PENTECOST SUNDAY
This Sunday we celebrate the decent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost which heralded the beginning of the apostolic mission to bring the Christian faith to the world. It is the birthday of the church so maybe we should sing happy birthday instead of Veni Creator Spiritus and blow out the candles on a birthday cake instead of blowing out the paschal candle and we do that because it’s the end of the Easter season!! With the feast of Pentecost the seven weeks of the Easter season have come to an end with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person. “Peace be with you” was Jesus prayer for his disciples as it is for us today as we listen to this gospel reading. These words have a particular meaning as we hear about the continuing Ukrainian war as well as many other violent events throughout the world.
With the sight of Jesus the apostles fear turned into great joy, and their Anxiety turned into relief. The lack of spiritual direction turned into a sense of deep spiritual grounding. The divine presence stood close to them and with the divine presence came a great sense of peace of spirit mind and soul. We too have the divine presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and it brings Joy and spiritual grounding to all those who come to meet him in the Eucharist. We can’t ignore our own or the problems other people have. Most of the time the problems in our lives just don’t go away by themselves very often we need to stop and think and pray things through. If we pray through the problems as well as thinking them through we will find that they it will be so much easier to come through all the difficulties that are sent to challenge us. Simply put Prayer Moves Mountains.
Gathered at Mass we bring our prayers of intercession to God all of us have our own needs, Family and friends, someone we know may be sick, people need work. Perhaps the person who has been in our lives for so long has died. We bring these and all our concerns in prayer because they remind us of our need and they raise our hope in the power of God made real to every generation through the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit our relationship with God satisfies our longings, and brings us the peace of God which is beyond all understanding. Because of God’s faithfulness, we give thanks, offer sacrifice, and present our needs as we remember the presence of God with us in all our lives through the good bad happy and sad times and we thank God for his enduring presence among us this Pentecost Sunday. Come, Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Fullerton T 