Pentecost Sunday

“Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are ‘dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus’ and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord.” – Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 1694

In this Easter season we have witnessed so much goodness of the Lord working here in our Catholic community at Saint Patrick Parish. Over 2,200 people joined us for Mass on Easter Sunday. We welcomed 20 individuals (11 adults and 9 children) into communion with the Catholic Church. We offered Holy Communion to 45 children for the very first time. We increased the seating capacity of our Daily Mass chapel to 55 because we had to.

There are these blessings and moments of grace which we can see and measure, but of course there are many other hidden encounters with the Risen Lord that are known only in the eternal mind of God and the hearts of believers. As we conclude the Easter season and continue to live into the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus, it can be a good moment for us to reflect on our participation in the life of Jesus and His Church. Thankfully, we have a tremendous guide for this journey in the book of the Acts of the Apostles.

Did you know that, in the Easter season, we hear nearly half of the 1,007 verses of this book throughout the weekday and Sunday Masses? If you didn’t know that or want to pick up and read the book this week, you can start from near the beginning once again as you’ll hear chapter 2, verses 1-11 in our first reading this Sunday. In this passage, we fittingly hear the retelling of the day of Pentecost. I want to invite you as some homework for the week to finish reading the rest of chapter 2.

In it, you will first read perhaps the greatest apostolic homily ever given. Peter, after receiving the Holy Spirit, stands up and proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a large crowd of individuals in Jerusalem. Not only is this homily beautiful in its imagery, clarity, and power, but we can know of its impact by its effects. “Those who accepted his [Peter’s] message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day” (Acts 2:41).

The chapter concludes with five verses describing the life of the early Church, of which many thousands of members joined. Just as the Nicene Creed tells of the four marks of the Church – One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic – so too do these verses identify for us four key signs of life for those seeking participation in the Church. The early disciples devoted themselves to: the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

For those members of God’s household, young and old, new and experienced, I invite you to pray on this Pentecost Sunday that the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of Life, would inspire you to respond faithfully to God’s plan for your life. May the gifts of the Holy Spirit be poured into our hearts and across the face of the earth.

Veni Sancte Spiritus…

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