Dear brothers and sisters,

                                                It’s Church’s Birthday! It’s Celebration Time!!

Yes, you read me right. It’s Church’s birthday on Pentecost Sunday. It is celebration time, friends. We traditionally celebrate the beginning of the Church, the Catholic Church, on the solemn feast of Pentecost when Jesus fulfilled his promise to send upon his disciples the Holy Spirit who will lead them into all truth. We celebrate the memorial of that incredible day when people of diverse origin and race, united in one Spirit, spoke of the mighty acts of God. What a beauty in diversity! As people are amazed at how the Spirit made access to God possible to multiple and diverse people, we too should rejoice that God sanctions the unity in diversity among those who worship him. As we read from Acts 2: 1-11, Parthians, Medes, and Elamites and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, and other places could hear praises “of the mighty acts of God” from people of Galilee. It is a diverse but united church.
The Poet Maya Angelou wrote, “In diversity there is beauty and there  is strength.” Angelou’s words are accurate and biblical. The single and absolute truth about the Gospel of Jesus Christ is beautifully transmitted and strengthened in multiple expressions worldwide. Truth is one. Truth is beauty and strength when we allow the Holy Spirit to inspire and transform us, friends and followers of Jesus.
In my reflection last week, I wrote:  “Let’s pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We need to have a living experience of the Holy Spirit.” Our prayer is answered on this Pentecost Sunday. We will experience a new Pentecost in our parish. We will demonstrate love, strength, and beauty in the power of the Holy Spirit. We will celebrate our diversity and yet united in spreading the absolute and redemptive Gospel message of the Risen Christ.
We will bear witness to the beauty and strength of our faith in the Eucharistic Jesus carried in procession through Elizabethtown next Sunday, the feast of Corpus Christ. Please, come out in large numbers to sing and speak “of the mighty acts of God.” Come, let us celebrate the renewal, a new birth of our faith and church through a Corpus Christi procession from the church on the hill to the historical church. As the lyrics of that popular Kool & the Gang’s song say, “It’s celebration time, come on.”

Come Holy Spirit!

Fr. Bernard, OP
 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

                                                                       United in the Truth

   We belong to Jesus, who loves us.  He prayed to His Father that we might be united in our witness to His Gospel. Jesus prayed for us! Yes, he did. Isn’t that exciting and reassuring? Jesus prayed that we are “consecrated in the truth” It's when we are united in proclaiming the truth of the Gospel that we can bear witness effectively in the world. We will not live away from the world; we must live in the world. The world does not offer the truth; the world is full of false notions about life, and unwary believers could get lost in them. The life and teachings of Christ are the embodiment of the truth. Christians are set aside in the world to spread this truth.
 
   How do we keep the world in the truth? What guarantees truth? We can steer the world in the path of truth when we know the truth and present it as a united church. United in the proclamation of truth is the effective way to bring the saving grace of Jesus to the world. The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, He is the one who guarantees the truth and its effective proclamation in words and deeds. We need the Holy Spirit to know the truth, abide in the truth, and share the truth with the world.
 
   Let’s pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We need to have a living experience of the Holy Spirit. So often, we do not think of the Holy Spirit the way we think of Jesus. We hardly imagine Him as a person. Yet, He is a person. He is the one who will help us come alive and increase enthusiasm for the faith and inspire us to share the truth of the faith with the world. The church invites us to pray the novena to the Holy Spirit as we prepare for Pentecost, the Church's birthday. I invite you to join the ongoing Novena to the Holy Spirit for a new Pentecost. Our Church is divided, not united. Our Church sometimes appears to be short on proclaiming the unadulterated truth of the Gospel. We need the Holy Spirit. We also need Jesus in the Eucharist.
 
   In this light, our parish intends to have a public procession with the Eucharist on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi on June 6th. Please mark your calendar. It would be one of the significant ways to bear witness to the truth of our faith as one family. Our community needs Jesus more than ever.
 
Come, Holy Spirit!
 
Fr. Bernard, OP
 

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
                                                                    Let’s Bring Love to Life

There is an abundance of references to love in this Sunday’s liturgy of the word. St. Peter says God also poured “the gift of the Holy Spirit” on the Gentiles (Acts 10:45 ); the Holy Spirit is the gift of love shared between the Father and the Son.  In the first letter of  St. John 4:10, John not only says that “God is love,” but adds as well that, “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.”. Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:12). It is love, love, and love that the Scripture invites us to embrace and practice. Let’s bring love to life.
 
The month of May, aka the Month of Mary, is an excellent time to celebrate and live Love. Mary is about love. She is about selfless and devoted love for her Savior and Son, Jesus. This Sunday, we celebrate the secular day devoted to the honor of mothers. This Sunday’s Mother’s day is made more special because we take time to recognize the selfless love of our mothers to the family during this trying time of the covid-19 pandemic. Like Mary, our mothers have demonstrated great love for the family. As Pope Francis wrote, a family is a special place of love: “The joy of love experienced by families is also the joy of the church”( Amoris Laetitia, 1). Let us pray for our family to live in love and grow in love by ensuring we pray the rosary together as a family during May. 
 
The family that honors Mother Mary is key to productive witness to Christian love in the world. I will let the words of Pope Francis say the rest:
“Every family should look to the icon of the Holy Family of Nazareth. ….The treasury of Mary’s heart also contains the experiences of every family, which she cherishes. For this reason, she can help us understand the meaning of these experiences and to hear the message God wishes to communicate through the life of our families” (Amoris Laetitia 30). As a sign of honor and love, our First Holy Communion class will crown Mary this Sunday. We love and honor Mary.
 
Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot love as Christ loves. The Ascension of the Lord is observed on Thursday, May 13, beginning with the vigil Mass on Wednesday, May 12. On Friday, May 14, Novena to the Holy Spirit commences. I strongly encourage everyone to devote time to fervent prayer for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church.
 
To the amazing women who hold our family together through their sacrificial love,
we wish you a Happy Mother’s Day!
 
In His Love,
Fr. Bernard, OP