Friar’s Corner: Holy Spirit, give us the Fire of the first Pentecost
Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR
Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3-13; John 14:15-16, 23b-26; or John 20:19-23
There is much most Catholics need to know about the Holy Spirit. Our Scriptures teach us that God designed and created everything and that he keeps everything in existence by his divine power. They also teach us that there is only one God yet in three divine persons, the Father, the Son/Jesus Christ and their Holy Spirit of love. Humanly, we cannot understand this mystery but only accept it as God told us in our Scriptures and Church teachings.
At the Last Supper, Jesus told us his work on earth was almost finished and that he would go back to heaven. From there he and his Father would send us an Advocate or helper. He told us that his major work in continuing to save the human race would be through the Holy Spirit who would:
1) Tell us God’s truth and plan for our lives, John 14:16
2) Instruct and remind us of all that Jesus said and did, John 14:26
3) Witness to Jesus, as we must, John 15:26
4) Prove the world wrong about sin, justice and condemnation, John 16:7-8,
5) Guide us into the future, John 16:13.
On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit set one hundred and twenty men and women on fire with many gifts and great boldness to spread the saving message of Jesus. As that community preached that Sunday three thousand Jews became the first Catholics that day. We are the first Pentecostals and have not split from anyone. And some of Jesus earliest followers wrote the New Testament.
Sunday at Mass we express a simple form of our belief as Catholics in Nicene Creed. “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.” At the consecration, the priests extend their hands over the bread and wine and ask the Holy Spirit to change them into the Body and Blood of Jesus for us.
The work of the Holy Spirit
When you look at the New Testament, the Gospels focus on the public work of Jesus. While St. Paul writes more about the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the Baptized than any of the other authors. Look at the gifts of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:4-8, 28, Romans 12:6-8, and Ephesians 4:11, and they are not all listed in the scriptures. Using these gifts causes our life to bear fruit for God as in Galatians 5:22.
Romans 8 shows us 19 times the Holy Spirit can transform our life. The gift of “Tongues” (unlearned foreign languages) is compared to the use of giving God’s now words in a prophetic way, found in 1 Corinthians 14. In there are twelve definitions of how tongues work. Yet there are several other biblical texts. This is still a big secret which most do not understand. The Holy Spirit also prays through us according to our Father’s will, Romans 8:26, “The Holy Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for you do not know how to pray as you ought, but the Holy Spirit, himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s (the Father’s) will.” From much experience, many of us know it is often in tongues. The Holy Spirit knows what to pray for. We just need to yield our vocal area to him.
At the last Ecumenical Council, in the early 1960s, in the Constitution on the Church, we read:
The Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful as in a temple. He prays in them and bears witness in them to their adoption as sons and daughters. He leads the Church into all truth and gives it unity in communion and in service. He endows it with different hierarchical and charismatic gifts, directs it by their means, and enriches it with his fruits.
By the power of the Gospel the Holy Spirit enables the Church to grow young, perpetually renews it, and leads it to complete union with its Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. For the Spirit and the Bride say to the Lord Jesus: “come!”
About the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the same document says:
These gifts, the simpler and more widespread as well as the most outstanding, should be accepted with a sense of gratitude and consolation, since in a very special way they answer and serve the needs of the Church.
Pray the Pentecost Sequence
Over the years I have collected many prayers to the Holy Spirit. I think the best of all of those is the Pentecost Sequence we pray today at this service. It was composed by a priest and professor at the University of Paris, France, and then was made a bishop and sent to Canterbury, England, as its archbishop. The ten stanzas of this Prayer/Poem is really a mini-course in the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In light of many other things that I could say here, I beg you on bended knee to make a copy of this prayer and study it carefully. It is easy to memorize and will pierce your mind and heart with more of the wonders of God’s love for us in so many ways.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved and set us poor ones free. Amen. Some texts of this prayer will mention seven gifts. Yet with many studies there are far more than just seven. That is a famous Old Testament number. If it means more than seven then we should say “many” to make the correct teaching clearer for all who read and pray it. Amen.
PENTECOST SEQUENCE
Come, holy Spirit, come!
And from Your clear celestial home,
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our being shine!
You, of comforters the best;
You, our soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below.
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light Divine,
Shine within these hearts of Thine,
And our inmost being fill!
Where You are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour Your Dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away.
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess You, evermore
In Your many Gifts descend.
Give us virtue’s sure reward;
Give us Your Salvation, Lord;
Give us joys that never end.
Amen. Alleluia!
(By Stephen Langton, 1150-1228 A.D., Archbishop of Canterbury, England.)
We can pray verbally and in our mind yet our holy mother Mary, in her continued appearances in Medjugorje tells us to learn to pray to God from our heart. The more you do this and other prayers from your heart, a direct line from your heart to God’s heart, the more fire of God’s love will fill you. As you leave your prayer time, you will be glowing with more of the love of Jesus. I promise you this, “try it, you will be amazed and you will like it.”
Holy Spirit, please make us “torches of your love” in our world so it can be a better place for all to live in. May the Pentecostal fire fall more powerfully in our lives.
Blessings from this Pentecostal torch priest,
+ Fr. Bob Hilz
(©2019 Fr. Bob Hilz, TOR)
