Pentecost Sunday 2011. Sunday 12th June, 2011.
(Save a tree. Don't print this e-mail unless it's really necessary).
(Please note, due to various circumstances, including various parishioners being away and the weather and also the Maryborough events in town on Sunday evening, there will be no mass at Aramara this weekend. It is usually on every second Sunday of the month. We will be back to Aramara on the second Sunday of July. Sorry for any inconvenience). ///
This Pentecost, and for the last few months.... and in fact in the coming months, there is change in the wind! The new mass is slowly but surely being implemented, and has a lot of very beautiful aspects about it. I particularly like the fact that no matter where we are in the world... no matter what language the Mass is celebrated in, we will be worshipping with one voice... and with the same meaning..... we will be united and in communion with God and one another.. in Spirit, Truth and in the words for worship we use.
On a totally different tac, you know how some cars in this country have the indicator on a different side? Some European cars have the indicator on a different side; because (as we all know), they drive on different sides... In Australia, most indicators are on the right hand side of the steering wheel, to allow the gear shift to be on the left... but if you have a European car.. the indicator might be on the left... it causes some funny things... when you aren't used to it, you go to turn the corner and the windscreen wipers come on instead of the indicator... it can be frustrating until you get used to it...
Why am i saying this in mass??? Because, in my view, the same sort of thing is happening with the changes in the mass.. Things we have automatically gotten used to saying, are changing.. and we might find ourselves absentmindedly doing the "liturgical/ church" equivalent of "putting the windscreen wipers on when we were only intending to turn"... when we use the wrong responses..
I had a "V.W." for a few years (i loved that car!!) and then had to go back to a Ford (actually, i love that car too!!).... and the indicator for both of those were on different sides.. It was initially confusing..(and amusing)..... but i found a great trick to focus on what i was doing... i sat in my car before i drove it.. shut my eyes tightly and put my fingers to my temples and then said.... ... "left hand, left hand, left hand, left hand" and then... amazingly.. i drove without another worry.. with the indicators being used correctly ... (the only time it didn't work was ion rare occasions ui might have been a bit distracted and befuddled and the old habit came back.... but in the main.. that once or twice focus was enough..)...
I think the same or similar techniques can be used to get us into the changes...
To sit, to quietly focus and to repeat..
"the Lord be with you,/ and with your Spirit" ; "the Lord be with you,/and with your Spirit" ; "the Lord be with you, and with your Spirit"
The peace of the Lord be with you always/ and with your spirit....!!
Perhaps that will click us into gear... (but in any case, lets be prepared for a few gear crunches as we trip over a few new words or differently phrased sentences... I am almost halfway there... i have half of the new responses in my head.. so if i have to go back to the old ones (like i did for the nursing home masses last week... i could hardly remember the old way and had half the new/ half the old in my head... )
On this feast of Pentecost, it is really fitting to return to our ancient form the the Christian greeting... And with your Spirit. This will be an appropriate recognition that the Catholic church is a Holy-Spirit-filled church.. a "Pneumatoligical" or Spirit-filled people... We can't do a thing without the power and inspiration of God's Holy Spirit... We are a church filled and commissioned by the very breath of God.. a warm breath that gives life to all around it...
The Holy Spirit makes us disciples able to be the Warm breath of human kindness at a time of terrible coldness and need.....
Its also timely then, in this winter of cold and wet... that today out local Saint Vinnies people are launching their winter appeal... a wonderful and practical way of putting into action the warming breath of God's Spirit of justice, love and practical care...
"God breathed on us the first the day he created us. 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. Courage replaced caution and a fire was lit in our hearts that has scattered the darkness of fear forever. We, like those first disciples are new creations. We have been called to a heroic life, to be instruments of God's peace and mercy in his beautiful and broken world."
(St Mary's College daily diary, with weekly reflections).
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REFERENCES:
· FR. PAUL W. KELLY
· Also quoting from the St Mary's College daily diary entry on the Holy Spirit.
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