Veni, Sancte Spiritus, Come, Holy Spirit, Come
Reflection for Pentecost Sunday by Rev. Robert
Johnnene OFM
Mission Sts. Sergius and Bacchus/ Franciscans of
Divine Mercy
Based on Readings from; Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:
3-7;Romans 8:8-17, Psalm 104, John14:15-26;
“Come, Holy Spirit,
come! And From Thy clear celestial height Thy pure beaming
radiance give.Come, Thou Father of the poor,Come with treasures which
endure,Come, Thou Light of all that live.Thou, of all consolers best,Thou, the
soul’s delightsome Guest,Dost refreshing peace bestow.Thou in toil art comfort
sweet,Pleasant coolness in the heat,Solace in the midst of woe.Light immortal,
Light divine,Visit Thou these hearts of Thine,And our inmost being fill.If Thou
take Thy grace away,Nothing pure in man will stay;All his good is turned to
ill.Heal our wounds; our strength renew;On our dryness pour Thy dew;Wash the
stains of guilt away.Bend the stubborn heart and will;Melt the frozen, warm the
chill;Guide the steps that go astray.Thou, on those who evermoreThee confess
and Thee adore,In Thy sevenfold gifts descend:Give them comfort when they
die,Give them life with Thee on high;Give them joys that never end.
These words are the
translation from the ancient Latin Hymn/prayer Veni Sancte Spiritus, sometimes
called the "Golden Sequence and dates back to the thirteenth-century.
The feast of Pentecost,
which is also referred to as the Birthday of the church, celebrates the decent
of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles after which they went forth preaching the
Good News of Salvation.
After the Holy Spirit
descended upon them in tongues of fire when they spoke they were heard by the
people of every race and nationality proclaiming the truth of Jesus teachings
in the language of the nationality of those listeners present.
The word of God needs to
be proclaimed in the language of the listener which was the intent of having
the liturgy of the Eucharist, commonly called the Mass, translated from the
Latin into the language of the people by Vatican II making it more
understandable and reverent to all participating. Sadly the translations failed
to meet the original meaning of the Latin and became less than a spiritual
experience and more a modernized prayer service and theatrical experience in
some cases. The mass we now celebrate was revised again in 2010 to be true to
the original Latin.
God’s word was not meant
for the chosen few but for the entire human race. The Apostles were told to
preach the word to all nations even unto the ends of the earth. In order to do
this and faithfully proclaim the truth one has to know the meaning of the
original Greek and Aramaic words of the first writings.
In Paul’s letter to the
Corinthians, Paul tells us “No one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the
Holy Spirit” It is in this letter that one of the most redeeming passages
of scripture can be found. Paul informs us “everyone has different gifts
bestowed on them by God through the Holy Spirit.” He goes on to affirm that
there are “Different forms of service, but the same Lord; there are
different workings but the same God who produces them all. To each individual
the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit” “For in one Spirit
we were all Baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greek, slave of free
person, we were all given to drink of the one Spirit”
Paul’s letter to the
Romans admonishes us to “Live by the Spirit”, it goes further to tell us
that the desires of the flesh can cause a breakdown of the graces provided to
us. Some of the “Desires of the flesh” Paul mentions are, lust (
desiring after someone or something that belongs to another or craving for self
gratification) idolatry ( the
worship of false gods which would also include placing money or wealth or power
above love of and worship of God), hatred, rivalry, jealousy, anger or fury,
selfishness, and drunkenness.
To elaborate on each of
these today and how we might possibly cause ourselves to be separated from God,
and the Gifts of the Spirit which God freely gives us through the Holy Spirit,
would take more time than we have.
I will however, point to the fact that hatred,
jealousy, rivalry, anger , fury, and selfishness are among those Paul mentions
and often times cause more pain and hurt toward others than some of the more
obvious sins of the flesh.
It is some of those
“Desires of the Flesh” that have caused the separations that exist within the
One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church just as giving in to those personal
pleasure desires have caused the scandal that has disgraced so many. So many of the “rules” that churches enforce
and claim are necessary for salvation have nothing at all to do with our
salvation but with the churches maintaining their financial income and to
prevent people from searching for the truth of God’s teachings and researching
the history of the church.
Each of these “Desires of the Flesh” affords
us many ways of sinning. They are human faults that every individual has; our
task is to try our best to resist their lure to partake of their pleasures.
One thing that I personally
can attest to is that, if we call upon God daily, or as many times as we need
to in order to resist the temptations that plague us every day and ask God to
send us the Holy Spirit, God will oblige.
One of my daily prayers is
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill my heart and kindle in in me the fire of your love
so that I might be renewed”
In John 16: we are
promised, “The Spirit will guide you to all truth. The spirit will not speak
on its own, but will speak what he hears from me and declare it to you” The
spirit speaks within us always with God’s will and teachings, we need to
hearken to what we hear, even when it is opposite what popular thinking is
proclaiming and be steadfast in proclaiming what our inner voice is telling us.
God is always there awaiting your call to Him. He does not have an answering
machine, voice mail, or a secretary. You are not asked to press (1)if you need
healing, press (2) for forgiveness, press (3) to seek a favor and so on. You will not receive a message “Sorry God
is busy taking a call from another special customer, please remain on the line
and your call will be answered in the order in which it was received”. God is always listening to what we are
saying and will respond to us according to what He feels is best for us. God
always answers our prayers, just not always in the way we want, but in what
will be best for us.
Many times God actually
comes to us and speaks to us in our dreams or quiet times and even sometimes
while driving a car, listening to the I pod, watching TV or playing ball.
Unfortunately, we are
often too preoccupied to listen to what he is telling us through the Holy
Spirit.
I suggest that the time is
NOW for us to begin to be more receptive to those calls from God. Don’t put Him
on hold, but take a break from whatever we are engaged in and listen with an
open and receptive heart.
We need to allow ourselves
to “Receive The Holy Spirit” so that we can begin to develop a deeper and
closer relationship with Almighty God and allow us to receive all the gifts of
The Spirit, Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness and self control.
May God grant us the
wisdom and understanding and the ability to hear Him when He speaks to us and
then go out and live in accordance with His will.
AMEN
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