Preparing for the Holy Spirit

This Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost; the day the Church commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles some 50 days after the Resurrection. The Holy Spirit appears as tongues of fire and fills the Apostles with power beyond human description.

In our present day world the Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood Person of the Holy Trinity. Most faithful spend little time trying to understand the Holy Spirit and praying to the Holy Spirit. This week, my personal experience was to the contrary. I was able to attend on two seperate evenings part of the 9 day long parish novena to the Holy Spirit at a local parish. For many years now Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Mandeville, La has celebrated this novena. For those in attendance there is a longing for the coming of the Spirit and an awareness of the movement of the Spirit in their lives.

On both of my visits I was able to assist as one of the Deacons at the evening Mass. One night I was Deacon of the Gospel; tonight Deacon of the Cup. The liturgies were beautifully celebrated, reverant and open to Spirit. On Wednesday evening the celebrant was Fr. Apostoli, of EWTN and promoter of the casue for sainthood for Bishop Fulton Sheen fame. It was awesome to be with him in person. He is a very holy and faithful Priest. Tonight, our celeberant was a fairly new Priest who was ordained less than a year ago and presided at an intergenerational healing Mass. Awesome event; again celebrated faithfully and beautifully.

Tomorrow night, one of the highlights of the Holy Spirit Novena will be Exalt Fest, an event I wrote about last year. This is geared toward the young faithful and in a real and tangible way allows our youngsters to rejoice in their faith.

You may not be preparing for the coming of the Holy Spirit with the same fervor of the folks at Our Lady of the Lake parish; and then again, maybe you are! In any event, beging preparing in earnest; Come Holy Spirit Come! Fill the hearts of your faithful.