May 31, 1998Pentecost Sunday |
Pentecost acquires its significance from Acts 2:1-41, where this feast is the occasion on which the Holy Spirit descends on the assembled disciples in the appearance of "tongues or of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them"(Acts 2:3).
In the Church's Liturgical Calendar, Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter. The Preface for the solemnity of Pentecost in the Roman Missal expresses well the liturgical focus of the celebration:
"Today you sent the Holy Spirit
on those marked out to be your children
by sharing the life of your only Son,
and so you brought the paschal
mystery to its completion.
Today we celebrate the great beginning
Of your Church
When the Holy Spirit made known to
All peoples the one true God,
And created from the many languages
Of man one voice to profess one faith."
Dear Friends,
And so we come to the great feast of Pentecost . That day that commemorates the beginning of the Church. It was that moment in time that we said our collective "yes" to living life in the Spirit, God's Spirit.
That living "life in the Spirit" means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Very often this topic will result in rather lengthy discussions and even arguments about various gifts of the Holy Spirit, with speaking in tongues or prophesy among the more notable or memorable of the "charismatic" gifts.
This is all well and good. However, I suggest that we can better spend our time at examining the "fruits" of the Holy Spirit. What do our lives look like when we are living according to the Spirit we received in Baptism. Frequently, folks list twelve when referring to the "fruits of the Holy Spirit". I'd like to suggest that we could well spend our time just working on one: kindness. Be kind. It is probably one of the first things we learned or rather were taught when we entered the education arena in pre-school or kindergarten. Just be kind to yourself and others. Doesn't have to be any more complicated or complex than that.
It seems as we have grown up and become sophisticated in one way or another we have left behind that simple admonition we received at a very young age: be kind. Can we together, on this beautiful feast of Pentecost, ask for that "gift" of God's Spirit that will help us be a little kinder to ourselves and others?
Fr. Tom, OMI
Catholic communities of faith should measure their prayer, education, and action by how they serve the life, dignity, and rights of the human person at home and abroad. A parish's 'catholicity' is illustrated in its willingness to go beyond its own boundaries to extend the Gospel, serve those in need, and work for global justice and peace. This is not the work for a few agencies or one parish committee, but for every believer and every local community of faith. This solidarity is expressed in our prayer and stewardship, how we form our children and invest our resources, and the choices we make at work and in the public arena. U.S. Catholic Bishops
compiled by Brother Richard OFM
THEME: PLACE: Three place settings. A place at the table. Save a place. My place or yours? Out of place. In first place. In the first place. Put them in their place. They don't know their place. Save a place for me. Some places are physical Ñ they locate us on the planet. Some places are moral and spiritual; they help define our very self. Today we talk about the Spirit who dwells among us.
The Easter/Pentecost Sacrament...Confession, the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, is not just a pre-Easter or Lenten preparation but a form of Communion with the Risen Lord as the source of all mercy, life and Spirit. Everyone is encouraged to use the sacrament of Penance as a meeting with the Victorious Christ and to use it effectively and frequently.
In the special time between the Ascension and Pentecost many of us have set aside a period of time for nine days to pray a Novena to the Holy Spirit. Many have also come to the Novena evening services and have been filled anew with the energy of the Holy Spirit. Each night offered a different focus or topic along with a different flavor regarding how the Spirit is manifested. We sang often the refrain-"Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on us..." We might also have sung or prayed, picturing the Spirit as springing up within us like living water. (Jn 7:38) On Pentecost Sunday we celebrate and pray for all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but especially the gift of wisdom-to know what has lasting value, what counts, has weight or remains when all else of lesser value has passed and been left behind along the way. St. Basil the Great in his Treatise on the Holy Spirit writes-"through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations- we become God." This is "wisdom"-to know that we will realize true and lasting happiness to the measure that we become like we are made- in the image and likeness of God. (Gen. 1:26)
At Pentecost we are reminded again that the Spirit sent the disciples out of the upper room into the streets, and so the Church was born. The following excerpts from the Homily Service Publication (Liturgical Conference) gives appropriate expressions of being sent out to renew the face of the earth. "The Gospel accounts for today describe other ways the Spirit comes. In John 20:19-23, Jesus appears to the assembled disciples for the first time, on Sunday evening, greets them with peace, and says he is sending them as he was sent. He breathes on them and says 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' John doesn't record what the disciples did next, but the gift of the Spirit is associated with being sent out. In John 14:8-17, Jesus tells how he will ask the Father to send an Advocate, the Spirit of truth. The witness of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:7 adds more: 'To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.'
My point is simple: the Spirit is given for a purpose. Those who receive it are energized for action of some sort, and this action is for the common good. The Spirit is not given for me to sit down in my living room and enjoy my 'spirituality.' That's not why we were penitent in Lent, why we recalled the Lord's passion in Holy Week, and why we renewed our baptism and feasted at Easter. The gift of the Spirit, as today's readings present it, energizes people, gets them moving, sends them on a mission.
A mission to where, to whom? What are the objectives? Is it like the diplomats going to Iraq, or astronauts to the space station, or researchers searching for an AIDS vaccine? Our mission doesn't have to be that complicated or high-powered. How does a mission to embody God's compassion with your family sound? What about a mission to be merciful with our co-workers? A mission to share the resources we have with those who lack the basics? A mission to spend a few hours a week as a volunteer? A mission to shape the society we live in by letting our elected representatives know where we stand? When we get moving, when use the energy we have received, we're acting like the people who have received God's Spirit.
We don't have rushing winds and tongues of flame today. We celebrate something more ordinary but no less miraculous: the breath of God. Steady, rhythmic, constant. Animating every action, if we let it. Day in, day out, God's breath flows through us. Day in, day out, it keeps us going, fills us with vitality, gets us moving, keeps activity going. Welcome to the ordinary, daily life of the people who have received God's Spirit!"
When Pope John XXIII announced his plans for convening the Second Vatican Council on January 25, 1959, he invited the church and the world to join him in "opening the window to allow the Holy Spirit to come in."
When the council officially opened on October 11, 1962, he invited all believers to realize that Divine Providence is leading us to a new order of human relations. In his desire that the council would "promote concord, just peace and the unity of all," he invited the world to share his optimism. The feast of Pentecost, which we celebrate today, gives us a chance to be renewed once again in the Spirit whom we believe is the source of life and guidance for us.
The liturgy of Pentecost invites us to open our minds and hearts in welcome to the Spirit of God. And so we pray:
Spirit of God, renew in us the awareness that the church is a mystery or sacrament, a "reality imbued with the hidden presence of God."
Spirit of God instill in us the conviction that all of us, lay, religious and clergy are, by virtue of our baptism, called to active participation in the mission of Christ, Prophet, Priest and King.
Spirit of God help us to remember that the mission of all the people of God necessarily includes service to human needs as well as the preaching of the good news, the Gospel, by our very lives.
Spirit of God, enlarge our hearts and minds and extend our horizons with the awareness that the church is the whole body of Christ, Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants.
Spirit of God, help us also to remember that all authority in the Church is to be exercised as a service.
Spirit of God, free us from exclusivism and affirm in us the knowledge that religious truth is to be respected wherever it is discovered.
Spirit of God, teach us, as we teach others, that Christian education must be broadly humane, up-to-date with a concern for personal maturity and social responsibility.
Spirit of God, inspire us, enliven us, challenge and chasten us, empower us and humble us. Illumine our way that we, in turn, may illumine the way of others. Help us to bring your light, your truth, your wisdom, your peace, and your love not only into our own lives, but also into our world.
Father James Tobin, S.M.
Pastor
The solemn Feast of PENTECOST is a most important celebration in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. Second in importance only to Easter, Pentecost is the BIRTHDAY OF THE CHURCH. Pentecost (fiftieth day after Easter) commemorates the occasion on which the Holy Spirit came down upon Apostles, empowering them to bear witness to their faith. The Acts of the Apostles recounts the extraordinary success which the Apostles experience in attracting new members to the faith. All this success was attributed to the power of the Holy Spirit poured out into their lives on Pentecost.
Today, we believe that the Holy Spirit is still leading the Church, still responsible for the vitality of the faith. But like the Apostles on that first Pentecost Sunday, we must open ourselves to the Spirit's direction and power. Then we, too, may be His witnesses to the ends of the earth.
Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgement, and self-mastery-the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies. Paraphrased form Catechism of the Catholic Church Nos., 2223 and 2224.
