The Easter season ends in grand style each year with the celebration of Pentecost, often identified as the Church’s birthday. The significance of the role of the Holy Spirit in the birth of the Catholic Church cannot be overstated. Likewise, the Holy Spirit’s work in the Church in our day should not be underestimated. Our liturgical celebrations of Pentecost are not simply for memorializing an event of the past; rather, they empower us for the events of our present and future.
My previous column was entitled "Wanted: A New Evangelization." It focused on the challenges posed by the American bishops in their recent publication, "Disciples Called to Witness." We were reminded that it is we who need first to be evangelized before we can fulfill our commission from Jesus to bring the Good News to others. Many Catholics who live in our midst have "lost the living sense of the faith," the bishops noted, and it is our duty to restore it. New Evangelization begins right at home as we renew our own faith so that others might be drawn to (or back to) the Church that Jesus established for us.
In order for this spiritual reinvigoration of the Church to happen, Catholics will need to experience a new Pentecost in their lives, not unlike the one that the Apostles experienced.
Just as The Twelve were gathered together in prayer, open to the promptings of the Spirit, so must we adopt a posture of receptivity with regard to what God has in store for us. In a culture that is becoming increasingly hostile to religion and its free expression, Christians will need to be equipped not only with the truths of the Faith in order to defend the Church; they will also need to be fortified with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially courage, to engage effectively in the battle.
Blessed Pope John Paul II, of happy memory, often spoke about "a new springtime of faith" that he felt was on the horizon as we embarked on the Third Millennium of Christianity. In effect, he was prophesying the onset of a new Pentecost to bolster the Church in our times. This new Pentecost would likely take the form of a collective renewal of faith.
Undoubtedly, our present Holy Father hopes to use the Year of Faith set to begin in October as a means to ignite the new springtime that his holy predecessor foretold.
With those same goals in mind, our Diocesan Evangelization Conference, set for Sept. 7-8, is entitled, "A New Pentecost for a New Evangelization." The title itself reflects what has been suggested above—namely, that openness to the gifts of the Holy Spirit allows us to be revitalized so that we can become catalysts for renewal in the Church. The presenters intend to provide for participants a renewed focus on our apostolic duty to evangelize.
The conference comes just before the world-wide Synod on Evangelization to be held in Rome. Dr. Ralph Martin, one of the American consulters chosen to serve on the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, will be a conference speaker. He will join Sister Ann Shields in offering a host of ideas of how a new Pentecost can take shape in the Church and how each of us might be involved.
It is not by accident that the organization these popular speakers represent is called Renewal Ministries. Hopefully, they will help to spark a new Pentecost here in our own diocese.
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