Pentecost

This weekend, the Roman Catholic Church is celebrating one of the most important feast days: Pentecost. With this celebration, the Church is finishing the wonderful season of Easter, in which we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the beginning of the second part of Ordinary Time. In Pentecost we celebrate also the nativity of the Catholic Church, because it is on that day, that the Holy Spirit came over the Apostles and Jesus’ disciples, and the Church started to announce the good news of the Resurrection of the Lord to all people, following the mandate that the Lord gave them at the moment of His Ascension into heaven: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28: 19-20).

Since the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit has been present in the life of the Church. The Holy Spirit has given the Church the strength to continue the mission to announce the Gospel regardless of all the difficulties that she has had during all her history. We need to always call the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives because He has the same importance as the Father and the Son. He is a member of this Trinity of love. He is here to help all of us with Gifts and Fruits.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit, “According to Aquinas, are ‘habits,’ ‘instincts,’ or ‘dispositions’ provided by God as supernatural helps to man in the process of his ‘perfection.’ They enable man to transcend the limitations of human reason and human nature and participate in the very life of God, as Christ promised (John 14:23). Aquinas insisted that they are necessary for man’s salvation, which he cannot achieve on his own. They serve to ‘perfect’ the four cardinal or moral virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) and the three theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity). The virtue of charity is the key that unlocks the potential power of the seven gifts, which can (and will) lie dormant in the soul after baptism unless so acted upon” (catholic.com). The gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God.

“If the gifts of the Holy Spirit are like virtues, the fruits of the Holy Spirit are the actions that those virtues produce. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, through the gifts of the Holy Spirit we bear fruit in the form of moral action. In other words, the fruits of the Holy Spirit are works that we can perform only with the aid of the Holy Spirit. The presence of these fruits is an indication that the Holy Spirit dwells in the Christian believer” (learnreligions.com). The fruits of the Holy Spirit are charity (or love), joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continence, and chastity. In our personal prayer let us ask the Lord for the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. Through them, we can act properly according to God’s will. The gifts and fruits help us on our daily journey and to go to God’s dwelling place.

Remember, The parish that we dream is the parish that I help to build!

God bless you, and may the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always!

Fr. Jorge Ramirez.