Dear Friends,
Blessings and all grace on this awesome feast of Pentecost! The birthday of the Church. As God the Father is God above us who created us in love, and Jesus Christ is God with us, who came among us, so on Pentecost God came to dwell within us, within all who accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. In this way God fills us with Himself, with His life, and draws us into His inner Self. How blessed we are indeed.
An often prayed and comforting prayer for us on this feast day and for every day, one we learned as children is ~ Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
Let us pray. O God, who did instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us in the same Spirit to be truly wise and ever to rejoice in His consolation, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
Saint Luke provides a vivid accounting of the first Pentecost Sunday in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. “…all in one place together … noise like a strong driving wind … tongues as of fire … all filled with the Holy Spirit … began to speak in different tongues…” A crowd of individuals who spoke different languages quickly forms. They are amazed that all these Galileans are able to be understood by them in their own native languages. And what were they speaking of? The “mighty acts of God.”
God’s intention is to redeem the whole world. God’s desire is to make us one with Himself. God’s vision is to bring us joyfully through this finite and fragile world to Himself in eternity. And He has gone to extremes to reveal this and to show us the way.
While this great feast ends the Easter season of rejoicing, it brings forward the reality that this new life is available to all day by day. To live our lives in the Holy Spirit is to experience the power of God, the love of God, the intimacy of God through His Church, Sacraments, and Scriptures. The path to fulfillment and to a life lived in joy does not go through us, through our making it on our own. Rather that path goes through our humble surrender, like Mary our Blessed Mother, to the will and the plans and the graces God makes available to us.
God is not playing hide and seek. The Spirit dwells within. Turn within to pray, to ask, to knock and to seek. The Spirit reveals the Truth of God and empowers us to walk in the footsteps of our Savior. There is no surer road than this. In fact, it is the only sure and certain road to the fulness of life.
A blessed and happy Memorial Day weekend to all and to your loved ones. Be sure to offer a prayer for the heroic men and women who died while serving in our military. May God grant them eternal peace in His Kingdom.
God bless you, God love you,
Monsignor McCulken
