Reflections on Pentecost

Reflections on Pentecost . . .  
“My thoughts are not your thoughts; my ways are not your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”   -- Isaiah 55:8

In the last words of Jesus documented by Matthew (28:20), He tells us that He will be with us until the end of time (Matthew 28: 20). The Holy Spirit, God dwells not just among us but within us as the Spirit of Truth is with us and available to us, forever.
As heard in our Catechism, Christians have become "children of God, partakers of the divine nature” (Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1692). The Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to as since ancient times God told us, “. . . it is the LORD, your God, who marches with you; he will never fail you or forsake you,  never leave you,  or abandon you” (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5).  What a consolation this is to us – Let us rejoice as the power of Our God, our Creator, recreates us in Jesus, through the Holy Spirit always as we open ourselves to invite the Lord’s Spirit into our lives.
The Spirit is known by many titles, such as the consoler, the sanctifier, also as the wonderful counselor, advocate, and Paraclete, which means, “he who is called to one’s side” (CCC, 692). An advocate ensures a person has the tools to make an informed decision. As several of our youth are to make their Confirmation on June 24^th within our linked parish communities, like many of us, they will receive an outpouring of gifts to guide our Christian life. The gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear (recognizing the awesome nature) of the Lord each provide the guidance all of us need to be respond to the will of God, by the Holy Spirit’s promptings in our lives. The grace from living in the Spirit opens our hearts to choose good and to desire what God desires for us.
As Jesus called us friends in what we heard in Sacred Scripture in recent weeks, let us open our hearts to the Holy Spirit who is also our friend and advocate Who enables us to transform our lives – Let us pray this ancient prayer provided to us by St. Cyril of Jerusalem approximately 1800 years ago but speaks to us today:
The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance.  He is not felt as a burden, for he is light, very light. Rays of light and knowledge stream before him as he approaches. The Spirit comes                                                   with the tenderness of a true friend and protector to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console. The Spirit comes  to enlighten the mind first of the one who receives him, and then,                                                 through him, the minds of others as well.
                                                                                                                                                                  -St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 360 AD