PENTECOST -- June 8, 2014

THE SEASON OF PENTECOST -- June 8-- November 27, 2014

Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them (Acts 2:3).

He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

“Pentecost occupies a very strategic place in the Christian Year, for it stands between that half of the year that celebrates the coming of Jesus Christ and the second half of the year celebrating the creation and mission of the church. It concludes the church’s celebration of the advent, birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. And it introduces the observance of the “church militant”, as we rehearse and encourage ourselves from June through November of a church deeply engaged in the world, bringing good news in sign, deed and word of God’s work to transform the world into the world as God intended it to be!”

Come join us in the celebration of the Pentecost Season

The themes of Pentecost and the Season of Pentecost are captured in the following poems:

Veni,
Sancte Spiritus

Fiery Spirit of Love,
Come, O Lover of the Poor.
Give us your warmth, in this land of chill.
Come, Comforter of Us All,
breathe your life into
our brittle
bones.

Inflame our hearts.

Give us
your gifts.
Knowledge, Wisdom,
Understanding, Courage.
Reverence, Right Judgment
and Wonder and Awe in your presence
Send us out on your Spirit wings to the ends of the earth.
Warm all in our path with
your flame in our
hearts.
Not just
in some upper room.
Not in the limits of place or time

As with the wind, so you move through all creation
Giving light over and over, everywhere,
every minute of the day.

Spirit,
let us catch your fire
and do your
work.
Father in heaven,
we are Guatemalans, Greeks,
homeless and housed, women and men.

Give us all to drink of your Spirit

so that we may be one.
One body in Christ
Jesus.
Lord, help me please
to always make a home for you
in my heart

and to receive
within that home
the neighbors
and friends
and especially the strangers
whom I meet.

I am grateful that you are God

and that you include me
in your assembly,

and in your love.
Amen
( The Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University )