Greeting (See Sequence)
The Spirit of the Lord makes flexible what is rigid, kindles what is frigid, and straightens what is wayward. May the Lord give you this Spirit and be always with you. R/ And also with you.
Introduction by the Celebrant
1. The
Spirit of Understanding
It is admirable that people can understand one another even
when they speak different languages. Their good will, their gestures, their
smiles make them see what others try to say or do. At the first Pentecost
people understood one another: they heard the message of Christ in their own
language, despite all their variety. The Spirit made them capable of doing so.
We too speak our own languages: not only different mother tongues but the
languages of our different cultures and personalities, even of the different
ways we live our faith. May the Spirit of Pentecost make us understand and
appreciate one another and unite us in one bond of faith and love.
2. The
Spirit of Openness
How timid we often are, preoccupied with our own little
concerns, living in our own little worlds! Today, on Pentecost, we celebrate
the Holy Spirit. He tells us to open doors and windows, to break out of our
ghettos and to make it courageously known to all with our words and our lives
that God has made us free and rich. We cannot keep him for ourselves but must
share him with the whole world. Let this Spirit come down on us, Jesus’
disciples today.
3. The
Spirit of Enthusiasm
Today is the great feast of Pentecost, when the Spirit of
God came down on the apostles. In the drabness and routine of life, even of the
Christian life, we need a fresh breath to renew our blood, a strong wind to
blow away our fears and to steer our sails in the journey of life, fire to
spark us with fresh enthusiasm, light to show us the road to follow. God’s
Spirit was there in fire and storm when the apostles were afraid and timid.
God’s Spirit is here with us now with his fire and his mighty wind, or perhaps
very quietly, to blow new energy into us and to light a new fire in us. Let him
come and let him move us. It is our Pentecost.
Penitential Act
We stand before the Lord to acknowledge that too often we
are estranged from one another, seeing more what divides us than what unites
us. Let us ask pardon from the Lord and from one another. (pause)
Lord Jesus, breathe on us the Spirit who makes us one: Lord,
have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Christ, breathe on us the Spirit who forgives and
heals: Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
Lord Jesus, breathe on us the Spirit who renews us in your
love: Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Wash away the stains of sin in us, Lord, and make us strong
and loving. Lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray to the Father to send us the Holy Spirit whom he
gave to the young Church (pause)
God our Father, let the Holy Spirit surprise us with his
fire and vigor and let him make us young and new again as he did for the young
Church. Let him renew our days, our loves and our lives. Let him bring us
tenderness and joy as well as openness to one another and the courage to stand
up for all that is right and just. Let him unite us and lead us to you. All
this we ask you through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
First Reading (Acts 2:1-11): The Spirit Comes as a Mighty
Storm
Loud noise, a mighty storm, fire, languages—these symbols
used to describe the first Christian Pentecost tell us forcefully that here
something totally new is happening. God’s Spirit of power is breaking through
to bring divided humankind together in a community where there is room for all.
Reading 1: Acts 2:1-11
Second Reading (Rom 8:8-17): The Spirit of God Lives in
You
Thanks to the Spirit, the resurrection of Christ is
already active in us; it enables us to give up the works of evil and makes us
free to live as God’s children.
Rom 8:8-17
Sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, come! And from your celestial home Shed a
ray of light divine! Come, Father of the poor! Come, source of all our store! Come,
within our bosoms shine. You, of comforters the best; You, the 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 yours, 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 sevenfold gift descend; Give them virtue's sure reward; Give
them your salvation, Lord; Give them joys that never end. Amen. Alleluia.
Alleluia
Gospel (Jn 14:15-16,23-26): The Spirit Will Be with You
Forever
Jesus goes to the Father, but he will continue to guide
us and the whole Church through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will remind us
continually of Jesus.
Jn 14:15-16, 23b-26
Intercessions (based on a text by S.P. Arnold)
Let us pray to the Lord persistently, for the Father of
mercy always hears the prayer of a sincere and faithful heart. Let us say: R/
Pour out your Spirit on us, Lord.
– Pour
out your Spirit as living water on the world: Let your Spirit come to enlighten
and strengthen all those with a political responsibility: that justice and
peace may be their daily concern, we pray: R/ Pour out your Spirit on us, Lord.
– Pour
out your Spirit as a burning fire on the world: Let your Spirit enlighten and
convert all those with an economic responsibility: that solidarity and sharing
guide their decisions, we pray: R/ Pour out your Spirit on us, Lord.
– Pour
out your Spirit as a festive song on the world: Let your Spirit enlighten and
renew all those with artistic responsibility: that their work may radiate
beauty and truth, we pray: R/ Pour out your Spirit on us, Lord.
– Pour
out your Spirit as a bond of grace on the world: Let your Spirit enlighten and
gather together all those scattered by the events of life; put hope in their
hearts to start a new life, we pray: R/ Pour out your Spirit on us, Lord.
– Pour
out your Spirit as a cry of expectancy in the world: Let your Spirit enlighten
and guide all who have heard your call to bear witness to your Good News on the
roads of the world, we pray: R/ Pour out your Spirit on us, Lord.
Answer our prayers, God of power and might. Let the Spirit,
alive in us, spread your love among all people, today and for ever. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father, give us your Son in this Eucharist and pour
out his Spirit over us. Through him, complete in us what is imperfect, change
in us what is too inadequate. Keep us always open to your Spirit and to one
another, to unite us and to make us ever new, that he may bring to fulfillment the
work begun in us by Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord for ever. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
Let the Spirit of joy and love and gratitude prompt us to
give wholehearted thanks to God, our creator and Father, for all his goodness
and patience.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
We cannot say “Jesus is Lord” except through the Spirit. We
cannot say “Father” to God, except through the Spirit crying out in us. With
him, we can now say with complete trust the prayer given us by Jesus: R/ Our
Father...
Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil and grant in our day the
peace of Christ, which is the work of your Spirit. In your mercy keep us free
from all sin which obstructs the unity and the universality of your Church. Protect
us from all anxiety and reassure us that even in the uncertainties of our time the
Spirit leads us forward in joyful hope toward the coming of our Savior Jesus
Christ.
R/ For the kingdom...
Invitation to Communion (See Rev 22:17,21)
The Spirit and the Church say: Come. Let everyone who
listens answer: Come. Let all that are thirsty come. All who want it may have
the water of life and have it as a free gift. This is the risen Christ whose
Spirit moves us forward to bear witness to God’s love. R/ Lord, I am not
worthy...
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, thanks to your Holy Spirit the apostles could
bring to a good end the mission given them by Jesus your Son. Pour out your
Spirit over us too, to inspire this community and your whole Church with a
sense of mission and commitment. Let him renew us day after day and bind us
together as your people, that we may be to the whole world the living signs
that your Son is alive and that he is our Lord now and for ever. R/ Amen.
Blessing
Often, we are timid, afraid to risk our person, to live
consistently what we believe in, for we don’t know where involvement will lead
us. It is imprudent by human standards to place ourselves into the hands of
people and even of the Spirit. May God give us this courage and foolish wisdom,
and may he bless you,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go in peace and may the Spirit of Christ
be your guide in all you do.
R/ Thanks be to God.
***
Commentary
The Spirit’s Lingua Franca
Read:
The Pentecost, the corrective event of the Tower of Babel
disaster. We are all members of the one body of Christ, reminds St. Paul. Jesus
breathes on the disciples, as Yahweh had breathed once into the nostrils of the
first human.
Reflect:
The first public comment made of the new post-resurrectional
community of the disciples of Jesus was that they spoke a kind of
language that everyone understood. The Pentecost is the corrective to the
Tower of Babel experience (Gen. 11:1-9) where hardly anyone spoke a language
that another could understand. If the Babel was an attempt out of existential
fear to resist a dispersal of people and to play God, the Pentecost is an act
of God’s Spirit to dispel the fear and empower the new community to traverse
every corner of the world, bringing a new language that every human being can
understand. What is this language that anyone, beyond the conditionings of space,
time, or culture, can understand? It is the language of love, the
lingua franca of the Spirit of God. It is the language Christians are called to
speak in and be united in.
Pray:
Pray for the gift of the language of the Spirit—Love.
Act:
Talk lovingly to everyone whom you meet today.
