By Deacon Keith Fournier
The Second Vatican Council in the Catholic Church began with a prayer for a “New Pentecost.” The Holy Spirit was poured out on Pentecost and continues to be poured out on, in and through the Church, for the sake of her mission in the world. The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church and the source of her power for mission.We need to pray for a New Pentecost for the Church in this hour! We need more of the Holy Spirit for the work of the New Evangelization of the Church. We need to be Baptized afresh in the Spirit in order to take our role as a member of the Body of Christ in this new missionary age.
CHESAPEAKE,VA (Catholic Online) – On that first Pentecost the early followers of Jesus gathered as their Lord commanded them, expecting the fulfillment of the promise he had made. We refer to Pentecost as the “birthday” of the missionary church. Their encounter with the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room changed them. They were filled with the same Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead. It capacitated them to carry forward in time the ongoing redemptive mission of Jesus Christ until he returns to complete the work of redemption.
Every year, this celebration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is an invitation to us to have the same encounter. It is the Holy Spirit which makes it possible for us to live lives of sacrificial love, holiness and service in a world that God still loves – a world into which He still sends His Son, through the Body of Christ, the Church, of which we are all members. Read more.