As you guys read this here in our region, I will be well on my way to the Holy Land for a pilgrimage, and I would  appreciate your prayers as I will also be keeping you all in prayer while visiting some of the sites we read about in the bible every day. My mom would appreciate your prayers for safe travels, and I would especially appreciate your prayers that I survive the heat while wearing a cassock in sunny Jerusalem…

While I’m disappointed that the timing of this trip means that I will be missing out on Pentecost in my parishes, I’m also thrilled to enter more fully into this glorious event in the actual place where it first occurred. The feast of Pentecost has become more meaningful for me through my years in formation and especially in the past three years as a priest. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling as though the Holy Spirit gets short shrift when compared to the Father and the Son. It seems that many remember the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, at Confirmation, and then largely neglect to call upon Him throughout the remainder of the liturgical year, and it’s a true shame.
 
St. Josemaria Escriva, one of the great theological guides of the twentieth century, writes about the Holy Spirit’s role in salvation history and how he influences everyone from the apostles down to those of us here in the present age. Describing the difference in the ministry of the Apostles before and after the descent of the Holy Spirit, he says: “The Spirit of truth, who was to teach them all things, had not yet come. They knew that Jesus alone could give them words of eternal life, and they were ready to follow him and to give their lives for him. But they were weak, and in the time of trial, they fled and left him alone. On Pentecost all that is a thing of the past. The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of strength, has made them firm, strong, daring. The word of the Apostles resounds forcefully through the streets of Jerusalem.”  Even though they spent years walking with Jesus and had even seen Him in His risen glory, they still needed the gifts of the Holy Spirit to embolden them to preach the truth to the ends
of the world.
 
The same St. Peter who had denied Christ and fled from suffering, once fortified by the Spirit is able to preach to the great city of Rome and then offer his life for the sake of the Gospel. The same St. Thomas who had refused to believe because he did not see, once filled with the power of the Spirit went forth from the comfort of his life to preach the Gospel to the far reaches of India. That task would be difficult today, but it was seemingly impossible in the days of Our Lord.
 
In many ways the modern church in which we live faces the same situation. Virtually all of you who are reading this have at least a working knowledge of the events of the Gospel and the life of Christ. But if we fail to call upon the Spirit to strengthen us and pour out the gifts that were given to us in Baptism and Confirmation, then we fail to draw upon the strength that God offers us so that we can be His disciples. The Faith spread throughout the entirety of the known world within the lifetime of the Apostles, and this was only possible because they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and called upon those graces to “go forth and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” teaching them to observe all that Jesus had commanded them. That great commission
echoes down to us even now. It is not an option. Nor is it a recommendation. It is a command. As we remember the Apostles receiving this gift, may we invite the Spirit to inflame our hearts and give us a zeal for souls, that we can invite them to encounter their Savior.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McCullough