Dear friends in Christ

This weekend—Pentecost—the prayer goes up from the heart of the Church: Come, Holy Spirit, renew the face of the earth! This prayer gives voice to the deepest sentiments of every soul, that God the Holy Spirit will powerfully create us anew for the work of the Gospel. Last weekend, as we contemplated the Apostles gathered with Mary awaiting the Paraclete, we had an image of the Church in Her infancy. Before the Apostles received the power and grace to go forth into the world, they joined in prayer. This is a template for the life of the Church still: prayer before action; contemplation before the apostolate. Everything we do flows from the desire we should have to worship. The primary mission of the Church is to brings souls to Heaven, and to do this by making saints of us. Before any great undertaking all the saints show us the need for prayer. So, whether it be our concern to improve the social condition of our world, or to permeate politics with Christian Truth or our care for the environment…prayer before action! Nothing good is ever achieved for God without this dimension of surrender to Him in prayer. No authentic renewal of the Church is possible without coming humbly before God on our knees, especially before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

This weekend our Bishops have sent us a joint Pastoral Letter on the subject of creation and the gift of life; we have included it with this Newsletter and I would encourage you to read it.

Let us invoke the Holy Spirit this Pentecost, to make the way ahead sure and safe. As we still experience some uncertainties and fears, we can pray with earnestness the words found in the Sequence of the Pentecost Mass: Come Thou light of all that live…Solace in the midst of woe…With Thy sevenfold gifts descend…Give us joys that never end!

With every blessing this Pentecost!

Msgr Kevin Hale