Pentecost
Wind is created by changes in temperature and pressure in the atmosphere. The sun’s heat strikes the relatively round earth at various angles, creating various degrees of heat and cool, and the flow between the two creates atmospheric movement that can’t be seen, but its effects are clear. We know this living in the Windy City. The swaying of trees, rustling of tall grass, flowers and bushes, the floating of clouds above, the fluttering and waving of flags, the uplifting of a kite, a cool breeze on a warm day, the very energy that sails a sailboat and even ships, and in extreme cases, the tumbling of items blown by the wind.
In ultimate power, very strong winds cause destruction through storms, hurricanes and tornadoes. A meteorologist can give you a much more in-depth description than I can, but as we celebrate the Holy Spirit coming upon the apostles, we focus on a different kind of wind. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that huddled disciples experienced a strong driving wind as the first evidence of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
We often focus on the flames or tongues of fire that appear above the apostles’ heads as the presence of the Holy Spirit, but the first sign that the Spirit arrived was a strong driving wind. The sound of the wind and its effect caught the attention of onlookers and observers. This physical phenomenon is described by the word spirate, meaning breath or the act of breathing. The strong winds of our earth are the breath of God in a physical manifestation. The Holy Spirit came to rest on each of the apostles at Pentecost as a spiritual manifestation of that same spiration of God. God’s breath that extends into the life of each of us and all through this great big beautiful world of ours breathes on us for the rest of time.
Pentecost gives us at Holy Family an opportunity to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, moving forward with an invitation grounded in the extended hand of our Cross of New Life. We are taking the Pentecost event this year as an opportunity to Come and Serve. This is an invitation for ALL of us to connect our gifts and talents with a need in our community and beyond. The intersection of a gift and a need is the heart of service.
I am asking all of you to consider the intersection of your talent and the needs of our community by visiting the booth in the courtyard following Mass.
Several events coming up are examples of how people in our community have marked that intersection, making the following real manifestations of the Holy Spirit here in our community:
• Academy Events – We celebrate our 8th grade graduates with various awards on Thursday, May 28 at 2:00 pm in the church, a luncheon for graduates and their parents at noon on Friday, May 29 and a Baccalaureate Mass at 7:00 pm. We also congratulate several Academy 6th, 7th and 8th graders who earned the right to participate in the Illinois State Track and Field meet in East Peoria last week. Our 8th grade boys team finished fourth in the entire State of Illinois. Congratulations.
• Spirit Camp – For kids 4-year-old Pre-K–Grade 5, Monday, June 15-Thursday, June 18
• Tabernacle Renovation – Begins Friday, June 19. You will see a rather tall TEMPORARY wall that closes off the construction area so that the old, and no longer functional, baptismal font can be removed and a new, safer, and more reverent display of our Tabernacle and a new statue of Mary will be placed. Construction is scheduled to be complete by the end of August.
• Associate Pastor Conversations – I have already submitted my priorities of three candidates, one of whom the staff has already interviewed as well, to the Priest Placement Board for their consideration, but they only recently surfaced another candidate whom I will interview tomorrow. Stand by.
• Staffing – Our Operations and Maintenance staff has a couple of openings. We continue to seek applications for a Youth Minister and a part-time Coordinator for the Nursery.
Evening of Rock Spirituality – Not a Mass of Rock but a rockin’ spiritual night Wednesday, July 8
But the movement of the Holy Spirit has already been manifest here, and we should recognize just some of what has taken place recently:
Kindness – We exceeded 30 thousand Acts of Kindness since February 1, from 48 of 50 states and 6 continents, increasing the importance of and awareness of the positive impact of Kindness on the world.
Be More Conversations in The Spirit – Almost 600 people have participated in conversations about our community, and some considerations for us to BE MORE have been shared. Many of these conversations have followed a more structured format mirroring the Synodal process that Pope Francis has resurrected in our church. Many more recently have been less formal. This is a second phase with an emphasis on feedback from young parents and families, as thus far the majority of feedback we have received is from long-time parishioners.
Much Generosity – We have raised $127,000 for the parish in Puerto Rico for our Lenten Social Justice Project and recently donated $10,000 from the Sue Kinzig Fund to the Ark and Peace Makers Initiative at St. Sabina Church in Chicago for the purchase of computers and enabling young people to learn how to use them.
Let us all gaze at our Cross of New Life and heed the Holy Spirit’s invitation this weekend and going forward to Come and Serve.