Words to Live By
Pentecost 2021
May 23, 2021
www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com
predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673
Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12:3-13; John 20:19-23
Pentecost brings the Easter season to a conclusion with the sending forth of the Holy Spirit to form our community into one, though it was spread out throughout the known world. Pentecost comes from the 50th day, which was celebrated at the spring grain harvest when the first crops were offered to God. As one of the three major Jewish feasts, is was associated with the giving of the Law, the Torah, and focused upon the renewal of the covenant. Our celebration echoes that sentiment where the Spirit of Christ resides with us to help us be faithful to the mission God entrusts to us.
The Acts of the Apostles signals that this is a feast of unity where people who believe in Jesus are able to understand each other as they speak in their own distinct language, and it is good for us to remember that Jesus is the Word of God. We may not be able to learn all the languages we need in order to understand others, but we can understand basic principles. We can understand the importance of the words we use. We have seen that words can be used to dominate and gain control over people by spreading despair and discouragement, and words are used to create siloes and walls so that others are separated from us. This is not the spirit or intent of Pentecost, so we have to choose words that are full of meaning and nuance.
Pentecost stands in contrast with the temptations of human nature. When there is movement towards individualism and “my world,” it is a movement away from Pentecost’s mission. When our hearts and attitudes do not respect the inherent dignity of another human being, we create a system of “us and them, and there is a temptation to build a culture of walls, to raise walls, walls in the heart, that prevents encounters with other cultures and other people. Pope Francis writes, “those who raise walls will end us as slaves to the very walls they have built. They are left without horizons.” The world becomes deaf and apathetic to words and realities that have real meaning.
While someone else’s words can be powerful and hurtful, deep within us we know there is goodness in our human family. When we see that we are part of one human family with many siblings, knowing that siblings don’t always get along well, we recognize that our lives are interwoven, and that we depend upon one another to sustain our ways of life. This past year of COVID has shown us that we depend upon many unseen people to maintain our well-being, and the humanity within us reaches out to the humanity in others. Sometimes a kind word, a word of appreciation, words of comfort or words to ease someone’s worries, can be that force given to us at Pentecost to keep us mindful of our common goodness.
Pentecost is rooted deeply into the human heart and gives us hope, which is really an aspiration (spirit), a longing for a fulfilled life, a desire to achieve greatness for the world’s betterment, a movement of the heart that lifts its eyes toward truth, goodness, beauty, justice, and love. Pentecost opens up the possibilities of life where there are no limits on our frontiers and where our noble ideals make life more beautiful and meaningful. This is a moment for us to cherish because we have a new start to return to our deep abiding goodness and to bring it forth to a world thirsting to receive it.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Genesis 3) After Adam had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called to him and asked him, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?
Tuesday: (Sirach 35) To keep the law is a great oblation, and he who observes the commandments sacrifices a peace offering. In works of charity one offers fine flour, and when he gives alms he presents his sacrifice of praise.
Wednesday: (Sirach 36) Come to our aid, O God of the universe, look upon us, show us the light of your mercies, and put all the nations in dread of you! Thus they will know, as we know, that there is no God but you, O Lord. Give new signs and work new wonders.
Thursday: (Sirach 42) Now will I recall God’s works; what I have seen, I will describe. At God’s word were his works brought into being; they do his will as he has ordained for them. As the rising sun is clear to all, so the glory of the Lord fills all his works.
Friday (Sirach 44) Now will I praise those godly men, our ancestors, each in his own time. But of others there is no memory, for when they ceased, they ceased. And they are as though they had not lived, they and their children after them.
Saturday (Sirach 51) When I was young and innocent, I sought wisdom openly in my prayer I prayed for her before the temple, and I will seek her until the end, and she flourished as a grape soon ripe. My heart delighted in her, My feet kept to the level path because from earliest youth I was familiar with her.
Gospel:
Monday: (John 19) So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately Blood and water flowed out.
Tuesday: (Mark 10) Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age.
Wednesday (Mark 10) The disciples were on the way, going up to Jerusalem,
and Jesus went ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid.
Taking the Twelve aside again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
Thursday (Mark 10) As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging. On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”
Friday (Mark 11) The next day as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry. Seeing from a distance a fig tree in leaf, he went over to see if he could find anything on it. When he reached it he found nothing but leaves; it was not the time for figs. And he said to it in reply, “May no one ever eat of your fruit again!” And his disciples heard it.
Saturday (Mark 11) Jesus and his disciples returned once more to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him and said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things?
Saints of the Week
May 24: Our Lady of the Way or in Italian, Madonna della Strada, is a painting enshrined at the Church of the Gesu in Rome, the mother church of the Society of Jesus. The Madonna Della Strada is the patroness of the Society of Jesus. In 1568, Cardinal Farnese erected the Gesu in place of the former church of Santa Maria della Strada.
May 25: Bede the Venerable, priest and doctor, (673-735), is the only English doctor of the church. As a child, he was sent to a Benedictine monastery where he studied theology and was ordained. He wrote thorough commentaries on scripture and history as well as poetry and biographies. His famous work is the "Ecclesiastical History of the English People," the source for much of Anglo-Saxon history.
May 25: Gregory VII, pope (1020-1085), was a Tuscan who was sent to a monastery to study under John Gratian, who became Gregory VI. He served the next few popes as chaplain, treasurer, chancellor and counselor before he became Gregory VII. He introduced strong reforms over civil authorities that caused much consternation. Eventually, the Romans turned against him when the Normans sacked Rome.
May 25: Mary Magdalene de'Pazzi (1566-1607), a Florentine, chose to become a Carmelite nun instead of getting married. Her biography, written by her confessor, gives accounts of intense bouts of desolation and joy. She is reputed to have gifts of prophecy and healing.
May 26: Philip Neri, priest (1515-1595), is known as the "Apostle of Rome." A Florentine who was educated by the Dominicans, he re-evangelized Roe by establishing confraternities of laymen to minister to pilgrims and the sick in hospitals. He founded the Oratorians when he gathered a sufficient following because of his spiritual wisdom.
May 27: Augustine of Canterbury, bishop (d. 604) was sent to England with 40 monks from St. Andrew's monastery to evangelize the pagans. They were well-received. Augustine was made bishop, established a hierarchy, and changed many pagans feasts to religious ones. Wales did not accept the mission; Scotland took St. Andrew's cross as their national symbol. Augustine began a Benedictine monastery at Canterbury and was Canterbury's first archbishop.
This Week in Jesuit History
- May 23, 1873. The death of Peter de Smet, a famous missionary among Native Americans of the great plains and mountains of the United States. He served as a mediator and negotiator of several treaties.
- May 24, 1834. Don Pedro IV expelled the Society from Brazil.
- May 25, 1569. At Rome Pope St Pius V installed the Society in the College of Penitentiaries. Priests of various nationalities who were resident in Rome were required to act as confessors in St Peter's.
- May 26, 1673. Ching Wei‑San (Emmanuel de Sigueira) dies, the first Chinese Jesuit priest.
- May 27, 1555. The Viceroy of India sent an embassy to Claudius, Emperor of Ethiopia, hoping to win him and his subjects over to Catholic unity. Nothing came of this venture, but Fr. Goncalvo de Silveira, who would become the Society's first martyr on the Africa soil, remained in the country.
- May 28, 1962. The death of Bernard Hubbard famous Alaskan missionary. He was the author of the book Mush, You Malemutes! and wrote a number of articles on the Alaska mission.
May 29,1991. Pope John Paul II announces that Paulo Dezza, SJ is to become a Cardinal, as well as Jan Korec, in Slovakia.
No comments:
Post a Comment