Family Faith Reflections from Chris

We’ve reached the end of the Month of Mary, and this year May 31 ^st happens to also be Pentecost. That doesn’t happen very often. It has fallen on this day only three times in the last hundred years. It’s a big deal!
 
Pentecost is the day that the Holy Spirit appears to the disciples in a vision of wind and fire, and it launches them on a mission to share Jesus Christ with the world. It’s sometimes called “the birthday of the Church” because it established a potent and lasting relationship between the People of God and the Spirit of God. It was a change people could immediately see, and we have proof of just how effective it was. That morning, the disciples had been cowering in the Upper Room, afraid for their lives; by evening, they were preaching fearlessly in the streets — and to great effect, as three thousand people asked to be baptized that very day. On Pentecost, the disciples became a powerful force for change in the world.
 
But they were late to the party. Thirty (ish) years before, in a rather less dramatic way, the Holy Spirit came upon the first disciple. Without wind or fire or crowds of
people cheering, the Archangel Gabriel promised a young Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.  Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
 
The Holy Spirit first comes to us privately, as well. We encounter the Spirit in prayer, when we ask — and sometimes beg — God for strength, for patience, for wisdom when we face hard choices. We turn to God for guidance, for clarity, for courage in the face of difficulty. And as we pour out our problems to the Father, he fills us instead with his Spirit. The same Spirit that set the apostles on fire and brought Jesus Christ to birth.
 
Mary, filled with the Spirit, introduced Jesus Christ to the world. Today, let’s honor all the ancestors of our faith who passed the Gospel from one generation to another and, finally, entrusted it to us. Then, let’s ask the Spirit to make us a new generation of apostles.  We’ll bring Jesus into the world, just like Mary. Let’s make our mother proud!