Pentecost Continues!

What a thrilling time it must have been to be gathered in the Upper Room and to receive this special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, enabling Christ's followers, the early Church, to be empowered to go out and proclaim the Gospel with boldness and power. We can read it ourselves in Luke's Acts of the Apostles.

At Mass this morning, our pastor reminded us that Pentecost continues to this day. God has kept that book open as it were, continuing to spread the Gospel of Christ through all the world. And He does that through you and me - Christ's followers of this time. But too often we are more like the Apostles on Holy Thursday and Good Friday (scared and protecting ourselves) than we are the Apostles of Pentecost Sunday (filled with the Holy Spirit). It does seem incredible, doesnt' it, that He would choose you and me to continue the mission He began during His own earthly ministry - to share the love of the Father and His own atoning work on the cross - and to invite us to give ourselves to Him in faith and Baptism. But if He could use coarse fishermen and tax collectors in that day, then surely He can use each of us!

We, too, can turn from cowards to heroes, from apostates to apostles, from sinners to saints. The key is allowing the Holy Spirit to act within us. Open your heart and mind to the truths of Christ, and let you heart burn with His love. Proclaim the teachings of Christ in your corenr of the world and do it with zeal and with joy. You are I are writing the next chapters of the Acts of the Apostles - so write well.