READINGS for 2009-05-31
Solemnity of the Pentecost
TESTIFY
“And you also testify…” – John 15:27
I was the assigned worship leader on the very first youth-oriented Feast. While praying and preparing worship songs, the Holy Spirit inspired me to reflect on the question, “What is your passion?” Then a song crossed my mind: Avalon’s “Testify to Love.” Its chorus goes like this:
For as long as I shall live, I will testify to love. I’ll be a witness in the silences when words are not enough. With every breath I take, I will give thanks to God above. For as long as I shall live, I will testify to love.
In prayer, my heart was set ablaze. Excitement to love, serve and bring people to God’s love and presence ignited me. I was singing not from my skills but from my passion. And my passion was to testify to the love of God as my way of thanking Him. Because I have been saved to serve and have been healed to help.
Before the worship, I prayed John Wesley’s prayer: “I pray to God to set me on fire. People come to see and watch me burn.” During the worship, everybody caught God’s fire.
So I challenge you: Testify! Let’s set the world on fire!
Have a fiery Pentecost! Obet Cabrillas
REFLECTION:
The most potent weapon on earth is the human soul on fire. (Ferdinand Foch)
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful; enkindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created and we shall renew the face of the earth.
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1st READING
The Day of Pentecost marks a most important day for the life of the Church in that the power to live the Gospel, in the form of the third person of the Holy Trinity, was sent to us this day! Without the Holy Spirit, the task of the Gospel is impossible; we will always fail in the call to live the Gospel and proclaim it. With the Holy Spirit, everything becomes possible and we are called into a new relationship with God — a relationship that empowers us by His love and grace to become His children.
Acts 2:1-11
1 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. 2 And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. 3 Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. 5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. 6 At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language? 9 We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, 11 both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
P S A L M
Psalm 104: 1. 24. 29-30. 31. 34
R: Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD, my God, you are great indeed! 24 How manifold are your works, O LORD! The earth is full of your creatures. (R) 29 If you take away their breath, they perish and return to their dust. 30 When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. (R) 31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD be glad in his works! 34 Pleasing to him be my theme; I will be glad in the LORD. (R)
2nd READING
The Holy Spirit never comes to us empty-handed. He always comes with a whole array of gifts — gifts that will give power to our witness of the Kingdom of God breaking forth into the world. The lack of experience of so many of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is, I believe, a sign of how the Kingdom of God is seemingly receding in the hearts of the people of today. We need to pray for a new outpouring of the Spirit of God to win back lost ground and to move towards the final consummation of the world in the Second Coming of Jesus, whenever that will be!
1 Corinthians 12:3b-7. 12-13
3 Brothers and sisters: No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the holy Spirit. 4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; 5 there are different forms of service but the same Lord; 6 there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. 7 To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. 12 As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
G O S P E L
The Holy Spirit always stands as a bridge between us and the Father and the Son. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of His love, that we come to the Father through the Son. This is the traditional theological understanding of the dynamic by which we pray and relate to God. It is not a static understanding and we enter into it on many different levels of consciousness and understanding. Needless to say we will never fully comprehend how it all works, but that is not important; what is important is that it does work and we can enter into it.
John 15:26-27; 16:12-15
26 Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. 27 And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. 16: 12 “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. 13 But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. 15 Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”
my reflections
think: We need to pray for a new outpouring of the Spirit of God to win back lost ground and to move towards the final consummation of the world in the Second Coming of Jesus, whenever that will be!
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God’s special verse/thought for me today________________ _________________________________________________________
T O D A Y ’ S BLESSING LIST Thank You Lord for: ____________________________________
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READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR Joshua 17-20
SABBATH PAUSE
My weekly time with God
THANK YOU LIST
Things to be grateful for from the past week
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SPECIAL NEEDS
Things to ask God for in the coming week
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HIDDEN TREASURE
Most important word God told me this week
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the Fullness oF the spirit
I do not think there are many of us, if any, who would not accept the fullness of the Spirit if it were offered to us. Do you agree with this? Well, the truth is that we have all been given, not just offered, the fullness of the Spirit at our Baptism. When we are baptized we potentially enter into the fullness of the Spirit. The way we access the fullness of the Spirit is through faith. Each of us must make a choice concerning the way we live our lives — whether for Jesus or against Him. If it is the former, then the Spirit is there for us to draw upon as we seek to live the life of a disciple.
It is good for us to reflect on the experience of the apostles as it is here that we can see the stark contrast between life with and life without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, the apostles are a bunch of scared men who were not even willing to venture outside the room they were in — in fact, they were so scared of the Jews that they even locked the doors! Once they received the Holy Spirit, they were willing to stand up in the market place and proclaim the Gospel to anyone who was willing to listen. They were willing to disregard the demands of the authorities to cease their work of evangelization; they were ready to go to their deaths rather than renounce their faith in Jesus Christ.
If these two descriptions of before and after are the poles of a continuum, I wonder where you and I stand on that continuum — near the end marked by the scared apostles or the end where they were willing to be martyred for their faith? Most likely we are somewhere in the middle. Wherever we are at the moment, we need to be moving toward the evangelizing end of the continuum. This is the state of a disciple’s life that should appeal to us, inspiring us to go deeper in our faith walk with Jesus. It is this sort of attitude that will make us witnesses to the Gospel that the world will be unable to ignore! Fr. Steve Tynan, MGL
Reflection Question:
Do I have a heart for evangelization or am I timid when it comes to proclaiming the Gospel to others?
Jesus, grant me the grace to overcome the reluctance in my heart and my fear of men — the fear of standing up in a crowd — so that I will become a great evangelist for You and the Kingdom of God.
St. Petronilla, Virgin and Martyr, pray for us.
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