The Driving Wind ~ A Pentecost Reflection

Pentecost

Acts 2:1-11
Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
Gal 5:16-26
Jn 15:26-27; 16:12-15

The driving wind brought change to the lives of the Apostles and those others gathered in the upper room.  It was the first sign that no longer would they live in fear of the future.  As tongues like fire rested on each of them, the Holy Spirit filled them with the zeal and desire to spread the word of Jesus' Resurrection and the good news about the Kingdom of God to all the world.

How wonderful it must have been for the disciples to realize that their words could be understood by all the peoples gathered in Jerusalem that day.  There was no need for a translator...  The Lord was making it possible for everyone to hear and understand the their words.  These Words were for everyone... for the multitudes to hear and believe.  Many must have received those Words with joy that day.  It was a beginning.

The importance of the arrival of the Holy Spirit cannot be underestimated.  In John's Gospel, Jesus realized that the apostles could not bear to hear all that he wanted to tell them.  Probably they were still overwhelmed that Jesus could appear to them as a real and truly alive person and not as a ghost.  And then, of a sudden,  Jesus ascends to his Father and leaves behind frightened disciples who could not yet understand what they must do.

But Jesus had not abandoned them.  He had promised to send "the Spirit of truth" who would guide the disciples and declare to them all that comes from the Father and the Son.  In his letter, Paul tells the Christians of Galatia that they are to "live by the Spirit"...  To be guided by the Spirit and to put away the things of the flesh because the Spirit and the flesh are not compatible.  To live in the Spirit allows one to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit; that is, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  These are the signs of a Christian life... and this is how we also are to live.

Christianity has spread to the ends of the earth, just as Jesus promised and it began with the example of those foreigners in Jerusalem who heard what the Apostles spoke and marveled that they could understand them in their own language.

The joy and hope expressed in Psalm 104 has surely been fulfilled:  "Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth."


 ~ Pentecost (Detail) by El Greco, 1610, at the Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

Oh no! Not MORE cemetery art!!??

Have you noticed? Hard to miss that I've used several cemetery art images recently. Somehow, this art has caught my imagination. It all started a year or so ago when one of my plurky friends started photographing these lovely statues at a cemetery she went to. One of the photos that stayed in my memory had an added attraction: she placed a live rose in the photograph. It made the image even more sad and melancholy. But nonetheless, even more beautiful.

I really don't consider this art morbid. I think it expresses the sadness at the loss of the loved one that the family is experiencing. It also expresses to future generations that this dead person was once alive just like we are... with similar joys and sorrows... and that someone was mourned just as we will be when we leave this earth...

This week is Holy Week. We will be remembering that our God allowed His Son to die so that we might live. There was mourning at the tomb... But sunrise brought the joy of Resurrection!


~ Image from a Paris cemetery

Don't say "Goodbye"...

The priest and I again visited Minnie who had just been moved to another hospice care facility. She was getting much weaker but she purposely forced herself to sit up in the bed because she wanted to be anointed again and to receive Communion.

Because Minnie was so weak, I suggested that the priest do only what was necessary for the rite, rather than every prescribed prayer. She was able to receive Communion and, I know, she was grateful that we had come.

As we were getting ready to leave and were saying our goodbyes, Minnie spoke up and in no uncertain terms, reminded us: "Don't say goodbye... say, See you later!"

Minnie died two days later...

See you later, my precious friend... when we all meet at the throne of mercy... May you rest in peace in the arms of our loving Father.

Thinking outside of the box...

When you get as old as I am, you are generally pretty set in your ways, as far as thinking is concerned. It's really hard to look at a problem and not approach it in a similar way you have approached it for most of your adult life. It's hard to think outside the box!

But one sometimes has to do just that in order to grow in your relationship with God. What??!!

Okay, so I had an appointment with my SD this week and I was bringing a problem of mine that I haven't been able to work out. It concerns a parish situation that is really frustrating to me... and to many others... When I get frustrated, I also become angry about the situation... because what I want to happen, doesn't... and I know others feel the same way and they are frustrated and angry too.

I am well aware that my frustration and anger has as its basis, my nemesis, PRIDE! Yikes! Lord, I need help! I'm not doing too well on my own.

Without going into details about the parish situation, I asked my SD for help in changing something in this equation of frustration, anger and pride... I wanted to break the cycle of how I was looking at the situation. I couldn't do it myself because I didn't know how to think out of the box that I had created because of my approach to other situations in the past...

My SD apparently understood something I didn't... or couldn't see... Something very simple that has now been a great help in how I look at the parish situation and my response to it...

"Have you ever thought that maybe by not allowing the situation to be resolved, that God is trying to teach you something?"

Do you see the light bulb that just came on? Habits of how one responds to things are so deeply ingrained they are very hard to break. My SD showed me there are other ways of looking at a problem. Of course, I know that... BUT I couldn't apply it to myself until he made the connection!

Lord, you send me your graces in so many ways...

The end of days...

I am very very tired tonight... I have had a busy day.

This afternoon, I received an email from our parish secretary alerting us that Minnie was back in the hospital and not doing well. Also, that one of our elderly parishioners had had a stroke and was in the local VA hospital in the hospice unit.

Minnie is my friend who has recently been diagnosed with metastatic cancer... I had been bringing Communion to her since an earlier hospitalization. I had not been able to get in touch with her for the last week and didn't know what was going on. Minnie is one of our Wednesday evening Mass participants and has been the one to set up for the Mass ever since I realized how much she wanted to do this herself. So I stepped aside and set up the lectionary instead...

After I read the email, I called the parish office to speak to our priest. I asked if he was planning to visit these two parishioners this afternoon because family members had asked for him. I wanted to go with him. So we agreed on a time. Our priest is one of our foreign priests and is happy to have someone accompany him on these visits.

The hospital where Minnie had been admitted is a large complex of hospitals and requires a lot of walking and directions on how to go from one place to another. There are even slips of paper with directions to help people find their way. When we arrived at her room, Minnie was awake but a little confused in talking to us... She has had many tests and lots of bad news.

Our priest anointed her and gave her Communion... Because she is dear to me, I asked to say a short prayer too. Her son had just come in to be with her and he eventually walked us through the maze of corridors on our way out. He told us how serious her cancer is. I hope she will eventually be able to return home... but only God know if that will be possible.

Our next visit was to our elderly gentleman parishioner who had been admitted to the local VA hospital with a stroke. This hospital is garden style and it felt like we had to walk a mile through another maze of corridors before we arrived in the hospice section. Fortunately, a volunteer led us to our destination. Our parishioner was alone and either asleep or in a coma... the nurses could not give us any information about him since no family members were present. One of the nurses tried to arouse him but was not able. He may have been sedated... Anyway, our priest also tried to rouse him but I suggested that he simply anoint him and I left a note to his family that we had visited and that the priest had anointed him.

We finally returned to the rectory in time for our Wednesday evening Mass and I took over once again, the setting up that Minnie had always loved to do. I wonder if she will ever be able to return...

Heavenly Father, if it is your will, bring healing of mind, body and spirit to your daughter, Minnie and to your son, George.

It's been that kind of a week...

Yes, it's been that kind of week. You know how it goes: where you have a long list of things you want to accomplish and at the end of the week, the list hasn't gotten much shorter. In fact, as the week goes on, you remember even more things that belong there, so the list gets added to several times.

One very heartening thing happened at Mass this morning. One of the choir members turned around to me and said very quietly, "Boo said to tell you that you can bring him Communion any time." Boo is her husband and a former long time member of the choir. He had to retire from the choir a couple years ago because of severe emphysema and he is on oxygen. He very seldom can come to Mass anymore because it is too much of a hardship for him.

Boo is a person who wants only the priest to come to bring him Communion. Our previous priest apparently visited him from time to time. Unfortunately, our present priest is not cut from the same cloth. But since Boo wishes to receive Communion more regularly, he has now asked his wife to tell me that I can do this for him. This is a big step for Boo and I was taken by surprise at his wife's request because I know his preference for the priest. It's a pity, isn't it? But I am grateful for this opportunity... God is good...

Dear readers, come to my bookshop!

No, that's not my pile of books! But this is a good representation of what I am doing at my shop! Trying to separate my freebie books that a vendor gave me, price them and then place them on shelves.

I love books!!! And with my bookshop, I have been in seventh heaven, selecting books that I want to read. I have a pile of books crammed into a small bookcase behind my desk where I keep the "important stuff" for my shop. They are the books I have picked out to read from the piles I go through.

I would never have believed that I would ever have a bookshop of my own. This just didn't seem possible... and then it all fell into place with our flea market shop. God works in some interesting ways!

Tax time is coming up soon... that means I will have to take an inventory of my books. Takes about a week... My guess is that I have around 3000 books!

In the meantime, let me enjoy what I'm surrounded with!