PENTECOST:

WE REJOICE in the Gift of the Holy Spirit as we celebrate Pentecost this weekend. I REJOICE that I have lived to realise that the Holy Spirit is not an added extra whom we receive at Confirmation, but the one who makes everything happen. When I was confirmed at the age of about 12, I was under the impression that this completed the set: Jesus had come to me in Holy Communion and now the Holy Spirit was coming as well. I had little or no awareness that it was the Holy Spirit who had made it possible for Jesus and his Father to come and make their home with me, firstly at my Baptism and then when I received my Communion; little or no awareness that it was because the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary that Jesus was born into our world and that now it is the Holy Spirit who makes Christ present in all the Sacraments, so that the LORD can unite us with His Father in Heaven; little or no awareness that Jesus and the Father are One and that we are called to be one with them.

Perhaps this will help you to understand why I keep returning to this theme and stressing that it is the Holy Spirit who make things happen for us. Just reflect on how we prayed that the Cardinals would be INSPIRED by the Holy Spirit to elect the Pope God wants for us at this time. And, of course, those of you attending the First Communion Masses in both parishes are aware of how I repeatedly stress that it is the presence of the Holy Spirit overshadowing the assembly and the gifts of bread and wine who makes it possible for Christ to feed us with his very self.