Pentecost - Inside the Holy Sepulchre

By David Torkington -
‘If you want old ideas read new books, but if you want new ideas read old books’. With these words my spiritual director gave me - ‘Abandonment to Divine Providence’ by the Jesuit French mystic Jean Pierre de Caussade SJ, who died in 1751. The book is perhaps better known under the title- ‘The Sacrament of the Present Moment’ more usually used when the book is translated into English, because this title embodies its central idea. I packed the book in my hand luggage and set off for London Airport to lead a group of pilgrims to the Holy Land for my friend Fr Kenneth Campbell OFM. To thanks me for my help he arranged for me to spend a night in the Holy Sepulchre on the last night of the pilgrimage. I have already described how, after the midnight office, I had had a profound experience that gave me a new understanding of the Resurrection. However while I was praying at Calvary, before the midnight office, I had another experience that gradually led me to an ever deepening understanding of the events that took place on the first Pentecost.  read on...

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