Unveiling Christianity
These conversations at Holy Family Parish in Parma, Ohio seek to encounter and share the beauty, goodness, and truth of God and the Church.
Unveiling Christianity
"Who is the the Holy Spirit and What is Pentecost?"
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Ordination Mass - https://www.youtube.com/live/5nPnpvER_Dg?si=BaTLBeinquvYqwI6
Blessing of Water at Baptism - https://icelweb.org/musicfolder/BaptismalWater.pdf
The Nuptial Blessing - https://www.foryourmarriage.org/the-nuptial-blessing/
Music Copyright: https://artlist.io/
Hello, hello everybody, and welcome back to another episode of Unveiling Christianity. I am Father David. And I'm Mark Turnus. Here we are, Mark, another week.
SPEAKER_00Did you have a good weekend? I had a wonderful weekend. It was my birthday weekend. I celebrated. Celebrated it. Yeah, this is my 69th trip around the sun. Wow. So uh I celebrated it for three straight days. So it was really, really cool. Why not eight straight days? Well, because that's too real that's that's I don't want to keep it. Too religious. It's the octave, you know. You could celebrate the whole octave. But I did. I had I had I had lunch with my grandkids and daughter, and then I had my best friend over and played some disc golf and had dinner, and then I had a picnic with my twin sister. So it was it was really cool. It was a weekend for picnics. It was a weekend for celebration.
SPEAKER_01Indeed. It's uh it is a celebratory time of year, right? We had um all kinds of things. We had it well, we had ordination on Saturday morning at the uh Cathedral St.
SPEAKER_00John's, which is uh we're just I'd like to, I don't know how how much you want to talk about that, but I I know nothing about it. It's one of the sacraments I've never participated or witnessed. Okay, really shame on me because it's so beautiful, but I've never seen one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no, for sure. A lot of people haven't necessarily seen an ordination, right? Well, um to say and to re-emphasize, we're super blessed in our diocese to have um what we have. So we have two seminaries, right? We have our our our college program and then our our major seminary, St. Mary's. Yes. And so you know we have seminaries. There are many dioceses that that don't have very many seminarians, and we haven't gone without an ordination, I I don't think ever, right? And we had it fluctuates the number of uh men who are ordained each year, uh six this year. Yes, uh, one um so five for the diocese ultimately, and then one uh one of the guys is from South Korea. Really? So we actually have a relationship with the Archdiocese of Degu.
SPEAKER_00But but he had his all of his seminary formation here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, seminary formation here, ordained here, and he'll spend here for a number of years, okay. And then and then he'll go back to his country. So uh I did not know that. Yeah, yeah. So um we're really blessed with that. Uh our seminaries, uh, and then our seminarians, and ultimately our priests. And we have a beautiful cathedral, you know, as well, downtown St. John's, which is really exciting. They're gonna be doing a big renovation project next couple years. Uh the some of the images and stuff are online. It's uh gonna look really beautiful, uh, just addressing number number of needs for the cathedral and uh and that.
SPEAKER_00But the beauty of the cathedral is there's so much history there that you can't all the tombs and and you know that that is so beautiful. Yeah, the crypt where the bishops are.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, which is actually it's interesting. I someone was talking the other day, and when they built the cathedral currently, that's on East Ninth, you know, kind of the center of downtown, it was considered kind of out in the boonies. Wow. When they when they built it. They they're like, why is it so far from everything? But they did a really great, you know, maybe the Holy Spirit, right? Um, they really did a really great job of picking the place, obviously, because then you know the downtown area is like right there. Uh not every cathedral is, you know, necessarily in a downtown, it depends on when it was constructed and everything. So yeah, really beautiful. So St. John the Evangelist, you know, is our is our cathedral and everything. And yeah, we had six men ordained, and yeah, so the there is the live stream and everything. So they did um they do to that. So if you want to go watch that, can include a link. But it's a really beautiful mass. It's long. I mean, it's uh especially when there's six guys, it's about two and a half hours or so. And uh I mean the cathedral was packed with people, probably a thousand people or more, who knows? But there's a number of different uh elements to it. So you have mass as normal, you know, the the readings and the homily, and then and then the ordination rite comes afterwards. And so there's uh there's a number of uh different things that happen. There's the the laying out of the hands, which we'll get to actually, is when the Holy Spirit is kind of called called down upon them. Uh there is the anointing with a sacred chrism uh on the hands. I know the handing of the gospel. Oh that's for that's for the uh deacon. Oh that's because I heard that when we had Deacon Dale in here. Yeah, your hand of the gospel is a deacon because you're a servant of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00I understand that. Okay, this okay, this is a little bit of a good thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and then uh there's the fraternal kiss, so it's uh you know, the um um the the holy hug, I suppose, you know, with uh the bishop and the priests and yeah, it's um yeah, just the gesture of fraternity in the priesthood. And then the handing of the chalice and the uh patent.
SPEAKER_00So uh the chalice and the and the I don't want to belabor it, but does every priest that is being ordained have his own chalice there or not yet?
SPEAKER_01Not there currently. They will at their first mass, okay, they will oftentimes have a new chalice, uh either a brand new chalice or a chalice that has been formerly used, and maybe they maybe they touched it up, you know, got the.
SPEAKER_00The bishop hand hands the chalice that he is using.
SPEAKER_01Yes, for the mass. Sorry, yes. No, good question. Yeah, so the chalice I believe he's using for the mass. Okay. He kind of symbolically hands them the chalice. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I gotta get to one. I don't want to watch it on TV. I want to go to one. Yeah, well next time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, have to wait, yeah. But uh yeah, no, their chalice at their first mass. So their mass of thanksgiving, their first technically the ordination would be their first mass, but you know, their first mass that they would be presiding. Okay. They would um uh there's a prayer of uh kind of like a consecration of a new chalice and things. So yeah, it's uh it's it's really beautiful. But yeah, we'll I'll I'll talk about the epiclesis, the laying out of the hands in a moment. But yeah, really beautiful. So it's awesome they're going out to parishes around the diocese and and all that. So very good. And we uh uh right down the right down the way from the cathedral is uh Masthead Brewery. So af afterwards, it's uh kind of like the unofficial hangout after the uh after the ordinations and stuff and big events downtown, and so it's nice. They have pizza, it's kind of wide open space. They have a the best coffee beer in the world. Oh the nitrost out, yeah. Yep. It's always fun to watch people because like you know, you have a bunch of priests, and you know, it just uh the whole group kind of comes in and uh just to kind of see people's reactions and stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that would be interesting.
SPEAKER_01There happened to be also some military guys there, some naval officers. Because I guess it was like the I think the USS Cleveland.
SPEAKER_00At the ordination or the bar? The brewery.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, I don't know. Yeah, no, the the the brewery. They uh I think the USS Cleveland or something is a new ship, or forgive me. I don't know the okay. But there I think there was a naval uh event going on downtown. So it was kind of fun to have all these the priests and the military all together in a bar. I think there's a beginning of a they we were saying there's a beginning of a joke here or something.
SPEAKER_00There has to be some one somewhere. I'll let you work on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So but yeah, it was a beautiful weekend, and uh then another first of the weekend, I got I got out for a first first round at Mr. Divotts. Really? Yeah, good for you. So got the few first few swings with the clubs. How it went? Uh surprisingly not bad.
SPEAKER_00For a first round, that's yeah. Surprisingly not. It's always a surprise. It's like a box of chocolate. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01There you go.
SPEAKER_00That first round.
SPEAKER_01It's like, oh, it was okay, just just the driving range. Oh, okay. Just the driving range. Okay. Well, that's good. Good job. But it was, it was a beautiful Sunday was a beautiful day to get out. So it's been nice. Absolutely. So all right. Well, let's uh jump into our topic today. Actually, well, we're gonna jump into a little recap of last episode. So we'll have a couple topics here. Uh well, an appetizer. Okay, if you will. I like that. I like that. As Americans, we like appetizers, right? Yeah. Have a meal before your meal. Yes, we're talking about food a lot as well. So good. Well, no, I just want to do I wanted to follow, I was thinking about our last episode. There was one point we kind of um we started to talk about something, got jumbled up a little bit, which is okay, you know, because uh, you know, sometimes these things happen. But I wanted to flesh out a little more of a thought we had, which was so we were last time we were talking about the sacraments and everything, right? And we're explaining the epiclesis. You remember what the epiclesis.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I remember that. It's just like the laying of on of hands, and I got a little confused if you go back and listen. I was a little bit confused as to what what exactly the laying of hands means, and but uh we can go back and look at that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, no, it was good. It wasn't you, it was more of like you uh I I wasn't fully developed in the thought. I because I was trying to we weren't connecting. No, no, no. I I I was trying to visualize at what point in each sacrament you know does the epiclesis happen. So epiclesis comes from the Greek word uh calling down, right? So we're calling down the spirit. And so to say every sacrament has an encounter with God as a it's not just a simply a ritual, an external kind of thing that makes us look Catholic, right? But uh there's it's about an encounter and an interior transformation. How does encounter and interior transformation happen? But through the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, right? Yes. So yeah, so we were saying there's an epiclesis with each sacrament. So there's a calling down of the Holy Spirit at each sacrament. Do you do you have any sense of? I'll put it in your chord. Do you have any sense of when that happens?
SPEAKER_00I I do. I know I'm I'm not going to do all of them because I don't know all of them, but I know the ones I'm very, very familiar with. The the Eucharist, I know the epiclesis, right before the consecration where you hold your hands over the bread and right and call the spirit to make the the change. And it's like the most I know the all pieces of the Mass are very, very important, but that's like the most exciting part of the Mass for me. I I I you know me, I I don't have very good patience. Oh, exactly. And I and we were just talking about that a little while ago. I I don't have good patience, but I I I really anticipate that part, and then obviously communion, and it's like, let's go, let's go. But in any event, that's it. And then the other one, recently, my my granddaughter was baptized, and I know that he puts his hands over the water. Yes, good. Yeah, you got it. I got that one. So for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's a big there's a big blessing for the water, and uh it's really beautiful. I'll I'll include a link to that on another prayer too. So the the blessing of the baptismal water is really beautiful, it's a long prayer, but it it it invokes all of the places where water with God used water to enter into and sanctifying.
SPEAKER_00I remember it vaguely, but yeah, the purpose of the thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it kind of starts in Genesis and you kind of goes through things. So yeah, but the yeah, the extension of the hands or the calling on the Holy Spirit is on the blessing of the water, which will then be used to baptize you know the person, right?
SPEAKER_00Okay, I'm I'm running out of gas here, so you're gonna you're gonna have to help me.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so yeah, those two sacraments, the extension of hands. Whenever you see hands extended, it's easy to know, right? So the blessing of the water of baptism, you have uh extension of the hands over the bread and wine uh at mass at the altar. Confirmation is obviously itself. There's a there's a point at which the bishop and the priests extend their hands. Uh, you know, and doesn't and to say your hands, their hair and their hands are extended, they don't physically touch you know the head of each person. Um so that's that's one way to do it, or if there's it says the ritual says, or if there's a large group of people because of time and this and that, you would they could extend hands and then the Holy Spirit would bridge the gap, if you will, right? So there's that, and then um okay, so then the the two sacraments of healing, right? You'd have uh sacrament of reconciliation, right? So there will be uh during the prayer of absolution, the prayer of forgiveness, the priest would actually extend his I the priest extends his hand over the person. You know, some priests will touch the head of the person, you know, it's a calling down to the the God's presence to be with them to offer them forgiveness. Uh anointing of the sick. This has also been referred to as last rites at different periods of time to say, you know, to give the clarification, you know, uh last rites is the sacrament of the anointing of the sick. That there uh is a point in which the priest will place his hands uh physically on the person's head, you know, to call down the Holy Spirit uh upon them. And then marriage and uh holy orders, right? So holy orders, there's a there's a point at which um the the bishop will lay hands on each of the men's uh head. But it's really cool, and it takes a little bit of time, but it's it's beautiful. Um and the choir, the diocesan choir sings the Veni Sancte Spiritus, which is Come Holy Spirit in in Latin, but that after the bishop, each one of the priests present at the Mass will physically you know lay hands on each of the uh the men being ordained. So it's kind of a long process, you know, it's uh takes a little bit for that to all to happen, but yeah, it's just really kind of really really beautiful. Uh but then let's see, the last one will be holy matrimony, which would be so That's a hard one for when does that happen, right? So yeah, I don't know. So there is you know the there's the consent and the vows that are given, right? So the the the questions and then uh the the vows that are given. So that's the sacrament, right, in a sense that um that the the couples enter into, but it's also significant that you later in the mass, it's actually after the Our Father that there's the nuptial blessing. So the the marriage blessing the marriage blessing. And the the couple the sometimes the priest can go over to the couple and extend his hands while he prays. Or the couple can come down in front of an altar and kneel if there's if there's pray does there, little kneelers, uh, they can kneel down. Uh but it's actually kind of right at the time of communion, yeah, right, after the consecration's happened, the time of the the time of distribution of communion that that happens. So totally aware of that blessing.
SPEAKER_00I just never focused on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, right, there's uh there's a specific I'll I'll include a link to that prayer as well. But there's specifically a prayer of the Holy Spirit, right? And so to to to bless this, this, this natural union that has come together, uh just to say, you know, the the vow, the consent and the vows are a a natural uh marriage, a natural promise. It's also this the sanctification of that union uh with the Holy Spirit. So fun, right? Fun. Okay, well, good. So just gonna double back on that. We want to flesh that a little more, and it's uh good because you know it's coming up, Pentecost is this weekend, you know, right? Wow. So the seven weeks come to a close. Pretty crazy, right? All right, so Pentecost. Um what can we first say about Pentecost? What is what is Pentecost here, Mark?
SPEAKER_00Pentecost is after the uh ascension of Jesus, he told his uh disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. Go and wait. Go and wait. And and they did, and they waited after the ascension, they waited for whatever it is. The church celebrates nine days, but right they they waited and the Holy Spirit came to them.
SPEAKER_01Right. It's kind of interesting to think, you know, how many times Jesus just asked for things that were rather ambiguous, right? Oh they just had to go, oh, go here and wait. Right. So uh wait for what?
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, well he was at the resurrection he said go to Galilee and wait. Right. And then he goes to Galilee and then he says, Go to uh Jerusalem and wait.
SPEAKER_01Right. Yes, but he was so but he was talking about how the Spirit would be he would send his spirit uh upon them, right? So they're gathered in the upper room, and the Holy Spirit uh descends upon them in wind and fire and all these things, right?
SPEAKER_00Jesus made a big deal of of the coming of the Holy Spirit. For sure. At the end of his life and all the discourses and everything he made. This is a big deal. Kind of a big deal. So it's kind of a big deal. So it should be a kind of a big deal for the church.
SPEAKER_01Indeed. Yeah, so Pentecost, that's the that's the event, but it's like where do we even get that word, right? So Pentecost, you know, penta, you know, is comes from fifty. Yeah, pent is fifty. And it actually, so we wanted to go back before we talk about well, anyway, just talking about the old testament, right? So so actually there's the Holy Spirit and there's Pentecost. Actually, within the Old Testament, it's not like uh simply an invention of the of the Christian church, right? So maybe first, like where would you where would you say the Holy Spirit is you know the Holy Spirit didn't just show up at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was there before, right?
SPEAKER_00The the Holy Spirit was there from the beginning. From the beginning, right? When God created everything, Father, Son, and Spirit, and the Spirit visual you get is hovering over the water and and all the vastness and wasteland, for sure. Yeah. And then after that, the spirit is all throughout the old testament. It was uh in Isaiah, uh, when talking about the suffering servant, he this the spirit is upon him. Right. Um, Ezekiel, which I got really into over the Easter season, in that chapter 34, 37 on the dry bones, where he's calling the spirit down and and he's calling the spirit on them. Actually, Moses called called the spirit to help him when he was kind of over overburdened. Right, right. And the spirit came upon uh some helpers for him. But it's it goes back to to day one, if they can call it day one. It goes back to creation. Sure, yeah. And uh you're right, uh God breathed uh his life.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00God breathed his breath into Adam's nostrils. I mean, and that was the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01He was yeah, the the the the um Hebrew word for that is rua. I love that word. I I did know that and I loved that word. For breath and everything. Yeah, so the Holy Spirit's all over you know the whole uh the Old Testament, right? Yes, uh they didn't have a Christian uh kind of formulation of the the Trinity at that point, right? But but to say uh God was fully and present and all all there. Yeah, I mean so another so significantly, so the Jewish people actually celebrated Pentecost themselves. Interestingly.
SPEAKER_00So I did not know that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's actually the Jewish celebration of Pentecost, and that's these these feasts kind of correlated with each other, that it was a moment where so Moses Israelites they're wandering through the desert, being promised the promised land. Well, there's a really important moment where they go to Mount Sinai, and you know, there's Moses and Ten Commandments and the Golden Calf and Aaron and you know all that stuff, which by the way, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the promised land is a TV show and it's hilarious. It's like it's like it's like the Ten Commandments and the Office was put into one really TV show. You'll have to check that out. So they have this um you know the Ten Commandments and and all this stuff, and it's the reality of when they received the Ten Commandments, they were receiving the law. You know, and the law not simply just a list of rules, you know, but it's it's the reality of this is this is life that's being given from God. You know, this is a way of life with God that if if you if the if God's people lives in this way, there's gonna be fruitfulness and freedom, but uh because this is kind of what what it looks like to live with God, right? So the giving of the law was very, very important. Uh and then the and then there was actually um you know a sacrificial kind of ritual along with that too, where Moses, you know, uh sprays the people with blood of the lamb and everything. So then there's Eucharistic kind of themes in there too. But this was a major moment for a major moment, a covenant moment for God's people where they were made anew, right? Especially right after this kind of moment of infidelity, right? Where they had the golden calf and all that stuff, right? So they had sent celebrated the Pentecost, you know. There was uh it was this time where they were given the law, right? And so then you have fast forward to to Jesus and the upper room and and the ascending of the spirit, it's it's this this recreation uh of God's people, you know, through through the Holy Spirit. So interesting, right? It is it is it is what I found most interesting in my learning of Catholicism, just how everything is connected and everything you know, there's always like a deeper and deeper and deeper meaning to everything, which is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_00I'm I'm not I'm not gonna belabor this because it sounds trite and I'm not trying to be, but the Holy Spirit connects the dots. It it always felt like that. Yeah, the Holy Spirit kind of because he I it was so beautifully said by Barron, Robert Barron, the Holy Spirit is the love that the Father breathes back and forth from the Son to the Father. And the Holy Spirit is is that love, so to speak. Um I always I he he connects everything for sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Okay, so that's good. So that's kind of like going into like who the Holy Spirit is, right? And that's we with the confirmation kids this year, we talked about not like what is the Holy Spirit, it's who is the Holy Spirit. Right. The Holy Spirit is a person, a divine person of the third person of the Trinity, right? Right. And as you say, it's it's the love. The Holy Spirit is the love that's shared between the the Son and the Father. And I guess it's interesting because artists have had uh quite a time of trying to figure out how to depict the Holy Spirit. You know, we like to be able to do it. We're talking about sacraments and things. We want to be able to see something.
SPEAKER_00You know, Jesus is easy. He was a first century Jewish man. Right. So you can you can picture that.
SPEAKER_01Right, and we can we can kind of imagine what a father looks like. Kind of a fatherly figure.
SPEAKER_00A fatherly figure looks like you got this spirit. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so we got a we got two dudes and a bird, right?
SPEAKER_00Well, that's what they that's what they use a lot.
SPEAKER_01I'm more into the fire than the bird, right? Indeed. So not to not to make a joke, but just it it is. No, no, we want to try to imagine. It's hard. Like, how do we imagine the Holy Spirit? So there's different symbols, right? So there is the dove, which symbolizes peace.
SPEAKER_00Uh there's And that goes all the way back to Noah.
SPEAKER_01Right. That's true, right? And another presence. So it's another presence back to the Old Testament. So yeah, right. And so there's the other three elements would be um, there's lots of them, but you know, uh fire, wind, and water are all um kind of images of the Holy Spirit, because they all have aspects that are really important. You know, fire gives gives light and and warmth and guidance. Yeah. Water, you know, gives life. You know, without water, you know, things can't exist, right? And but then also um was it fire, air, wind.
SPEAKER_00Fire, w oh yeah, wind, sorry. Wind, wind, yeah, so the breath power. Yeah, the breath of breath. But the power too of the Holy Spirit. Right.
SPEAKER_01Totally. Yeah, so those are all kind of different elements that get to the whole who the Holy Spirit is. God who wants to give us life, God who wants to uh guide us, the guide of the God, God who wants to enlighten us and and all these things, right?
SPEAKER_00And none of them are right. They're all right, and they're just really fun to meditate on and think about and pray about. And it's just that's very comforting for me. And I I I'll probably turn to one or the other at any particular time in my life.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. Yeah. For sure. And uh yeah, I was I was as I was thinking about that, I went to a uh priest conference with uh St. Paul Center. So Dr. Scott Hahn is a biblical theologian and everything. And he was a Protestant who came became Catholic and uh would highly recommend anything from him in the St. Paul Center. But he has a colleague, uh Dr. John Bergsma, and he teaches. And that at this priest conference, the three talks that Dr. Bergsma was giving was on the Holy Spirit, image of the Holy Spirit, so fire, wind, and water. But he took an interesting point of kind of breaking them down uh scientifically, because it's crazy just how much science has given us about an understanding of these elements that each of these elements, if if all of them didn't exist, the world wouldn't exist. Right, right. And the basic four elements and the particular ways that they do, but even just like within them, if they were uh there's a million trillion ways, if they were different than exactly how they are, they wouldn't work, you know.
SPEAKER_00I've I've heard that.
SPEAKER_01Like our air is very specific, that it provides life. And uh I yeah, I'm not gonna do anything of justice. He talked for probably a half an hour on each one. I I hear what you're saying though. But it was something like you know, with with water, just the the qualities that it has that it can evaporate and all these things, but then when it turns into a solid form, it floats. If if ice didn't float, we'd have a problem. Yeah. Because that means the the the oceans would freeze all the way to the bottom. Right. You know, and to say just yeah, it's interesting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So and you wouldn't be able to have any ice in your in your iced in your iced tea. I know. I went with iced tea today. You have uh ice regular coffee. You have iced tea. Indeed. I didn't put in our caffeine. I didn't put any ice in it, but it was cold enough. We digressed in the fridge. So um, but yeah, anyway, so there's different images of the Holy Spirit that we have given to us in the scriptures. So we're here to celebrate Pentecost this weekend, right? And uh it's really a significant, it is a significant moment. Kind of like the Holy Spirit, it's kind of like the forgotten person of the Trinity, uh, as being has been kind of said.
SPEAKER_00That is so true. And and and as we were talking before that that on Pentecost the Holy Spirit was first revealed. Right. Revealed is the is the pivotal word. And he was the last of the Trinity to be revealed to us. So even though he was there in creation. So that's the the importance of this holiday is is right up there by Easter, I think, right? I mean, it's right up there.
SPEAKER_01Knowledge, awareness, and and and and interaction with the Holy Spirit is uh very important for us as Catholics.
SPEAKER_00The Spirit is God. I mean, he he is um I think part of the problem for me always was is the way he was referred to, even by Jesus, you know, the Paraclete, the helper. He'll he'll come and help you. But this he's God, he's God himself, and just just as the Father and the Son. So indeed.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so it's a question of do we realize we need help and how often do we reach out for help? Yes, intentionally, right? Yeah, so so yeah, with this feast of Pentecost, um, it's actually it's very interesting when I was learning to be a priest, right? You're learning stuff about what's in what's in the book, you know, the Roman Missal. So um so the Roman Missal is the book where we get all the prayers from for the Mass and everything. And it's rather interesting. So with Pentecost, actually for the Vigil Mass, there is a there's actually a long ritual. So in the in the book, there's actually seven readings you can do. Um it's a it's a long liturgy. It's actually images what would be done on the Easter vigil.
SPEAKER_00And it should.
SPEAKER_01It's kind of crazy, right? Yeah, I know. Yeah. It's just like I I've never seen this, I've never heard of this before.
SPEAKER_00I I didn't I didn't really hear of it until we started talking about it, but yeah, I can understand its its necessity or it's it's why it's there.
SPEAKER_01Right, right, right. Because right, so Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection, the paschal mystery is the most important, right? But the reality is the paschal mystery doesn't wasn't just an event, it's a reality that's meant to be experienced and encountered, right? Exactly. And how is it going to be experienced and encountered, but through the power of the Holy Spirit within the church throughout the ages.
SPEAKER_00Right. I don't really quote uh catechism a lot, but at 683 of the catechism, there's a line. Uh to be in touch with Christ, we first must be in touch with the Holy Spirit. That's kind of interesting because a lot of us I think feel like we get it backwards. You know, I I I came to Jesus first and then the Holy Spirit. Yeah. But to really be in touch with Christ, you really need to be touch in touch first with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. It's kind of like St. Jerome's line, you know, ignorance of the scriptures is uh is ignorance of Christ. Yes. It's almost like ignorance of the Holy Spirit is uh ignorance of Christ, or la you know, lack of relationship with the Holy Spirit is a lack of relationship with Christ, right? And then also the Father, right? Yeah, but and that's a I mean that's a good point of reflection though, too. Like which person of the Trinity do I do I relate to most, right?
SPEAKER_00That was asked to me by a convert friend of mine a long time ago, and we had a long discussion about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But it's an invitation for us here to to look at our relationship with the Holy Spirit. So yeah, so Pentecost is actually it's actually a great celebration, right? It's an important celebration, it's about the sending of the Spirit, so the Spirit works in the church. And yeah, I don't know, it'd be interesting. We'll talk, we'll talk about Pentecost next year, uh here at the parish, and maybe we'll maybe we'll expand it a little more. And I think a liturgical celebration and then parish celebration, you know. This is a joyful event, it's a time of recreation uh of the church and sending the spirit. So but there's all kinds of ways we can pray to the Holy Spirit. I mean, uh simply we can just pray, come Holy Spirit, right? That is one we used, we talked about weeks ago. Just come Holy Spirit. Right. So if we have a situation or reality in life, uh or just you know, uh preemptively, right? Just inviting the Holy Spirit. Do it every morning, yeah, to be with us, right? The traditional prayer of the Holy Spirit uh is is this Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall now renew the face of the earth. So put that on your uh your uh what your mirror in your bathroom every morning and memorize it. It's it's an easy one. If you do that a few times, I'm sure you can do that too. Gold star bonus points.
SPEAKER_00Yep, say it every day for 30 days and you'll memorize it. See what and see what changes. There you go. Right?
SPEAKER_01Maybe that's the Pentecost challenge. Yeah. Say this day, say this prayer every day, you know, and see and see what changes.
SPEAKER_00Just like a novena. Right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so there's other plays ways to pray the Holy Spirit too, litanies and novenas, right? Mark, do you know anything about litanies and novenas?
SPEAKER_00I love them. I I I've done them. I I love them. The a novena is technically um Yeah, what is a novena? It's it's a nine-day prayer that's practiced in in the in the Catholic tradition. It's it centers normally around a major religious holiday. It follows a list of specific prayers that you pray for nine straight days. And there is one, it's called the Litany of or the Novena to the Holy Spirit. And uh you pray, you begin it the day after ascension, which was Thursday, and you pray it all the way up every day. You take uh the one of to get you right up to Pentecost, and I'm right in the middle of it, and it is a beautiful novena. I absolutely love it. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01I guess maybe it's if you can if you can flesh it out, like why novena? Like, why would we pray for nine days? Like, what does that do?
SPEAKER_00I think it goes all the way back to when we talked about why do we need advent? It gives you time to prepare yourself in a fitting way for a major event. So, Advent, you have all those days. Lent, you have all those days to prepare yourself for Easter. Uh you have 50 days of Easter, but to pray continually for nine days, I think is just a it's just a way to kind of get your focus on on something that you're trying to obtain. And in this case, it's it's a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01The intention of it, right? Because there's all kinds of novitas for different things. And I'll admit it's probably an area I'm I'm a little locking in my own. Don't get me wrong in my life. Yeah. Because I I probably because I forget. So I need something to remind me each more. It would take a little bit of a discipline. So I think I've tried them a c a few times, and then I just I after two days or three days, I I just forget, and so and then I give up, which is not which is the way the evil one comes, you know, which is the way the evil one stops you, is like, well, well, you you missed one day, so you might as well miss the rest, which is totally not logical, right? You know, and is not yeah, not from the Lord, right? Right.
SPEAKER_00So but no, I think, yeah, maybe maybe I'll I'm gonna Yeah, it has a couple of a couple of really cool prayers that you do every day. It's like a consecration to the Holy Spirit, and then you pray for for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and then you focus on one of the gifts every day and pray for it. It's it's it's really cool. I I I recommend it. We're we're halfway through it now, but uh it's a good novena, you can pray anytime. Sure. Yeah, and then there's litanies. What's a what's a litany? You stumped me. Uh I it's a litany of trust, which is my absolute favorite prayer. Oh, yeah. It's where you just continually uh go through a se uh series of uh thoughts or concepts and pray for God or Jesus, or in this case the litany of trust, Jesus I trust in you. Beautiful prayer. Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So a litany is a it's a it's a it's a listed prayer, right? So usually there's an invitation to God's presence at the beginning, and then uh it could be a litany, a litany of a saint or of to trust uh something. So it's kind of re a repetitive, short repetitive prayer. Uh kind of like the rosary. It's a it's a kind of you could say you uh it's a litany of Hail Mary's, right? Yeah. So it's short repetitive prayers, but they're they're helpful because they can just it's kind of like the if if you will, the appetizer to prayer. You you kind of notice what you notice when you pray a litany, and and then you can take that to prayer and uh and all that. And it's just a way of asking for extra help, and it's just kind of an intercession and a repetitive, you know, kind of invitation and intercession. So anyway, all right. Well, there's a little bit about um the Holy Spirit and Pentecost and prayer and kind of a smattering of thoughts here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that was fun. That was that was that was fun very For sure.
SPEAKER_01All right, let's uh jump to our gospel for this Pentecost weekend. Amen. The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. Glory to you, O Lord. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when I when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. The gospel of the Lord. Yeah. Love it. For sure. Good stuff, right? Yeah, I just want to comment, you know, that uh you know he breathed on them. This is the same rua, this is the same word that's used when Adam when God breathes, you know, life into Adam's lungs. Right.
SPEAKER_00I I focus on um when the doors were locked for fear of the Jews. I mean, they were locked away until Jesus came and gave them the power of the Holy Spirit. And you know, every day it seems I I I share that kind of a fear. I'm I'm afraid of something, I'm nervous about something, I'm anxious about something, uh, something I I really want to kind of pray about this week is to invite the Holy Spirit to kind of relieve that. Where do I want God?
SPEAKER_01Where do I want where do I want to invite God to bring me a deeper freedom? Yes. Yeah. Where do I where do I desire where do I desire freedom in my life? And invite God and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00And and just uh uh a freedom from from fear, because the the apostles were locked up in a room, they were deathly afraid of death.
SPEAKER_01Right. Which is kind of related to the gospel from a couple weeks ago or whenever it was, you know, that he said, I will not leave you, I will not leave you orphans, right? And so another one of my favorite. He's fulfilling what he what he said he would do, right? Yes. All right, great. Any prayer intentions for this week?
SPEAKER_00I do. I had one, I have so much I want to pray about, but I just to just to stay in here, I I pray to the Holy Spirit that he drives out fear in me and my friends and my family and and all Catholics, that like the apostles, we can find strength uh by asking him to come to us. So I pray for the ability of us to do that, to ask for him.
SPEAKER_01Indeed. Yeah, and I'll just continue to uh to pray for our um new priests and our our confirmandi that we had confirmation last even this last this last week, and for them and their families, just that uh the Holy Spirit may continue to uh to be poured out in all that they do. So all right, let's pray. Father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Good and gracious God, Heavenly Father. We just give you thanks and praise uh for this day of our lives, of this Pentecost uh weekend, the celebration we have. We ask you to continue to be with us and send uh out your spirit upon us. Uh and so we can just pray, come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Alright, everyone, have a great day, and we'll uh great Pentecost day, and we'll catch you next week.