Adult Initiation & Sacrament Preparation

This Sunday we bring the Easter Season to a close with the celebration of Pentecost… that moment when the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles, whose gifts allowed them to leave the upper room and spread the Gospel to Jerusalem and the world.  It’s the birthday of the Church. The Word for Pentecost Sunday Acts 2-1-11 Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13 John 20:19-23 Our Sunday readings open fittingly with the Pentecost story from Acts of the Apostles.  It is after the Ascension and we are back with the Apostles in the upper room.  Most of us are familiar with the story… The Holy Spirit come upon the like “tongues of fire” giving them the power to go down into the streets and preach the Gospel so that this international multitude can hear them speaking in their own tongues.  While this later part of the story is the part we tend to focus on, the very beginning of the story also has great meaning… a meaning that our modern ears tend to miss… The fis...

This Sunday the Church in the United States celebrates the feast of the Ascension in place of the 7th Sunday of Easter. Traditionally a Holy Day of Obligation, we celebrate the moment when Jesus, after the Resurrection, is taken up to Heaven. Our readings for this special day are the same for all three Lectionary Cycles. The Word for the Ascension of the Lord Acts 1-1-11 Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9 Ephesians 1:17-23 Matthew 28:16-20 Our first reading comes from the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, where the opening act is the Ascension of Jesus. This is a far more dramatic (and detailed) version than where Luke leaves us at the end his Gospel (Chapter 24), but like many great sequels, the opening moments recap the story thus far (as a reminder of where we left off) in order to set the stage for the narrative moving forward.  It is interesting to note that the event of the Ascension is noted only briefly at the end of Luke and Mark, while Matthew and John don’t even mention it....