23 May 2012
ive been asked to cross post Fr Seans reflection this week. M B-W
'Receive the Holy Spirit.' Sunday Reflections, Pentecost
Readings
(New
American Bible: Philippines, USA)
Readings
(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional],
Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
(The readings for the Vigil Mass are on the upper part of the page,
those for the Mass During the Day on the lower part of the
page).
Liturgical Note. Pentecost, like Easter and some other solemnities, has a Vigil, properly
so-called. This is not an ‘anticipated Mass’ but a Vigil Mass in its own right,
with its own set of prayers and readings. It fulfils our Sunday obligation.
There may be an extended Liturgy of the Word,er similar to the Easter Vigil,
with all the Old Testament readings used.
The prayers and readings of the Mass During the Day should not be used
for the Vigil Mass, nor those of the Vigil Mass for the Mass During the
Day.
Gospel Mark 20:19-23 (Revised
Standard Version – Catholic Edition)
On
the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where
the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and
said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his
hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus
said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I
send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if
you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
+++
I'm quite happy to live in the present and to look
forward to the future without worrying too much. That is all grace from God.
There is, however, one event in my life that I would, perhaps, like to relive,
if that were possible, which it's not. It was the summer of 1969, less than two
years after my ordination in Ireland, when I was studying in a college north of
New York City. I was also one of the chaplains in the
college.
One day during Lent of that year while walking across
the campus to class I met Betty, a student who was in some classes with me, and
asked her what she was doing for Easter. I was just making small talk. But when
she told me that she and some other students were going to work in a parish in
rural Kentucky as volunteers for that week I got interested - and ended up going
with them. I spent most of Easter week in Lancaster, Kentucky, cleaning up
buildings, getting them ready for summer programmes such as Bible classes and
summer camps for local children. The parish priest, Fr Ralph Beiting, had many
projects and invited students, most at college level bu some still in high
school, to come during the summer for a week, two weeks, a month or longer, to
help run the Bible schools in the four towns in his parish, to staff the two
camps for children to spend a five-day vacation in, to do house-to-house
visitation in pairs, and some other things. He had also founded the Christian Appalachian Project
to help the development of this predominantly poor corner of the USA, and an
area where there was only a handful of Catholics. There were still remnants of
anti-Catholicism.
Fr
Beiting used to go around preaching in towns during the summer, accompanied by
seminarians and other male college students. They'd park their truck at a place
where people could gather and he'd preach basic Christian truths from the back
of the lorry. He was following an old Protestant tradition in the area but one
that was dying out. On one occasion he was driven out at gunpoint but next day
turned up again, not to preach but simply to show himself.
This great diocesan priest had the great gift of
organising and inspiring young people in the service of the Gospel. These gifts
of his helped me to discover a gift I was unaware of - the ability to listen to
people. When I went back to Kentucky for six weeks in the summer of 1969 he
asked me to divide my time between the activities in Lancaster and those in
Cliffview Camp, where each week a group of local youngsters went on Monday
morning and went home on Friday afternoon, with lots of activities to keep them,
and the student volunteers, occupied. Cliffview is now a retreat and conference centre for the
Diocese of Lexington.
Father Beiting wasn't a person you would go to if you
had a problem or wanted to talk about something. He was an 'action man', though
a prayerful one. However, I discovered that many of the young volunteers I was
working with, and some persons older than me, found in me somebody who could
listen to them. I had never been aware of that ability but it was to become very
important in my life as a priest. Indeed, in the case of one young volunteer who
became a close friend and to whom I was to be a mentor, that ability that God
gave me became helped, 12 years later, to draw her back from the brink of
suicide. And in that episode I discovered that sometimes a person of deep and
generous faith can also be very fragile. My friend died the following year, aged
only 29, peacefully and from natural causes. Some months before her death she
told me that she thought she didn't have long to live. I had the good sense to
listen to her and we spoke to each other as persons of faith as to what her
death would mean. There was nothing morbid about our conversation and we went
for an Italian lunch afterwards - my friend was pure Italian - and had a joyful
time together.It was to be our last time to meet.
I
am posting this early because this evening, 23 May, I will be starting a retreat
with four novices and four professed of the Canossian Sisters. It will
end on the morning of 1 June. I will give one talk a day and meet each
retreatant individually each day. This aspect of my life all springs from the
discovery I made in Kentucky in the summer of 1969. I need your prayers
too.
But what I still marvel at, and thank God for, is that
'casual' meeting with another student and a conversation that I didn't see as
having any importance at all. A question that expressed friendliness rather than
curiosity was to receive a profound and life-long answer, not from Betty, but
from the Holy Spirit.
Receive the Holy Spirit . . . as the Father has
sent me, even so I send you.
Veni
Sancte Spiritus (Sequence for Mass on Pentecost Sunday)
Veni, Sancte
Spiritus,
et emitte
caelitus
lucis tuae
radium.
Come, Holy
Spirit,
send forth the
heavenly
radiance of your
light.
Veni, pater
pauperum,
veni, dator
munerum
veni, lumen
cordium.
Come, father of
the poor,
come giver of
gifts,
come, light of
the heart.
Consolator
optime,
dulcis hospes
animae,
dulce
refrigerium.
Greatest
comforter,
sweet guest of
the soul,
sweet
consolation.
In labore
requies,
in aestu
temperies
in fletu
solatium.
In labor,
rest,
in heat,
temperance,
in tears,
solace.
O lux
beatissima,
reple cordis
intima
tuorum
fidelium.
O most blessed
light,
fill the inmost
heart
of your
faithful.
Sine tuo
numine,
nihil est in
homine,
nihil est
innoxium.
Without your
grace,
there is nothing
in us,
nothing that is
not harmful.
Lava quod est
sordidum,
riga quod est
aridum,
sana quod est
saucium.
Cleanse that
which is unclean,
water that which
is dry,
heal that which
is wounded.
Flecte quod est
rigidum,
fove quod est
frigidum,
rege quod est
devium.
Bend that which
is inflexible,
fire that which
is chilled,
correct what goes
astray.
Da tuis
fidelibus,
in te
confidentibus,
sacrum
septenarium.
Give to your
faithful,
those who trust
in you,
the sevenfold
gifts.
Da virtutis
meritum,
da salutis
exitum,
da perenne
gaudium,
Grant the reward
of virtue,
grant the
deliverence of salvation,
grant eternal
joy.
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