Pentecost Sunday
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Today's Readings
Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34; 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13; Jn 20:19-23
Read today's readings at USCCBReflection
When you send forth your Spirit, they are created; you renew the face of the earth. The Spirit who came at Pentecost is the Spirit of creation - the same breath that moved over the chaos at the beginning. The renewal of the face of the earth is not a metaphor for human improvement. It is the Spirit of God doing what the Spirit of God does: creating, renewing, animating what is dead.
Jesus stands in the middle of the locked room and breathes on the disciples. Receive the Holy Spirit. The breath of the Risen Lord is the breath of the new creation entering the gathered community. The locked doors do not stop the Spirit. The fear that locked the doors is what the peace dissolves.
In the evening of life, Pentecost is not a young person's feast. The Spirit who renews the face of the earth renews yours. The gifts given to the many parts of the one body are given to you - particular, personal, yours. To each manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Whatever has been your gift across the years is still being given, still needed, still part of the common good the Spirit is building.
The Rosary Today
The Glorious Mysteries culminate in the Coronation of Mary - the woman who received the Spirit at the Annunciation, who was in the Upper Room at Pentecost, who is now Queen of the community the Spirit fills. Pray the Glorious Mysteries tonight as a meditation on the whole arc from the Annunciation to Pentecost to the ordinary time that begins tomorrow.
Prayer of the Faithful
- For those in the evening of life whose Pentecost gift has not yet fully been recognized or used, that the Spirit who gives to each for the common good would clarify the gift and open the space for it, we pray to the Lord.
- For those behind locked doors that the peace of the Risen Lord - who passes through every lock - would stand in the middle of their room, we pray to the Lord.
- For the renewal of what needs renewing in each of us as ordinary time begins, we pray to the Lord.
Something to Do
Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth. Tonight, name one specific thing in your life that needs the Spirit's renewal - a relationship, a practice, a corner of the heart. Ask the Spirit to begin there. The creating Spirit works in the particular places you open to him.
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