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This Sunday we celebrate the great feast of Pentecost. The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, gathered in prayer, was an intense moment that marked their personal lives, but even more, gave birth to the Church. To mention the Church without the essential and active presence of the Spirit is unthinkable. To live in the Church without allowing oneself to be inhabited and sanctified by the Spirit is a recipe for failure. In order to be faithful to the mission entrusted to us, all the baptized are called to be conformed to Christ. This is only possible through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us.
Everyone I meet shares with me the desire for a living, revitalized and healthy Church. We could have the best pastoral programs in the world, with the most effective technologies at our disposal, with men and women gifted with extraordinary intellectual and artistic capacities, but if the Holy Spirit is not there, the Church will be doomed to die. Let us remember how the Church came into being. Never would this small group of Christians have achieved such a great divine work that has endured through centuries of storms, heresies and socio-political and cultural changes if it was not led by the Holy Spirit.
Let us implore the Holy Spirit, the breath of Life: Come Spirit of God, come and dwell in our hearts. Heal us, strengthen us, transform us. Help us become the missionary Church that You desire, so that Your Kingdom may come among us.
+Marcel