Dear Friends,
This is a weekend for remembering, celebrating and acknowledging the Risen Lord in our lives. First and foremost this weekend, we celebrate the birthday of our church with the Feast of Pentecost! Fifty days have passed since our Easter Sunday. Hopefully, we have all “BECOME …FOREVER CHANGED” in the person Jesus Christ invites us to be.
We began this contemplation on Ash Wednesday with prayer, taking time to step aside (retreat) and being engaged in our rituals (Mass, the Sacraments, devotions). Prayer, retreat and ritual call us always to a deeper relationship to the Lord and with one another.
There are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. These gifts complete and perfect the virtues of those receiving them. Today would be a good day to reflect on how these gifys of the Holy Spirit impact our lives.
On Pentecost Sunday there is a sequence offered after our second reading that I would like to share. Here it is:
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine!
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, man has naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint or ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Given them joys that never end.
AMEN. ALLELUIA.
And, may I offer a prayer for our Pentecost:
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle
in them the fire of your love.
Send your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
O God, you have taught the hearts of the faithful by the
light of the Holy Spirit; grant us in the same Spirit, to have
a taste for what is right, and to rejoice always in His
consolation.
AMEN.
This is also our Memorial Day Weekend. As Americans, we have so much to be grateful for in our nation and for all the individuals who have served for peace and justice. Many offered their lives so we can know freedom and peace. Let’s remember those who gave their lives and those who continue to serve.
God our creator and sustainer,
today our country brings to our memory
those who have defended this nation
in times of trouble.
They have sacrificed their lives to protect our shores
from those who would limit our freedoms
or enslave us to ways that are against your will.
Bring all those who have died in service to our
country into your heavenly presence.
We humbly call down your blessing on those still serving.
Grant your heavenly protection to these,
and all service men and women,
and open your Sacred Heart to give them peace and
comfort.
AMEN.
God Bless our Faith Communities, Nation and World!
With faith,
Father Rob