Welcome

Richard's Story

My name is Richard Giarusso, and I am excited to be joining Holy Spirit as a seminarian in September. I was endorsed for postulancy to the priesthood by the Diocese in November, and my placement here will run alongside my work in the hybrid MDiv program at the General Theological Seminary in New York City.

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I was born and raised in West Boylston, where my parents still live. I grew up at St. Francis in Holden, where my childhood priest, Gordon Scruton (later our Bishop) first invited me into ministry within a parish community as a violinist and later as a singer. My educational path took me first to the Berkshires, where I studied music & English at Williams College, and then to greater Boston, where I earned a PhD in music history at Harvard. My involvement in communities of faith during these years continued to ground my unfolding sense of who I was and the work that God was calling me to do in the world. Music and music-making again factored significantly, especially during my time as a member of the Choir of the Church of the Advent in Boston, where the powerful relationship between music and liturgy offered new opportunities to deepen my spirituality, specifically as it related to a richer understanding of the Eucharistic life.

An opportunity to join the leadership team at the New England Conservatory brought my wife Allison, our son Adrian, and me back to Massachusetts in 2022. Settling in Acton, we had difficulty finding a parish community that felt right for us as a family, and we ended up returning to St. Francis, where my mother still worships regularly. In these familiar surroundings, and, almost immediately after starting what I’d thought would have been my “dream” job at NEC, the question of vocation came knocking again. In a professional life that, to that point, had consisted largely of a sequence of seemingly “logical” next steps, I owned up to the realization that it was FINALLY time for me to listen to God and heed the call that, if I’m honest, had been lurking somewhere for the better part of 40 years.

My greatest supporters over the past two years have been and continue to be Allison and Adrian, now 10 years old. Allison is also trained as a musician, with particular expertise in the work of Hildegard von Bingen, but her interests have never been inhibited by professional labels. Just under a year ago, she opened a fabric and quilt shop in Acton, and it has quickly become a bustling hub of joyful creativity in MetroWest. Day by day, Adrian reminds us of ways in which he is most decidedly OUR child and, in equal measure, very much his OWN person. He is a sports enthusiast (with a particular passion for baseball), reads constantly, and will start the fifth-grade in the Acton-Boxborough schools in the fall. As a family, we love spending time together outdoors, tending our humble vegetable garden, cooking seasonally, opening our home to friends and loved ones, and supporting each other through the ups and downs of the 2026 Red Sox season. We all look forward to joining the Holy Spirit community as a family in September.

As I embark on the next steps in this journey, I am deeply grateful to Rev. Julie and to all of you for the opportunity to serve and learn with and from you. I have visited Holy Spirit on a few occasions this summer, and I’ve been struck by the warmth of this community, the deep integrity of your corporate life of prayer and worship, and the strength of your witness to the light of Christ here in central Massachusetts. I will ask and thank you (in advance) for your patience and understanding as I begin again on this new path, and I look forward to coming to know you better in the months ahead.