Readings for Sunday, May 24, 2026 - Pentecost Sunday. Year A
FIRST READING: Acts 2:1-11
Ps 104:1+24, 29-30, 31+34. "Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth."
SECOND READING: 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (no bible ref). Alleluia, alleluia! Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love.
GOSPEL: John 20:19-23
https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/ze3tTzcSMDjJ6o2cD6DG/descent-of-the-holy-spirit?ru=Paul-Evangelion ++++
Please listen to the audio recordings of the Mass – (Readings, prayers, and homily), for Pentecost Sunday. Year A - Sunday, May 24, 2026, by clicking this link here: https://on.soundcloud.com/AdaUOyutHNlKl63pKQ (EPISODE- 586)
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The Easter Season comes to an end this weekend with the Great Feast of Pentecost. The-descent-of-the-Holy-Spirit upon Christ's disciples. Jesus is now very much present and powerfully active, through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the church and in his followers of every time and place.
We, the followers of Christ, continue the wonderful work of the Kingdom. We do this work in tangible ways - putting into action the "warming breath" of God's Spirit of justice, love and practical care... "God breathed into the first Human being the day of our creation. The book of Genesis tells us that the Lord put his lips to ours and breathed in us and gave us his spirit of life. And so we became human beings. And John tells us that on the day of Pentecost, the risen Lord breathed on us a second time and gave us new life. After receiving the Holy Spirit, courage replaced caution, and a "fire" was lit in our hearts that forever scatters the darkness of fear. We, like those first disciples, are now a new creation. We have been called to live a "heroic life" and to be instruments of God's peace and mercy in this beautiful and broken world."
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The Holy Spirit makes us disciples.
We're made by the breath of the Spirit to become the warm breath of human kindness in a time of terrible coldness and need. The Spirit is needed more than ever.
The Gospel today from Saint John tells us about the coming of the Holy Spirit, and it's clear that these early disciples, before the coming of the Spirit, were hiding away behind closed doors, very much afraid, and rightfully so, their lives were at risk.
The coming of the Holy Spirit takes away their fear. These original followers of Christ seem to need peace because that's the first greeting the Lord gives them. The Lord gives us the good things that we need.
So when the risen Lord appears, he says to the disciples, peace be with you. May we too know the peace of Christ in our own lives. With peace comes the capacity to forgive the sins of others.
This forgiveness is also clearly a gift of the Lord who loves us deeply, all of us. This gift is given to each of us individually, and also to the Church through its ministry of service. At the heart of our Christian life, with the coming of the Holy Spirit, fear is taken away.
Peace and forgiveness are given, poured out on us. May we also then be instruments to dispel the fears of others, and proclaim peace, mercy, forgiveness to others through Christ. In the first reading, the disciples were again described as being very fearful.
They were still afraid. They wouldn't go out in public, and they certainly wouldn't speak in public. They were frightened to proclaim Jesus to others, even though they knew by now that he had risen from the dead, and had ascended to the Heavenly Father, and promised that he would never really be away from them.
They had to wait for the Holy Spirit to take hold of them, and give them the courage they needed in the face of doubt, persecution, ridicule, and rejection. Perhaps too, there are times when we feel quite frightened or shy about proclaiming our faith in the Lord, and the values that flow from it.
Today at this Feast of Pentecost, we can pray for the Holy Spirit to descend upon us anew, and give us renewed courage, so that our faith becomes so much a part of ourselves, that it comes naturally to us, makes it easier to speak our faith in an unforced manner.
Each and every one of us have been given gifts from the Holy Spirit, and our gifts are different. Each person has different gifts. We need all the gifts that every person has, so that we can continue as a group to work, and to continue the work of Christ in our world.
How very different our world would look if we began to recognize the truth that each and every person brings our own gifts, and that we need those gifts to live in the fullness of Jesus Christ. The gifts we have, God has given them to us to share. I have a favorite quote about the Holy Spirit.
There's something about this text that I do believe captures the truth about the power and action of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It's written by the brilliant Jesuit writer Karl Rahner, who died in 1984.
He writes, “Did you ever do a kindness to a person, from whom you could not even expect even as much as a shadow of gratitude or appreciation, while at the same time you had not even the compensation of feeling that you'd acted unselfishly or decently in doing so? Let us look into our lives, then, and see if we can discover any such experience that ever came our way. If we find that it did, we may be sure that the Spirit was at work within us then, and eternity and ourselves had a brief encounter. That the Spirit means more than an ingredient in the makeup of a transient world. That explains the remarkable lives of the saints. They know well that God's grace can also bless the dull round of daily tasks well done, and bring the doers a step nearer to God. When we Christians experience the action of the Spirit, it means that we are, in point of fact, having contact with the supernatural, although that contact may be scarcely perceptible.”
I love that quote.
Rahner really touched on the power, presence and action of the Holy Spirit in everyday life. To me, it powerfully says that we know the Spirit is at work in our lives, especially when the love and sacrifice we show are clearly coming from a loving hand that's bigger than our own lives and our own limited motives and actions. Something is at work bigger than ourselves.
When we do actions that are loving and unselfish, we're very much aware that there's a power and loving presence at work in us that's bigger than us. It's beyond just ourselves, transcending our limitations in a beautiful way, and not explained by our own actions, but by something much bigger, of which we're just a cooperating part, a happily cooperating part at that. It is God.
It is God's Spirit at work in us and through us, at work in the world. A power of unselfish, sacrificing love and service. Unconditional love, which is at the very heart of creation.
God. A very clear and obvious hallmark of the Holy Spirit's presence and action is unselfish love. Whenever we see something that is done for no other good than the good of the other, the Holy Spirit is very much at work, and this is God's signature of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, we often read about the coming of the Holy Spirit and how, after the Spirit descended, people from different languages and cultures could hear and understand one another. But what's interesting is that the people after the coming of the Spirit were not suddenly given one common language. They weren't just speaking the same language.
They were still speaking in the different languages of their own culture and region. But here's the beauty of it, and this is the unique and wonderful miracle. Even though different languages were still spoken, they all understood the one message.
That's a reminder the Spirit brings not uniformity, not sameness, but diversity and variety. We're all one in that diversity because we're sharing the common language of God's Word, Christ, made present through the Holy Spirit. We're speaking the language that is universal, and that is the language of God, who is love.
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References:
Fr Paul W. Kelly
St Mary's College daily diary entry on the Holy Spirit;
MISSION 2000 – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR B. BY MARK LINK S.J;
"SHARING THE WORD THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR." GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ; MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESERT. ABBOT'S HOMILY.
Image Credit: https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/ze3tTzcSMDjJ6o2cD6DG/descent-of-the-holy-spirit?ru=Paul-Evangelion
Pentecost Sunday. Year A (Sunday, May 24, 2026) (EPISODE- 586)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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{{Happy Pentecost to you all. This is such a wonderful feast day, celebrating the birthday of the Church... when, as promised, Our Lord Sent the Holy Spirit from his Heavenly Father... to fall upon the apostles and ensure Christ's presence is in and among his followers of every generation... giving fruitfulness to all we do and say in the name of Christ.. and carrying on Christ's work in us all... Peace and Goodness to you all}}
my brothers and sisters, to prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries, let us call to mind our sins.
Lord Jesus, you have revealed yourself as the way to the Father: Lord, have mercy.
You have poured out on your people the Spirit of truth: Christ, have mercy
You are the Good Shepherd, leading us to eternal life: Lord, have mercy.
May almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.
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Memorial Acclamation
2. When we eat this Bread and drink this Cup, we proclaim your Death, O Lord, until you come again.
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PREFACE: Pentecost
Eucharistic Prayer III
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{Thanks, everyone - With today's feast of Pentecost, this brings our easter season to a close... and ordinary time resumes tomorrow, Monday. Have a grace-filled and compassion-filled week. And may God continue to bless and protect us all.
Go forth. The Mass is ended. Alleluia alleluia.
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Archive of homilies and reflections: http://homilycatholic.blogspot.com.au
To contact Fr. Paul, please email: paulwkelly68@gmail.com
Further information relating to the audio productions linked to this Blog:
"Faith, Hope and Love - Christian worship and reflection" - Led by Rev Paul Kelly
Prayers and chants — Roman Missal, 3rd edition, © 2010, The International Commission on English in the Liturgy. (ICEL)
Scriptures - New Revised Standard Version: © 1989, and 2009 by the NCC-USA. (National Council of Churches of Christ - USA)
"The Psalms" ©1963, 2009, The Grail - Collins Publishers.
The Pentecost Sequence. Australian Lectionary for the Mass, 1969, 1981
Prayers of the Faithful - " Together we pray" by Robert Borg. E.J. Dwyer, Publishers, (1993) . (Sydney, Australia).
Sung "Mass In Honour of St. Ralph Sherwin" - By Jeffrey M. Ostrowski. The ….Gloria, copyright 2011 ccwatershed.org.
Come Holy Spirit" Hymn: (Dedicated to the memory of Lucyanna Marković, [1998 – 2025]) - inspired by the words of the 9th Century Hymn by Rabanus Maurus. Music and lyrics by Paul Kelly. Arranged, with additional lyrics by Stefan Kelk. Sung by Jessie M. (2025) through Fiverr - Sound effects by Mark DiAngelo (soundbible.com, 05.11).
"Come Holy Spirit"
[Dedicated to the memory of Lucyanna Marković (1998-2025)]
Come Holy Spirit,
Creator, come,
Within your kingdom,
Make us your own
You, the living spring,
The living fire that sings.
sweet source of everlasting love.
He who is perfect in grace
In His true light,
Can lead and show us the way,
And raise us high
Guide our hearts to trust
And with your love, embrace us
Hold our faith and make us wise
Keep us from fruitless spite
Bring us true peace.
Through trials you keep us safe
Beneath your wings
Through Him may we know you,
Love reborn and brand new
Hear our call and we shall sing.
All glory to the Father
and to the Son;
Christ and the spirit come,
The three in one.
Amen…. Amen ...Amen!
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"Quiet Time." Instrumental Reflection music. Written by Paul W Kelly. 1988, 2007. & This arrangement: Stefan Kelk, 2020.
Sound Engineering and editing - P.W. Kelly.
Microphones: - RODE-NT-USB-mini
Editing equipment: NCH software - MixPad Multitrack Studio Recording Software
NCH – WavePad Audio Editing Software. Masters Edition v 12.44
Sound Processing: iZotope RX 11 Audio Editor
[Production - KER - 2026
May God bless and keep you.
