PENTECOST, 2016

Written by Fr. Fitz Friday, 13 May 2016 11:18

"THE LOVE OF GOD WAS POURED NTO OUR HEARTS THROUGH THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLING WITHIN US."

ROMANS 5:5

Shake! Rattle! Roll!

What was forlorn was no longer forsaken.

What was still and empty was stirred by wind.

What was parched and dry was poured into.

What was fragile and brittle was fired up.

"Then there appeared to them tongues of fire..."

What does Pentecost really mean to you and to me? John O'Donohue writes of the wellspring of love in Anam Cara: "Invite the wellspring of love which is your deepest nature to flow through your life...When this happens the ground that is within you that has hardened grows soft again. Through lack of love everything hardens. There is nothing so lonely in the world as that which has hardened or grown cold....

"There is within each of us, at the soul level, an enriching fountain of love. In other words, you do not have to go outside yourself to know what love is.This is neither selfishness, nor narcisisim,,,Rather it is the wellspring of love within the heart....

You can search far and in hungry places for love. It is a great consolation to know that there is a wellspring of love within yourself....

On this Feast of Pentecost, You might imagine within yourself a deep well,and feel it bubbling up and flowing over with peace, joy, delight.

"Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle within them the fire of your love."

And so we pray:

You of comforters the best,

You, the soul's most welcome guest

Sweet refreshment here below...

O most blessed light divine

Shine within these hearts of yours,

And our inmost being fill...

On our dryness,

pour your dew.

Wash the stains of guilt away...

Bend the stubborn heart and will,

Melt the frozen.

Warm the chill.

Amen