This one statement has bothered me, and I couldn’t explain why until recently.
That statement was, “the Church needs a new Pentecost.”
While I understand the sentiment, we would never say:
- The Church needs another Crucifixion.
- The Church needs another Resurrection.
Why a new Pentecost?
The reality is the Holy Spirit has been definitely given to the world, to the Church, and to you at Baptism and Confirmation.
The church needs to wake up to the presence of the Holy Spirit. I feel like saying we need a new Pentecost is like the person who is looking for their glasses when they are on top of their head.
The Holy Spirit was given authoritatively to the Church and has not been removed.
What we desperately require is not a new Pentecost, but the regular opening of the eyes of our heart to the movement the Holy Spirit is challenging us to.
The Holy Spirit often sounds mysterious, but he is the one who teaches us to pray, moves us into mission and convicts us to act. We don’t need to wait for a retreat-like moment to experience his presence or calling.
This ministry/movement is a simple example of how the Holy Spirit can work in big way. When I first started this, I felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit that he was going to use this in a big way. Along the process, there has been a lot of prayer, discernment, and action.
It’s also fundamentally been an invitation to others into action as well. Our mission has always been to help people experience Jesus in tangible ways and to help them share the Gospel.
I don’t share that example to say look we are holy or we are perfect, but to say the Holy Spirit is here for each of us right now and inviting us to be a part of what the Church needs now: a new recognition of the Holy Spirit’s presence and movement to bold action in response to him.
I am confident the Holy Spirit is present in your life and inviting you to mission somehow, whether that is big or small. Let’s be in the stream and the movement of where the Holy Spirit is calling us.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
Lastly, as you probably know, we are in the final days of our Kickstarter campaign http://kck.st/2Hc74c3 to raise funding for our daily video campaigns for Advent and Lent. I feel so excited about what God has been putting on our heart for this campaign, and I’d love for you to be a part of bringing this to life.
The goal is not to come off as we need money to do this, please help, but rather, God has laid this on hearts to do again, and we believe he is inviting people to partner with us on this project. Is God inviting you to invest in this? I pray you’ll ask him that today!
Time is running out (so don’t delay.)
There are only five days left, and we’ve got some distance to go to reach our funding goal. As of writing this email, we are at $11,214 of our $16,700 goal for Advent (and to do the Lent program, we need to hit a stretch goal of $28,500 total.)
Donate now at http://kck.st/2Hc74c3
What the Church and the world needs is definitely an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I’ve asked Jesus if He would please come back. A friend told me that the world isn’t ready for Jesus to come back. I still want that in my heart. We should pray for that outpouring and should ask others to pray for it as well.
A New Pentecost to me means that large numbers of people “accepting” the Grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Too many people “reject” the graces offered my the Holy Spirit. Our challenge is to bring what is described as “new” Pentecost to the masses as happened at the first Pentecost. I believe we could all benefit from the fire of a Pentecost on a regular basis.
Yes, the Holy Spirit has been here all along to guide The Church through good times and bad. right now, Satan is winning the battle for souls. What I see a primary reason for this is the benign neglect of Catholics, many in name only, who do not practice and certainly not preach the great commission (Matt 28: 19-20). Parents are lax in the religious education of children (no home-schooled religion), parishioners are lax in catechizing or evangelizing those or weak or no fiath tradition, priests give too much deference to the laity in religious instruction, and bishops are more concerned with administration and mundane tasks through staff than their leadership in strengthening and spreading the Catholic faith within their dioceses. Just look at what percent of a diocesan annual budget is allocated to Evangelization and Catechesis; likely a single digit percentage. Was the church born to evangelize, as many popes have stated, or have we been on the skids for a century, loosing that zeal and respect for the risen Christ and his request of us to catholicize His church?
Whenever I hear the expression, “We need a new Pentecost,” it is expressing the concept that each of us needs to experience the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit just as the disciples did at Pentecost. The apostles had been faithful followers of Jesus, knowing Him better than any of us modern-day Catholics do, but it wasn’t enough for them to fulfill His great commission. Nor is it with us. Many Catholics and other Christians know Jesus, but until we allow the Holy Spirit to transform our lives as He did at Pentecost, we will be very limited in what we can do.