Thanks be to God that our celebration of Pentecost this weekend will be very different from our celebration last year. Last year, our churches were closed and we celebrated Pentecost Masses via livestream. This year, we will celebrate our Pentecost Masses in-person. Here at OLG, we look forward to all of our Masses moving inside the church in just a couple of weeks. In all parts of our lives, we are getting more and more back to normal. This Pentecost, we can thank the Holy Spirit for guiding us to this point in our COVID-19 journey.
We will still need the Holy Spirit’s guidance and gifts going forward, especially over the next several months as we resume some normalcy in our lives – getting back to church if one has not already done so (notice that is number one on my list!!!), getting back into the workplace and classrooms in the fall, getting together more frequently with family and friends. Just a reminder of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit that can help us now and always: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1831). So this Pentecost weekend will be a very good time to pray to the Holy Spirit to help us to harness those gifts especially over the next several months.
For example, the Holy Spirit will be able to help us navigate those social etiquette questions unique to this part of our COVID-19 experience: To mask or not? To shake hands or not? To hug or not? Every time we have encounters with one another that raise those questions, we will be able to pray to the Holy Spirit to help us harness his gifts of wisdom, knowledge, counsel and understanding to help us navigate those social encounters.
When we have continuing fear of COVID-19 and that fear is not rational, reasonable nor supported by science, we will be able to pray to the Holy Spirit to help us harness his gift of fortitude to strengthen us not to be paralyzed by fear but, rather, to be able to move forward with confidence to reclaim at least some normalcy in our lives.
Finally, if we need a little push to get back to church and the sacraments – yes, I am bringing that up yet again! – we can pray to the Holy Spirit to help us harness his gifts of piety and fear of the Lord, to help us to remember that we need God always. And because God loves us beyond anything we can imagine and wants to help us to live our best lives possible, why would we hesitate to get back to church and the sacraments?!
So I think that the traditional prayer to the Holy Spirit is apropos now more than ever:
Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful,
and enkindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created,
and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Amen.