Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

This weekend, as the Church celebrates Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the nascent Church, we here at our parish celebrate anew such gifts of community, of prayerful praise, of faith in God and the sharing of our many individual and varied gifts in common.

Without posting the different homilies of this weekend, suffice it to say that we are a very blessed community.  At our 8:30am liturgy, we recalled our baptism as we were again sprinkled with holy water from our baptismal font.  We then called forth the power of the Holy Spirit during the Confirmation of Megan Gianna Calnan.  She was sealed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit as she was anointed with Sacred Chrism…and I encouraged Megan to continue to accept and utilize the gifts of the Spirit of God in her blessed future within the Church.  Later, we again called upon the Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify the gifts we presented upon the altar…and during our Communion Rite, we each shared in that food from God.  Finally, before we were sent forth, we welcomed several new families and parishioners to our parish.

After that Mass, we had not only a light reception to further welcome our new parishioners, but we also had a feast of brunch for our RCIA Team and the members of our parish who celebrated the Sacraments of Initiation and were received into the Church at this year’s Easter Vigil.  Our young children also celebrated with parties marking the close of our catechetical year.

At our 11am liturgy, we received and baptized young John Robert McFadden IV, the newest member of our faith community.  Again the Holy Spirit was effective through the blessed waters of baptism…and John Robert gleamed through the entirety of the rites!  Toward the conclusion of Mass, we also extended a blessing for Vic Balog & Terry Zeller who will be married in our church this coming Saturday.

Wow, the Holy Spirit came through: at every moment, when we called forth the Spirit, God generously responded…as He always does!  A happy and blessed Pentecost to all!

 

PS – we also had the opportunity to see one of our new stained glass windows in the Chapel of St. Joseph…if you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to stop by the chapel…you’ll be very glad you did.

Happy Mother’s Day to all our moms: our natural mothers; grandmothers; adoptive mothers; spiritual mothers; foster mothers…and all those who minister as mothers for each of us.  Let us pray that these moms always receive from us the blessings of love that they constantly share with us.

Although this seventh Sunday of Easter each year announces the gospel we’ve just heard, it may just be a coincidence that it is also Mother’s Day.  If we take but a moment, most, if not all of us, immediately picture how a mother tenderly and faithfully loves her child.  There’s no hoop for the child to jump through, no payment or bribe to make, no begging…no, the child doesn’t even have to be good or even nice…the mother’s love for that child is guaranteed, constant, ever-present and always full.

And this kind of love between a mother and her child is a wonderful image of the love that is expressed in today’s gospel:  Jesus’ love for the Father and the Father’s great love shared with him in return.  And what is so powerfully important for us to note from our perspective is that Jesus asks the Father to include useach and every one of usin their rapturous love!  Jesus begs the Father to allow such a binding and life-giving love to always bubble up within us, surround us, and enfold us so that His own presence might remain in and around each one of us.  And it is through the love of our mothers and fathers that such a gift is continuously transmitted and shared with each of us to this very day.

Yes, only this kind of lovethat existed from the beginning and has enlivened the Trinity before time beganonly this kind of love is God’s gift to us, a gift to be cherished, a gift to be shared, and a gift worthy of our daily thanks.

May this gift of Christ’s love be ours today and every day.  Amen.