"A Community of Faith, Working through Love" Gal 5:6

The Holy Spirit and Mary

This week as I was thinking about Pentecost and the readings associated with this Sunday one thing kept coming to my mind, Mary. The Blessed Mother was with the Apostles in the upper room. Why? It got me to think more deeply. Who truly received the Holy Spirit first? Was it the Apostles? Yes? Is that your final answer? Or was it Mary? Mary is the answer. When you ask? The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary or Annunciation of the Lord, is the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive a son by the power of the Holy Spirit to be called Jesus (Luke 1:26–38). So why was Mary there? She had already been given the Holy Spirit. I thought about this as I went about my work the next few days. I thought why wouldn’t she be there? Is not our Mother with us always? When we go through difficult situations who do we call upon but our Mother? When we celebrate something, who is there our Mother. Our Lady was waiting with the Apostles for her son to return. They were praying continuously for 9 days. Perhaps she was there to show the Apostles they had nothing to fear upon receiving the Holy Spirit. Maybe Mary was there to show how living a life with the Holy Spirit can only bring you closer to God the Father and God the Son. For whatever reason Mary was there. Together. Mary and the Apostles. Mary, the Mother of Christ. Mary, the Mother of the Church. Mary, our Mother. Mary, perfect example of how we too can live amazing Christian lives knowing the gift of the Holy Spirit is upon us, in us, around us. I once had someone ask me if the Holy Spirit had moved me to do something? I looked at them and honestly said every single day. Sometimes the Holy Spirit helps me reach out to someone in need, sometimes if helps me to forgive someone or myself, and sometimes if firmly clamps a hand over my mouth to keep me from saying something I shouldn’t. This last year I have said that working on this Friday email has got me closer to God the Son. I feel like, I am a closer friend to Jesus. This week while studying the Gospel I know this is true through my connection with the Holy Spirit. How truly blessed are we to be given and sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit. J. Geeting

O  Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.  --Saint Augustine

Virtues are formed by prayer. Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy. Prayer draws into the soul the Holy Spirit, and raises man to Heaven. -- St. Ephraem

Enrich your soul in the great goodness of God: The Father is your table, the Son is your food, and the Holy Spirit waits on you and then makes His dwelling in you. -- St. Catherine of Siena

He pours light into our minds, arouses our desire and gives us strength...

As the soul is the life of the body, so the Holy Spirit is the life of our souls.  -- St. Peter Damian

You could not love Jesus if you did not possess the living source of holy and pure love, namely, the Holy Spirit. Our divine Redeemer said, "He that believeth in Me, out of his belly shall flow streams of living water." (John 7:38.) This He said of the spirit which they should receive who believed in Him. Therefore, when God enkindles in you the flames of divine love, holy, pure, and without stain, let yourself disappear in the infinite Good, and, like an infant, sleep the sleep of faith and love in the bosom of your heavenly Spouse. - St. Paul of the Cross

Come, Holy Spirit. Spirit of truth, you are the reward of the saints, the comforter of souls, light in the darkness, riches to the poor, treasure to lovers, food for the hungry, comfort to those who are wandering; to sum up, you are the one in whom all treasures are contained. Come! As you descended upon Mary that the Word might become flesh, work in us through grace as you worked in her through nature and grace. Come! Food of every chaste thought, fountain of all mercy, sum of all purity. Come! Consume in us whatever prevents us from being consumed in you. - St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi  ( Did you catch a Saint of the Week!)

7 Things you can do to prepare for Pentecost

Sherry Antonetti - published on 06/01/17

How you and your family can celebrate the fact that the Holy Spirit is with us.

We prepare for Christmas by celebrating the four weeks of waiting known as Advent, and prepare for Easter by undergoing our own 40-day journey into the desert of Lent. The joyous feast time of Easter should be its own form of both Lent (penance/preparation) and Advent (joyful waiting), as we approach the feast of the day our Church began its mission, Pentecost.

It’s probably not realistic to hunker down in an Upper Room like Mary and the Apostles did and wait for the Holy Spirit. But this time of preparation should remind us of the first feast of Pentecost and also lead us to celebrate the fact that the Holy Spirit is already with us, all of us, always.

The annual celebration of this holy day should be an opportunity to begin or renew our commitment to the mission we’ve been given as God’s children.

How? Here are seven ways to prepare your own heart for the feast of Pentecost, and grow more aware of the work of the Spirit in your life and in the world.

1. Find out your Confirmation date. Pope Francis encourages us to discover our Baptism date and celebrate this moment in time when we became part of Christ’s church and were freed from original sin. In the same way, shouldn’t we celebrate the day we chose to embrace our faith of our own free will, and to be commissioned and sent out to tell everyone the good news? The sacrament of Confirmation is a one-time event, with lifetime effects. Read up on the saint you chose as your patron. Reach out and pray with your Confirmation sponsor if he or she is available, or if not, pray for them, and try to make it to mass or adoration on the date. Tell the Holy Spirit “thank you,” for coming to you as Gift and Advocate.

2. Refamiliarize yourself with the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, piety (reverence), knowledge, counsel (right judgment), fortitude (courage), and fear of the Lord (wonder and awe). Ask the Holy Spirit to help you sift through your own charisms and gifts, and for guidance on what God’s will is for you in building up the body of Christ.

3. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you through an examination of conscience and prepare yourself to receive the sacrament of Penance. The further we are from sin, the closer we are to each person of the Trinity.

4. Realize that you are participating in the Church’s oldest novena, the Novena to the Holy Spirit. To promote and encourage devotion to the third person of the Trinity, the Church offers indulgences connected with this devotion.

5. Help renew the face of the earth. We are the body of Christ, and each of us is a vessel of the Holy Spirit. When the Apostles received the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, they went out and spoke about their faith, about the man they loved and knew to be the Christ. They no longer feared proclaiming their beliefs. They shared what they had, what they knew, with everyone they encountered. Go out and share your faith with someone. Invite someone back. Be not afraid to speak.

6. Gladden the Holy Spirit. Spend some time serving God by serving others. Perform either corporal or spiritual works of mercy in your home and/or community. Pray a prayer to the Holy Spirit.

7. Spend some time thanking the Trinity. One of the easiest ways to do this is by taking up your rosary and simply saying, “Thank you, God the Father” on all of the beads. Then, “Thank you, Jesus Christ, the Son” all the way around the rosary, and finally, “Thank you, Holy Spirit” through all of the beads. Do this as part of Adoration if possible. It is hard not to feel overwhelmed with gratitude by the time you finish the exercise.

Have a great Feast of Pentecost!

This week you will see, the Church recognizes many important Saints. We start Saturday with one of my favorite Saints, St. Rita. I hope you will take some time to watch the videos and learn something new about this amazing Saint. I find that St. Rita is very easy to relate to as she was a Wife, Mother, Widow and Member of a Religious Order. When I see a bee in my garden I always offer a prayer to St. Rita. Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi is quite extraordinary. An amazing story of her life. Saint Bede the Venerable (Doctor of the Church) I knew little about him but quickly learned what importance in his writings for the Church. St. Augustine of Canterbury, St Philip of Neri, Saint Paul VI all saints you will love to learn a little more about! Enjoy the Saints this week!

Saint Philip Neri

Saint of the Day for May 26

(July 21, 1515 – May 26, 1595)

Saint Augustine of Canterbury

Saint of the Day for May 27

(? – May 26, 605)

Reflection

Augustine of Canterbury comes across today as a very human saint, one who could suffer like many of us from a failure of nerve. For example, his first venture to England ended in a big U-turn back to Rome. He made mistakes and met failure in his peacemaking attempts with the Briton Christians. He often wrote to Rome for decisions on matters he could have decided on his own had he been more self-assured. He even received mild warnings against pride from Pope Gregory, who cautioned him to “fear lest, amidst the wonders that are done, the weak mind be puffed up by self-esteem.” Augustine’s perseverance amidst obstacles and only partial success teaches today’s apostles and pioneers to struggle on despite frustrations and be satisfied with gradual advances.

May 23, 2021

The Sunday Mass is at St. Rita Church, Wellington.

The Celebrant is Reverend Marco De Leon, Parochial Vicar. 

The Deacon is Deacon Joe O'Connell. 

The Lector is Jim Flanagan.

The Following is a wonderful Homily I was led to by the Holy Spirit.

Its a short 3 minute read. Enjoy!



Editor’s note: The following homily was preached by the Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., on the Vigil of Pentecost, June 7, 2019, for the Catholic Writers’ Retreat at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey.

Today we find ourselves at the conclusion of the novena to the Holy Spirit, in preparation for the great feast of Pentecost. What I would like to do today is to say a few words about what the Holy Spirit did for one particular woman, for it was the Holy Spirit Who made Mary both Mother of Jesus and Mother of the Church.

All of Mary’s greatness as a Christian can be traced to the fact that the Holy Spirit came upon her, and that she lived in the presence of God, continuously aware of His presence in her life. Our Lady cooperated with the Spirit’s promptings in loving obedience to God’s Word, daily renewing her fiat of the Annunciation. Mary the Virgin heeded the Lord’s plan for her and thus became fruitful. Her life was an on-going Magnificat; she was a woman of peace and joy because she gave the Spirit of God free rein in her life. When Mary experienced the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, she did not keep Him to herself; she immediately went forth to share that experience and its meaning with others. She also realized that a life in the Spirit necessarily involves service to others; therefore, not considering her own precarious situation, she went through the rough hill country to tend to the needs of her elderly cousin, Elizabeth.

What does all this have to do with you and me? A great deal, for what happened in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary can and must happen in our own lives. Each of us has received the Holy Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation, but what have we done with the Spirit? Are we more peaceful, more loving, more joyous for having received those sacraments? If not, the fault is not in the sacraments but in ourselves, that we have not activated the power of the Spirit in our lives.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s birthday of the Church, we cast our glance on the first and greatest Christian who ever lived, knowing that what the Spirit did for Mary, He will do only too gladly for every one of us. Today I would suggest taking some time out for a test to see whether or not you are a Spirit-filled person. The question is very simple: What have you done with the gifts the Spirit of God has given to you? Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them” (Mt 7:16). We know the fruit Our Lady brought forth, for every day we say: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” Are you possessed by God’s Spirit?

Another way of asking that same question is: Have you brought forth Christ to the world in which you live?

The inestimable English Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, with his flare for attention-getting style, produced a grand work, entitled, “The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe”. Interestingly, in Hebrew, ruah encompasses a number of meanings: breath, wind, spirit – all of which come into play in the Pentecost event. Listen to how Hopkins brings all this together in a sampling of his verses here:

Wild air, world-mothering air,

Nestling me everywhere,

That each eyelash or hair

Girdles; goes home betwixt

The fleeciest, frailest-flixed

Snowflake; that’s fairly mixed

With, riddles, and is rife

In every least thing’s life;

This needful, never spent,

And nursing element;

My more than meat and drink,

My meal at every wink;

This air, which, by life’s law,

My lung must draw and draw

Now but to breathe its praise,

Minds me in many ways

Of her who not only

Gave God’s infinity

Dwindled to infancy

Welcome in womb and breast,

Birth, milk, and all the rest

But mothers each new grace

That does now reach our race—

Mary Immaculate,

Merely a woman, yet

Whose presence, power is

Great as no goddess’s

Was deemèd, dreamèd;

whoThis one work has to do—

Let all God’s glory through,

God’s glory which would go

Through her and from her flow

Off, and no way but so.

Did you pick up on some of those lovely, key lines: “world-mothering air,” “nursing element,” “breathe its praise,” “mothers each new grace,” “let all God’s glory through”? As we enter spiritually into the Upper Room with Mary and the apostolic college, we gain confidence in a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us and upon God’s Holy Church – because we, like those first disciples, are united in prayer with the Mother of Christ, who is also our Mother in the order of grace.

A perhaps more famous poem of the Victorian Jesuit, “God’s Grandeur,” reminds us that “the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.” That’s the same Holy Spirit who, at the dawn of time, hovered over the abyss, bringing creation from chaos; the same Holy Spirit who hovered over the Virgin of Nazareth, making her the Mother of her Creator; and yes, the same Holy Spirit who hovers over the elements of bread and wine, transforming them into the Sacred Body and Blood of Christ. The founder of the Communion and Liberation movement, Monsignor Luigi Giussani, encouraged his followers to pray: “Veni, Sancte Spiritus. Veni per Mariam” (Come, Holy Spirit. Come through Mary).

Holy Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, pray for us.

Holy Mary, Queen of the Apostles, pray for us.

Holy Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.

Holy Mary, Queen of Mothers, pray for us.