Blessed Pentecost!

[Confraternity of Penitents]

Blessings and all good, fellow penitents, friends, inquirers, affiliates, and associates of the Confraternity of Penitents,

 

Happy Pentecost! May the Holy Spirit be your love and your guide!

 

Before we share a Pentecost reflection, we ask your prayers for Phyllis O'Brien who is planning to pledge to live the CFP Rule for life on June 13, the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua. Please pray for Phyllis as she prepares for this wonderful event!

 

We share with you our Visitor's reflection on the Holy Spirit as we celebrate today the "Birthday of the Church." This reflection is found on this link:  http://penitents.org/siscoActs23_6_10.htm

 

Becoming Aware of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives: A Reflection on Acts 23: 6-10

 

Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees,
so he called out before the Sanhedrin,
"My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees;
I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead."
When he said this,
a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees,
and the group became divided.
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection
or angels or spirits,
while the Pharisees acknowledge all three.
A great uproar occurred,
and some scribes belonging to the Pharisee party
stood up and sharply argued,
"We find nothing wrong with this man.
Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"
The dispute was so serious that the commander,
afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them,
ordered his troops to go down and rescue Paul from their midst
and take him into the compound.
(Acts 23: 6-10)

 

This has always been one of my favorite passages from the Acts of the Apostles. Paul is getting rescued by the Holy Spirit, from the hands of the Pharisee’s and the Sadducees by starting an argument among them.

 

Now let’s contrast this for a second by the way the Lord rescues Peter from prison. Peter is chained up, guards on either side of him. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appears, the chains fall off, the door swings open, and this angel starts barking orders at Peter. “Get up!” “Put on your sandals.” And it’s not until Peter is outside the prison that he realizes what has happened.

 

Paul is also rescued by the Holy Spirit. Paul is dragged out of prison to appear before the Pharisee’s and the Sadducees, and it looks like this is going to be a hanging jury. But because Paul knows their weakness. The Pharisee’s believe in the resurrection of the body and the Sadducees don’t. In his defense statement, Paul is able to pit them against one another, and Paul escapes death.

           

Here we have the stories of two apostles, both eventually martyred in Rome, but both rescued by the Holy Spirit differently.

 

Peter is rescued by an extraordinary manifestation of God. An angel literally comes to his aid.

 

Paul’s rescue was much less mystical, but certainly no less dramatic.

 

Sometimes we can get so caught up waiting for God to manifest himself in some grand, extraordinary, way that we forget sometimes God works through very common means.

 

There’s a great scene in the movie “Bruce Almighty.” God, played by Morgan Freedman, has given his powers to a man named Bruce, played by Jim Carey. At first, Bruce is enthralled with his new powers. While sitting in a diner, Bruce parts his bowl of soup like the Red Sea, and then God appears sitting across from him. And in the course of their conversation, God says to Bruce, “Parting your soup is a trick. A single mom who works two jobs and still finds time to make for her kids…that’s a miracle.” That’s a great observation!

 

I remember Father Benedict Groeschel once telling a story of how a man who worked for the friars in the Bronx was dismissed for dealing drugs. The man started making threatening phone calls, said he’d burn the friary down. Father Groeschel went to the police, and they couldn’t really do anything. And as he’s telling the story, you expect him to say something like; “And I went to the chapel, and I prayed to our Lady. I made a novena. I did all night vigils in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and miraculously the man left, or was caught by the police.” No. Fr. Benedict said he got a friend of his, who was an actor, to call this guy and imitate a gangster, and scare him off. And it worked! Is that any less inspired by God?

 

God is working in us, and through us, and around us, all the time. But we have to train ourselves to see the way God is working in our lives through every day means. We’ve got to stop looking for the thunderbolts, and start listening for the whisper.

 

Some people think that if they’re not having an apparition of some kind, the Holy Spirit doesn’t speak to them. How sad! Of course the Holy Spirit speaks to them! The Holy Spirit speaks to everyone who is willing to listen. The Holy Spirit works through anyone who is willing to serve.

 

It is my prayer that all people develop a keener eye to see God working in their lives.

 

And blessed be God forever.

 

Father Michael Anthony Sisco

Visitor, Confraternity of Penitents