The Descent of the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of a promise that Christ made to His disciples. Isn’t that an amazing thought: that God would promise something to us! What have we ever done to deserve anything from Him? And yet, it pleases Him to bestow gifts on us.

We’re in that first novena, those nine days of prayer between the Feast of the Ascension and the Feast of Pentecost, when the Apostles were gathered together in the Upper Room with Our Lady. Our Lord has ascended to the Father, and now we’re waiting for the Advocate, promised to us by Our Lord, who will make it possible for us to follow after Our Lord.

For a little while now, I’ve wanted to offer a refresher on some of the prayers and gestures we practice as Catholics, which tend to erode over time without our being aware. I hope these reminders will help us to stay united in our common life.

I’m happy to say that the PAVERS have been engraved by the Stations of the Cross. And I’m also happy to announce that we’ve installed a HEARING ASSISTANCE SYSTEM in the church!

Maybe I’m stretching to connect it to the readings for this Sunday, but I think the image of the Church as a field hospital is perhaps a helpful way to understand Christ as the Good Shepherd, as we hear Him described this weekend.

I’d like to make available to you here some of the Resurrection Accounts found in the Scriptures. You might like to do some reading about them on your own. In any case, it’s pretty cool to see them laid out together.

The devotion to the Divine Mercy comes from the mystical visions of the Polish Saint, Faustina Kowalska. In 1931, Jesus appeared to her. Then, through a series of apparitions, He spoke with her and taught her.

People still say it: “I’m spiritual but not religious.” It’s an old expression, but it’s also very modern and still in vogue. It’s used to describe someone whose spiritual life is divorced from organized religion.