The coming of the kingdom

By David Torkington

Pentecost  by El Greco

Throughout his life on earth Jesus made it clear that the Kingdom he promised had not  yet come . The question is then, when would this kingdom come? St John gives us the answer, as an aside when Jesus was celebrating the feast of the Tabernacles. It was the final day called ‘The Day of Hosannas’. A priest had carried a large bowl of water from the temple precincts to the pool of Siloam followed by a long procession. Once there, the water from the bowl was poured out into the pool to ‘commemorate’ the rock that Moses had struck in the desert to save his people from dying from thirst. Whilst he was doing this a prophetic text was read out from Isaiah. It looked forward to the living waters that would be poured out when the Messiah would inaugurate the new world order promised by God through the Prophets. This was the moment that Jesus chose to speak out in a loud voice so that all could hear him, claiming to be the new and living rock prefigured by the rock struck by Moses in the desert. His words speak for themselves:-

“If any man is thirsty let him come to me! Let the man come and drink, who believes in me. As the scripture says: From his breast shall flow fountains of living water.”



Then, after describing the event and quoting what Jesus had said, John added, so that there would be no misunderstanding:-


“He was speaking of the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”.( Jn. 7:37-39).


Continue reading at David Torkington.

Repentance

By David Torkington

Pentecost (Painting from an altarpiece,
Wikimedia Commons)

On the  feast of Pentecost the Jews celebrated the day on which God had given the Law to Moses. However the first Pentecost after the Resurrection was the day on which God gave his new law – the law of love. This law was not primarily a  list of rules and regulations  like the laws that were given to Moses, but the same personal  love that God had showered on Jesus. It was this love that enabled Jesus to practise to perfection the New Commandments that he taught his disciples. Namely, to Love God with their whole hearts and minds, and with their whole being, as he did, and to love others as he did too, and still does. 

What had been given to Jesus throughout his life on earth, had been given in full measure after his Resurrection, and in such a way, that he would be able to give it to others to inaugurate a new era – the Kingdom of Love. After the Resurrection the unique and transcendental love that Jesus had received from God enabled him to love not just one person, or even a group of persons, as he had done before, but every person alive at that time and in time to come, who would believe in his love and who would freely chose to receive it. So when the crowds who had gathered on the first Pentecost, demanded to know how they could receive the love of the Holy Spirit, St Peter told them that they should repent.

Justice and Peace, Goodness and  Truth. 

When he told them to repent, he was telling them, in language that they understood, how to turn to receive this love that had already begun to change him and his friends, as they could see for themselves. In other words they had to turn away from the adolescent world in which they had been living, where self-seeking, self- indulgence and self-absorption was the norm, in order to turn to be filled with the love of Jesus, his Holy Spirit.

This love would take them out of themselves and into the new world order that Jesus had come to inaugurate. In this world, love would transform them, by enabling them to enter into the risen Christ to experience the fullness of love that deep down every human being yearns for more than anything else, because it is  this that they were born for in the first place. The fruits of this love – justice and peace, goodness and  truth, and the flowering of all the virtues, would be seen embodied in his followers, as they had been embodied in his life on earth.


Continue reading at David's blog David Torkington.

Breakthrough

By Nancy Shuman



 

The painting on this post is extra large.  It breaks across boundaries, crosses neat edges of the sidebar, and in effect has this blog bursting at the seams.

At first, I was going to make the image smaller.  Then I realized:  this is a picture of Pentecost, and a painting bursting through the boundaries may actually have something to show us. 

The Holy Spirit of God burst into our world on Pentecost.  Not with a gentle whisper - not this time.  He came suddenly, with noise like a strong, driving wind. Tongues as of fire appeared and came to rest on each person.  As we are told in Acts 2, all were filled with the Holy Spirit, expressing themselves in foreign tongues and making bold proclamation.  There was so much noise that it drew quite a crowd.  The onlookers were "confused," "amazed," "astonished," "dumbfounded."  Peter, who had once denied Jesus out of fear, stood up and proclaimed boldly what the Spirit was doing.

The events of that day certainly did not fit into neat, tidy categories.  Suddenly, the world the apostles had known was bursting at the seams. 

The shaken onlookers had never seen anything like this.  "What are we to do?" they asked.  Peter, now emboldened, had an answer.  "You must reform and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that your sins may be forgiven; then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  It was to you and your children that the promise was made, and to all those still far off whom the Lord our God calls."  (Acts 2:37-39) 


Continue reading at Nancy's blog The Cloistered Heart.
 

The fruit basket of the Spirit

By Nancy Ward

Painting by Abraham Brueghel (Wikimedia Commons).

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

At a Day of Reflection Carmelite Fr. Stephen Sanchez led us through a meditation on the Fruits of the Spirit. These are the attributes of God that the Holy Spirit gives us, develops in us and inspires us to give away. As Fr. Stephen guided us through each of the nine fruits, I visualized a fruit basket filled with specific fruits to remind me of each fruit of the Spirit in my life.

1.    Love is a red pear. If you hold it stem down this beautiful fruit resembles a heart. There are many kinds of love in our lives, as there are many varieties of pears – Bartlett, Asian, D’anjou – but none as rich, tasty or with such a beautiful deep color as a red pear of God’s unconditional love.

2.    Joy is found in a variety of apples, as joy is found in many forms and places in our lives. It is loud and crunchy! A red delicious apple makes a quick healthy snack or a lunchbox treat. There are gala or Fuji apples for salads and pies. My favorite is the granny apple, the joy I share with my grandchildren.

3.     Peace is a mango. It sits quietly in the bottom of the fruit basket, waiting for you. It is soft, mellow, smooth, and calm and invites you to sit down and savor it slowly.

4.     Patience is a grapefruit. It takes patience to dig out the fruit of the grapefruit, bite by bite. This is one of the most beneficial and most neglected of fruits.

5.     Kindness is a banana. We demonstrate kindness spontaneously and quietly to a small child when we hand him or her a banana we have peeled for them so they can effortlessly eat the fruit.

Find more Fruits of the Spirit at joyalive.net.

 

"You will burn up the whole world"

By Patricia

Dove Window, St. Peter's Basilica (Wikimedia Commons)

“Francis, put out that fire in you, or you will burn up the whole world!”

Thus said one of Francis of Assisi’s friars to the seraphic Saint.
I had never heard this before, but we had a visiting Franciscan friar for Mass today, and I was delighted with the story.

Can you imagine setting the world on fire with love for God? St. Catherine of Siena said something similar: “If you become what you should be, you will set the world on fire.”

I love the Saints. They fascinate me endlessly. How did they get like that?  Why are they all on fire? What is their secret?

Father Bob said that Saints are not so much about loving God as they are about being astonished at God’s Love for them. They come to know His Love, and are consumed with the desire for everyone to love Him. The flames leap out of them, catch others, and they begin to burn too.

I ponder my own little heart which has a few smoldering embers at best. After all this time, I can barely keep my fire lit. Yet Father said we are all like containers into which God pours His Holy Spirit to inflame us, and everyone we encounter. 


Continue reading at Patricia's blog I Want to See God.

Mary and the gifts of the Holy Spirit

By Lora Goulet

Painting by Francesco Albani, Wikimedia Commons.

Mary lived the gifts of the Holy Spirit.


1)Wisdom - The Blessed Virgin Mary said yes to carrying Jesus in her womb. The highest of these supernatural gifts, this gift enables us to love and desire our Creator above all things.

2)Understanding - Mary waited patiently for Jesus' water to wine miracle and taught others to obey Him. This gift is the supernatural ability to grasp teachings of our faith.

3)Counsel- Escaping to Egypt, a land hostile to their beliefs, the Holy Family lived according to the precepts their God given faith. This gift supernaturally helps us to follow the Holy Spirit's guidance in all of our actions.

4)Fortitude- The Most Holy Mother of our Savior valiantly followed Jesus in Via Crucis.nbsp;This gift is the supernatural courage to uphold our faith even unto death.

Continue reading at Lora's blog mommynovenas.

My Spirit-filled idiolect and the dead battery

by Nancy Ward

Pentecost by Coter (photo in public domain)

Each of us has an idiolect, a personal speech pattern uniquely ours. When confronted with the idea of my spiritual idiolect, “Spirit-filled”came to mind. But aren’t most expressions of spirituality filled with the Spirit? So this doesn’t fully describe my personal conversation with God, which is as unique as my soul. Only God knows the full implications of this short-cut descriptor.
 
Like language developed from listening and speaking to those around me, my Spirit-filled spiritual idiolect developed from listening and speaking to the Lord. My idiolect grew from my outer surroundings. My spiritual idiolect grew from my inner life in the Spirit.
My Protestant childhood and my first conversion experience as a young teen provided the baby talk of my spiritual idiolect. Then when I converted to the Catholic Church as a young mother, new words, sights, sounds and smells surrounded me. They infused my spirit with a richer understanding and closeness to God in my yearning to worship him.

But it wasn’t until my Oz Moment some years later that I discovered a new spiritual dialect within the Catholic language. This dialect, steeped in early Church tradition, emphasizes personal prayer, daily Mass, discipleship and evangelization. It flows from an authentic prayer life centered on the Eucharist. It encompasses the elements of Adoration, rosaries and novenas.

The expression of my Spirit-filled idiolect rises with the dawn with quiet personal prayer of repentance, surrender and songs of praise. Then the Eucharist quickens the gifts of the Holy Spirit in my soul. In scattered conversational prayer I talk to God during the day about events as he guides me smack dab into his surprises. He’s there right beside me to share my joy or consternation, depending on the nature of these surprises. He gives me the confident assurance of his presence whether or not I see him working.  I’m especially aware of his presence in his gift to me of writing, but also in caring for my family.  Often he calls me in the night, just so we can sing together. At sunrise, the joy of the Lord alive in my heart rises anew.

The biggest contributor to my spiritual idiolect for the past 40 years is my Catholic covenant community. The 150 covenant families nurture me, teach me, laugh and cry with me. They evangelize my children. They have prayed a million prayers for me and I for them. That community spirit overflows into share groups, Bible studies and ministries in our individual parishes throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.



Read the rest at Nancy's blogs  Joy Alive in our hearts.