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From the Pastor's Desk: June 5, 2022
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Veni Sancte Spiritus - Come, Holy Spirit
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your spirit and we shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth.”
Today the Church celebrates Pentecost as the day on which the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles who were gathered in an upper room with Mary the Mother of Jesus as “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
Ever since that time, the Church has wanted us to learn from that experience how to desire the Holy Spirit. Throughout the centuries, the Church puts on our lips and our heart the longing for the Holy Spirit in the form of a powerful verb- “Come!” We pray, “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love!” We sing, “Veni, Creator Spiritus!,” “Come, Holy Spirit,” and we beg the Holy Spirit to take up His rest in our hearts, to come with His grace and heavenly aid, to fill the hearts which He has made, to give us His sevenfold gift of grace, to illumine our minds, inflame our hearts, strengthen our bodies, repel our enemies, give us peace, and help us to know God the Father and the Son. We sing today in the Sequence, “Veni, Sancte Spiritus,” begging the Holy Spirit anew to come with heavenly radiance as the guest of our soul, comforting us, giving us rest in labor, refreshment in heat, solace in woe, cleansing what is impure, watering what is dying, healing what is wounded, softening to Him whatever is stubborn, warming whatever is ice-cold, putting back on the narrow way whatever leads us astray, granting us the reward of virtue, the end of salvation and eternal joy. The great word of the Church, the great longing, is come!
But as these prayers indicate, we are praying for the Holy Spirit’s arrival - to come and to change us – our hearts, our desires, our needs and through us change the world. “Lord, send out your Spirit,” we implore God the Father in Psalm 104 that we pray during this weekend Masses, “and renew the face of the earth!” The Holy Spirit comes to renew us not just once but continuously. During the Confirmation Rite (that we celebrated a month ago with the class of 45 teenagers of our parish), we beg God the Father through Jesus to send the Holy Spirit upon us as our “helper and guide.” He comes to assist us and to lead us. To pray “Come!” implies that we are ready to be led and helped by Him as He comes. How does He want to lead and help us?
The celebration of the Solemnity of Pentecost brings to a conclusion the season of Easter. As we transition to Ordinary Time, yet filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, let us do something beautiful for God with our lives this week. “To parents: it is very important that your children learn from their fathers and mothers how to love one another. Not in school, not from the teacher, but from you. It is very important that you share with your children the joy of loving others. There will be misunderstandings. Every family has a cross, its suffering, but always be the first to forgive with a smile. Be cheerful, be happy.” –Mother Teresa
For the next 10 days, I will be on pilgrimage in Poland with a group of pilgrims. Please be assured of my prayers for all of your intentions which I always hold dearly in my heart and present them to the Lord through the intercessions of the many saints that I will come across during my travels.
“There is a world of difference between submitting to the Divine Will from sullenness and submitting to it knowing that God is Supreme Wisdom, and that someday we will know all that happened, happened for the best.” -The Wisdom of Fulton Sheen
I wish you a blessed week!
With prayers,
Fr. Andy
