Vol. 37 No. 33        MAY  23, 2010        Cycle C PENTECOST  SUNDAY They were all filled with the Holy Spirit   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------     ENTRANCE ANTIPHON The love of God has been poured into our hearts by his Spirit living in us, alleluia. PENITENTIAL RITE On the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, the Church was born. The Spirit-filled Apostles’ proclamation of the message of salvation surprised all those who had assembled in Jerusalem for the feast. What does the outpouring of the Spirit mean to us? Does the Feast of Pentecost bring vitality and enthusiasm in living our faith? Let us humbly ask pardon for our failure to live by the Spirit and bear witness to the risen Christ. (Pause)   I confess ... Glory to God ... OPENING PRAYER God our Father, let the Spirit you sent on your Church to begin the teaching of the gospel continue to work in the world through the hearts of all who believe. We ask this… FIRST READING (Luke describes the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, and the effect it had brought on them.) A reading from the Acts of the Apostles       (2:1-11) When the day of the Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” This is the Word of the Lord   PSALM     (103) Response: Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth. Bless the Lord, my soul! Lord God, how great you are. How many are your works, O Lord! The earth is full of your riches. R./ You take back your Spirit, they die, returning to the dust from which they came. You send forth your Spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth. R./ May the glory of the Lord last for ever! May the Lord rejoice in his works! May my thoughts be pleasing to him. I find my joy in the Lord. R./ SECOND READING (St Paul emphasises that the Holy Spirit gives different gifts to different people and these gifts are not given to an individual for his\her honour or glory but to help to build up the Church, the Body of Christ.) A reading from the First Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians               (12:3b-7,12-13) No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working, but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. This is the Word of the Lord ACCLAMATION Alleluia, alleluia! Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in them the fire of your love. Alleluia! GOSPEL (The risen Jesus gives the gifts of the Holy Spirit to his disciples and inaugurates the mission of the Church.) A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John      (20:19-23) 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.” This is the Gospel of the Lord I believe in God,/the Father Almighty,/ Creator of heaven and earth./ I believe in Jesus Christ,/his only Son, our Lord./ He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit/ and born of the Virgin Mary./He suffered under Pontius Pilate,/was crucified, died, and was buried./He descended to the dead./On the third day he rose again./He ascended into Heaven,/and is seated at the right hand of the Father./He will come again to judge the living and the dead./I believe in the Holy Spirit,/the Holy Catholic Church,/the communion of saints,/the forgiveness of sins,/the resurrection of the body,/and the life everlasting./ Amen. PRAYER  OF  THE  FAITHFUL Cel:  Dear brothers and sisters, on the Pentecost Day, Jesus sent his Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and with hearts set on fire they went forth to preach the Gospel to the world. Lord, we pray to send your Spirit into our lives, into the Church and into the world. Response: Lord, send your Spirit upon us, and renew us. 1. For our Holy Father the Pope, bishops, priests and religious: that they may be guided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit to carry out the mission entrusted to them. R./ 2. For all Christians: that the Holy Spirit may gather all the followers of Jesus into the unity of the Body of Christ. R./ 3. For world leaders: that the Holy Spirit may guide and enlighten them in their work for justice and peace. R./ 4. For married couples: for the grace to remain faithful to the commitment they have made to each other on their wedding day. R./ 5. For those who are confused and weakened in their faith, and who therefore are easy prey to false prophets. May they be enlightened and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. R./ (Pray for local and personal needs) Cel: God our Father, grant that the Holy Spirit may enlighten our minds, purify our hearts and strengthen our wills, so that we may be able to obey the teachings of Christ and live as his true followers. We ask this… PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS Lord, may the Spirit you promised lead us into all truth and reveal to us the full meaning of this sacrifice. Grant this... PREFACE        (28) Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks.  Today you sent the Holy Spirit on those marked out to be your children by sharing the life of your only Son, and so you brought the paschal mystery to its completion. Today we celebrate the great beginning of your Church when the Holy Spirit made known to all peoples the one true God, and created from the many languages of man one voice to profess one faith. The joy of the resurrection renews the whole world, while the choirs of heaven sing for ever to your glory: All: Holy, holy, holy… COMMUNION ANTIPHON They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke of the great things God had done, alleluia. PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION Father, may the food we receive in the Eucharist help our eternal redemption. Keep within us the vigour of your Spirit and protect the gifts you have given to your Church. We ask this…     LITURGY  AND  LIFE   The Feast of Pentecost, also known as the Feast of Weeks, was a pilgrimage feast when pious Jews came from their homes to the Temple in Jerusalem. The Feast was celebrated seven weeks or fifty days after the Passover. This important feast in the Jewish calendar becomes for the followers of Jesus the first memorable public event in their history. It was memorable not only because it was the occasion when Jesus’ disciples received the Holy Spirit, but even more so because it was the first opportunity that the Twelve had to confront the twelve tribes of Israel in an official capacity and bear testimony to the risen Christ, having received the power of the Holy Spirit to do so. Thus began the Church, which though at first was located only in Jerusalem, gradually became a universal society. Careful reading of the Lucan account shows that some fifteen countries or peoples were present in Jerusalem who had heard the apostles speaking in their own language. The fact that people from every nation were present in Jerusalem when the Spirit was poured out hints that the new faith is universal in nature. Pentecost was the name used by Greek-speaking Jews for the harvest feast (Exodus 23:16). Originally it was a farmer’s feast, “day of the first-fruits” (Num 28:26), of the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22). So 50 days after the Passover, the Jews offered the wheat of leavened bread to the Lord. On this day Jews celebrated the gifts of the grain harvest, thanking God for the blessings so received. The Jewish feast of Pentecost, then, provides the occasion when the Twelve and other early Christians were endowed with the Spirit. This is their baptism. It is the moment when their apostolate becomes pneumatic or Spirit-graced; from this point on all that the Apostles do will be under the guidance of the Spirit. Important in the Lucan account are the symbols used for the Spirit, “a noise from the heavens like strong wind sweeping along”; “tongues like flames of fire that parted and rested on each one of them.” These symbols express the presence of the Spirit to the early Christians. The symbols resemble the way the evangelist depicted the descent of the Spirit on Jesus at his baptism (Luke 3:22). Jesus began ministry after his baptism. In this way Luke brings to the fore the work of the Spirit in the formation of the Christian church. The Spirit’s previous activity in Jesus is to be reproduced on a wider scale in the Apostles and their converts until its operation reaches the heart of the Gentile world. This passage in Acts is often called the Pentecostal descent of the Spirit on early Christians. Because of that outpouring of the Spirit, Pentecost has assumed a prominent role as feast in the Christian calendar. It is often considered the birthday of the Christian Church. Only two feasts of the Jewish calendar have been adopted by the Christians: the Passover and the Pentecost, the first Jewish feast to follow Passover. The signs that were seen at Pentecost has similarities to what happened at Mount Sinai. In depicting God’s appearance at Sinai, Exodus 19 includes thunder and smoke. Acts, with its description of the sound of mighty wind and tongues as of fire, echoes that imagery, and thus presents the Pentecost in Jerusalem as the renewal of God’s covenant, once more calling a people to be God’s own. According to Exodus, in the Sinai covenant the people who heard the invitation to be God’s own and accepted it were Israelites. Acts 2:9-11 describes the nationalities who at Pentecost observed and heard what was effected by the Spirit at the Jerusalem renewal of the covenant. Thus the Acts anticipates the broad reach of the evangelizing, now begun, that will ultimately make even the Gentiles God’s own people. Implicitly this Pentecost is more momentous and wider-reaching than the first Pentecost at Sinai. –Fr Augustine Kanachikuzhy, ssp     ============================================================   May 2010                READINGS  OF  THE  WEEK               Psalter  Week    4  24   Mon  (G)     1 Pt 1:3-9; Ps 110:1-2,5-6,9,10; Mk 10:17-27 25   Tue  (G)      1 Pt 1:10-16; Ps 97:1,2-3ab,3c-4; Mk 10:28-31 26   Wed (W)     St Philip Neri, pt – (mem)                             1 Pt 1:18-25; Ps 147:12-13,14-15,19-20; Mk 10:32-45 27   Thu  (G)       1 Pt 2:2-5,9-12; Ps 99:2,3,4,5; Mk 10:46-52 28   Fri  (G)         1 Pt 4:7-13; Ps 95:10,11-13ab,13cd; Mk 11:11-26 29   Sat (G)        Jdt 17:20b-25; Ps 62:2,3-4,5-6; Mk 11:27-33   =============================================================