Pentecost is my personal favorite feast of our liturgical year! Even better than Christmas or Easter, you ask? Yep! Here’s why I feel the way I do… With Pentecost, we are charged to fulfill our destinies as believers: it’s about living out the mission we were given with our choices in the use of our time, talent and treasure. How do we utilize our gifts for the benefit of the Kingdom? Every moment we draw breath is an opportunity to further God’s plan.
We hear in the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles today the story of all the different tongues spoken by Jews from all over the known world—and how the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them enabled them to understand each other in spite of their differences of culture, ethnicity and language—certainly a lesson for our times now! They were all praising God for His mighty acts in each of their own languages, and they understood what was being said (thanks to the Holy Spirit). Personally, I think we could do with more of that: praising God—the Father of us all—and understanding each other better.
It may sound silly to say, but the Holy Spirit is also my favorite person of the Trinity—I love God, the Father, and my Lord, Jesus, of course—and I see the Holy Spirit in us as pieces and parts of them in us, too. I see the Spirit functioning through us as we work with God here in co-creation, and with Jesus as we labor as His co-workers in this field of souls. (We are His hands and feet and hugs.) We are empowered by the gifts of the Spirit for all kinds of tasks in service of God’s plan for His people! Yea!
As we sing together through the hymn “by the Waking of Our Hearts” at Mass this weekend, please pay particular attention to the benefits given us by the Spirit: light, comfort, sweet refreshment, rest, coolness in the heat, solace in woe, healing, strength, warmth, guidance and peace. What’s not to love? Empowerment by the Spirit and all its gifts in service of the Kingdom—no wonder Pentecost and the Holy Spirit are my ‘faves!’
Keep singing!
Elizabeth Dyc
We hear in the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles today the story of all the different tongues spoken by Jews from all over the known world—and how the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them enabled them to understand each other in spite of their differences of culture, ethnicity and language—certainly a lesson for our times now! They were all praising God for His mighty acts in each of their own languages, and they understood what was being said (thanks to the Holy Spirit). Personally, I think we could do with more of that: praising God—the Father of us all—and understanding each other better.
It may sound silly to say, but the Holy Spirit is also my favorite person of the Trinity—I love God, the Father, and my Lord, Jesus, of course—and I see the Holy Spirit in us as pieces and parts of them in us, too. I see the Spirit functioning through us as we work with God here in co-creation, and with Jesus as we labor as His co-workers in this field of souls. (We are His hands and feet and hugs.) We are empowered by the gifts of the Spirit for all kinds of tasks in service of God’s plan for His people! Yea!
As we sing together through the hymn “by the Waking of Our Hearts” at Mass this weekend, please pay particular attention to the benefits given us by the Spirit: light, comfort, sweet refreshment, rest, coolness in the heat, solace in woe, healing, strength, warmth, guidance and peace. What’s not to love? Empowerment by the Spirit and all its gifts in service of the Kingdom—no wonder Pentecost and the Holy Spirit are my ‘faves!’
Keep singing!
Elizabeth Dyc
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