June 8, 2014

Pentecost

June 8, 2014:  Pentecost Sunday

Readings
Tagxedo word cloud 6-8-14
  • Acts 2:1-11  At Pentecost, a noise like a strong wind filled the house, tongues as of fire rested on each apostle, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.  Jews from every nation gathered but were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.  They asked, “If they're all Galileans, how does each of us hear them in his native language?  We're from all over but hear them speaking in our own tongues of God's mighty acts.”
  • Ps 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34  "Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth."  Lord, my God, you and your works are great!  I will be glad in the Lord.
  • 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13  No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.  There are different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit, different forms of service but the same Lord; to each of us the Spirit is manifested for some benefit.  As a body is one though it has many parts, so also Christ, for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and given to drink of one Spirit.
  • Veni, Sancte Spiritus sequence:  see Music section
  • Jn 20:19-23  Jesus came:  “Peace be with you....  As the Father has sent me, so I send you....  Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them; whose sins you retain are retained.”
Pope Francis
  • Homily:  The Holy Spirit is Master of Life.  4 principal ways the Spirit is active in every Christian and the Church:  The Spirit teaches us the way, reminds us of and explains to us the words of Jesus, enables us to pray and to call God ‘Father’, and enables us to speak to our fellows in fraternal dialogue and in prophecy.  Pentecost marks the birth of the Church and the Church’s public manifestation.  The Church surprises us and stirs things up.
  • Today's prayer for peace with Pope Francis, Israel and Palestine presidents Peres and Abbas, and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew:  "Building peace is difficult, but living without it is torment."  Music, thanksgiving, prayer for forgiveness and peace, planting an olive tree, to recreate a desire for change and reopen a path of dialogue.
Music
Reflections
    • Creighton:  The sending of the Spirit initiates the Age of the Spirit.  The Spirit transformed the preachers and hearers in the upper room; the Spirit's gifts, given to all, animate the animate the community, transforming us into the body of Christ.  Through the Spirit’s presence we're a new creation and temples of the Spirit.
    • One Bread One Body:  Am I docile to the Spirit?  Am I lord of my workload or a worker for the Lord?  Do I do the work of the Lord or seek the Lord of the work?  Do I focus on God's call?  Lord, help me be docile.
      Guest dresser:  Sid, with Flor
    • DailyScripture.net:  "The Spirit restores paradise to us and the way to heaven and adoption as children of God; he instills confidence that we may call God truly Father and grants us the grace of Christ to be children of the light and to enjoy eternal glory. In a word, he bestows the fullness of blessings in this world and the next; for we may contemplate now in the mirror of faith the promised things we shall someday enjoy.  If this is the foretaste, what must the reality be? If these are the first fruits, what must be the harvest?" (St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto XV.36)
    • Passionist:  "The human race is divided by dissension and discord, yet we know that...  by your Spirit you move human hearts that enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries may join hands, and peoples seek to meet together.  By the working of your power it comes about, O Lord, that hatred is overcome by love, revenge gives way to forgiveness, and discord is changed to mutual respect." (Eucharistic Prayer for Masses of Reconciliation II Jesus greeted the disciples, "Peace be with you....  I send you"; then he breathed on them to give them the Spirit.  Disciples who receive the Spirit go out.  Jesus sends us to bring peace.  Let's rely on the Spirit and speak about Jesus in ways people can understand, listening to them to find common ground.
    • Universalis:  “Pentecost” comes from Greek πεντηκοστή (pentekoste), “fiftieth”; it's tied to the Jewish Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), 7 × 7 days (a 'week of weeks') after the second day of Passover.  Passover celebrates the freeing of the Jews from slavery; Shavuot celebrates their becoming God’s holy people by the gift and acceptance of the Law; and the counting of the days symbolises yearning for the Law.  Shavuot, a pilgrimage festival, when Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims from many countries, was a good time for the Spirit to come down and inspire preaching to all nations.  Easter freed us from slavery; Pentecost gave us the Spirit to make us Church.  (+Bl. James Berthieu, Jesuit priest, martyr.  St. William of York.)
    • See Aug. 14 about forgiving and retaining(?) sin.
    Apparel

    • "Dove" pin: They were all filled with the Holy Spirit (1st reading)
    • Earth tie: "Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth." (psalm)
    • "Persons" tie pin: "As a body is one though it has many parts,... so also Christ.... We were all given to drink of one Spirit." (2nd reading)
    • "Hearts" suspenders: "Shine within these hearts"; "Bend the stubborn heart" (sequence)
    • "Key" tie pin: "when the doors were locked, Jesus came:..."
    • "Peace sign" tie pin:  ..."Peace!... Receive the Holy Spirit." (gospel); prayer for peace with Pope Francis et al.
    • Red and white shirt:  red for Holy Spirit, white for Easter season
    Dress your life!

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