On such a wonderful day, Pentecost, we are fortunate to have such wonderful weather. I do hope all have been able to enjoy the weather over the past week, during the midterm break. I do realise some of the parish’s youth have used it to revise for their forthcoming exams. The parish continues to pray that all do well. Remember that this is a rare opportunity in one’s life to prove to others what you have learned and how you are able to use that knowledge. Enjoy doing well.

Pentecost brings an end of the Easter Season and in many ways the end of the annual cycle of remembering God’s revelation. Starting with Advent (preparing to receive the gift of the child Jesus) and culminating with Pentecost (the gift of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son), God has revealed his redeeming love for each of us. Between now and the beginning of Advent at the end of the year we enter ordinary time. In this we focus on how we respond to this gift of God’s redeeming love. At a few moments of our life, we may face dramatic challenges to our faith. But the pervasive reality is we engage our faith in small events in our daily life. In the end we build our response to God by doing small acts of mercy, compassion, charity, and love.

The gift of the Spirit reminds us that the Lord comes to us not because we have earned his gift, but that we need his gift to restore us to our God-given integrity and love. If we deem ourselves needing to be worthy before we receive the gifts, then why would have the Son needed to be one of us, to die for us? No!! He knows we muddle through our lives, striving to do good, but inevitable doing acts of evil and sin. It is the gift of the Spirit which enables us to pick ourselves up and dust off the sorrow and disappointment and strive again, fully renewed.

There may be many of us who perceive that they need to become worthy before they can approach God, especially if they have been away from worshipping God for many years. That sense only is a convoluted trick of the evil spirit to keep us from once again receiving God’s redeeming grace. When we sense this emotion of hiding from God, as Adam and Eve did, we need to remind ourselves that it is the key point to seek God out and humbly place ourselves before our God.

My prayer is that the joyous celebrations of the parish throughout Lent and Easter will carry us all through living our faith throughout this coming period of ordinary time.