Lord send out your Spirit...

...and renew the face of the earth.

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Besides being Mother's Day here in the U.S., it is also Pentecost Sunday (known in some places as Whitsunday or Whitsun.)

Red ribbon streamers marked Pentecost outside the church doors where we worshipped this morning. We try to find a nearby parish when we are out of town on Sunday, and usually a web search will find the times of Sunday Masses. (Sometimes, like in southern Utah when Mapquest leads you up a dead end road, finding a Catholic Church and getting there just doesn't work out.)

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It is good to experience different local customs while recognizing the universality of the Church. In this parish a group who had been studying forms of prayer led the congregation in prayer movement during the offering hymn and some readings were proclaimed in Samoan and in Hebrew this week, while other languages have been heard in the past and will be in the future.

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The priest made the observation in his homily that the Holy Spirit did not come for individuals, but came for the whole Church. He came to the disciples who were hiding behind closed doors--the word used indicated that they were terrified. After the descent of the Holy Spirit, their strength broke through that fear to spread the Word.

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May the Holy Spirit break through the closed doors of our fears and help us as a society to renew the face of the earth.