggested that the day should be observed with – a street parade to exhibit "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day.

Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

American labor has raised the nation’s standard of living and contributed to the greatest production the world has ever known and the labor movement has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pays tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership – the American worker.

Reference: U.S. Department of Labor