Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church

The Feast of Pentecost is one that should give us great hope and enthusiasm for the living of the faith in the face of difficulty. Consider three titles of the Holy Spirit: Consoler, Advocate, and Paraclete.

Consoler: What an inspiration to know that God has this nickname which describes He Himself granting us His consolation! This is why
it is a work of mercy to visit the sick, imprisioned and to console the grieving. This week I visited a young mother in the hospital and hope that my surprise visit was some consolation. How fitting that we console one another in the Holy Spirit.

Advocate: God promises to be our defense lawyer! Satan is the accuser, but with God as our defense lawyer, we have nothing to fear! This year the image of having the Lord as our lawyer, while He is also described as the judge! Can you imagine the courtroom where the prosecuting attorney finds that the judge and defense lawyer are one and the same? The prosecutor would wail and gnash his teeth!

Paraclete: God promises to be the one to come to our side. We are never alone. It is said that trials reveal true friends, as the fair-weather ones fall away. God is the one who accompanies us through every trial. So much so that He unites our sufferings to His. “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal 2:20)

Living thus in the spirit, St. Paul speaks of the “mystery hidden from ages and from generations past. But now it has been manifested to His holy ones, to whom God chose to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; it is Christ in you, the hope for glory.” (Col 1:26-7).

pax,

Father John Mosimann

Last weekend we celebrated the last wave of First Holy Communions of our children. What wonderful and joyous celebrations! Congratulations to each and every child who has been elevated to such sublime union with God. When anyone receives the host, they receive Jesus whole and entire.

Sometimes we say that all of Jesus is present, “body, blood, soul and divinity.” At the dual consecrations, the bread becomes the Body of Christ, and the wine becomes the Blood of Christ. We might think – incorrectly – that this implies that Christ can be divided into parts. Because He is resurrected and enthroned in glory, wherever His Body is, His Blood must also be. The theological term
for this is concomitance. Because His Body is present by power of the consecration, His Blood, Soul and Divinity are also necessarily present by concomitance.

We are planning a Corpus Christi procession for the end of the month, and info is now rolling out on that!

And yes, today is Mother’s Day! A blessed and holy day to express our gratitude to our mothers. If you can visit or call your mother, then by all means do! If you cannot, then be assured that gathering around the altar, we are truly with the angels, saints, and mothers in heaven!

To pull together these threads, consider these words of St. Therese whose mother had passed away before her First Holy Communion:

“… the joy of heaven had entered one small, exiled heart, and that it was too weak to bear it without tears. As if the absence of my mother could make me unhappy on the day of my First Communion! As all of heaven entered my soul when I received Jesus, my mother came to me as well.”

pax,

Father John Mosimann