Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle within us the fire of your love.

The promise of Jesus is fulfilled; the Holy Spirit, the Advocate has come.

With one demand, one commandment, we are invited to open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, working within us to bring salvation to the whole world. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit, the Advocate would be sent to us if…

While God loves us unconditionally, there is a condition for receiving all that he has in store for us. What do we have to do in order to receive the Spirit of God dwelling within us for all eternity? What must we do to own the pearl of great price? How can we acquire it unless we are willing to sell everything we own?

Our human family, the domestic Church can lead us to understand this Truth. As children, our parents want to take care of us but they cannot unless we are able and ready to listen to them. Be like little children. So loving and trusting in infancy, as we grow, we challenge parents to love us as only God can.

As parents, we want our children to express themselves as the unique individuals they are and we are forced to set rules, to set limits, to make demands that they sometimes find difficult, given the distractions all around. We watch over them as they explore with such glee and we do not want to spoil their obvious delight in a new discovery.

But we know that they need the lesson of restraint, that they need to learn the rules, to understand the way they must go in order to grow, in order to live the happy life we desire for them.

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we shall come to him and make our home with him.” 

Jesus is not setting an impossible target for us. We have the capacity to make that choice. We have the ability to reject the distractions and to recognise the love of God poured into the Son who has loved us to His death. We have the capacity to recognise that the Word He speaks comes from the Father, the Creator who has never abandoned us.

We have the capacity to recognise that the Word does not enslave us but sets us free to live the life for which we were created; to recognise that the Word does not stifle us but empowers us to live life to the fullest, sharing in the salvation of the world.

Even anticipating his death and his disciples’ varied acts of betrayal before being called to repentance, Jesus had called them “friends”.He calls us to share in God’s plan for the world. The Holy Spirit, the Advocate “…will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.”

Let us pray

God our Father, we praise, honour and glorify you. Your power, your majesty and the greatness of your love poured out for us is evident in all that you have created and in all that you have done for us. We thank you for the wonder of your love especially revealed to us in the person of your Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Almighty, ever-loving Father, before Jesus you were a distant God, all powerful but your love still unrevealed to mere humans. In Christ you have touched us; we have come face to face with the Most High who humbled himself to be born of a woman, to be raised like us in a human family, to experience the passing joys, the anxieties, the excitement and the sadness, the uncertainties and the expectations that come with being human in the world.

We can never cease to thank you for this gift but with the outpouring of your Holy Spirit on us, we will be able to live a life that is pleasing and acceptable to you. With the Holy Spirit, we will be able to live according to your Word. With the outpouring of your Holy Spirit on us, we will be empowered to make the changes in our lives that we must in order to love like you have loved us and to live a life that reflects your presence and your glory.

We welcome you into our lives today as on the first day of Pentecost. We bow in humble thanksgiving on this glorious day, in which we can celebrate your gift of life, your gift of power, your gift of love. We worship and adore you in the name of your Son Jesus and in the power of that very Spirit given to us. Amen.

Gospel Meditations for May are by Maraika Gooding. Maraika and her husband Trevor are the parents of five children and grandparents of two. She is a guidance counsellor.