Pentecost Sunday

“I was prepared with great care to receive the visit of the Holy Spirit, and I did not understand why greater attention was not paid to the reception of this sacrament of Love… Like the Apostles I awaited the Holy Spirit’s visit with great happiness in my soul… Finally the happy moment arrived, and I did not experience an impetuous wind at the moment of the Holy Spirit’s descent but rather this light breeze which the prophet Elias heard on Mount Horeb. On that day, I received the strength to suffer, for soon afterward the martyrdom of my soul was about to commence.”

-- Story of a Soul by St Thérèse of Lisieux

The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church

"The Holy Spirit, who with the Father and the Son, created the universe, who guided the People of Israel through history and spoke through the Prophets, who in the fullness of time cooperated in our redemption, came down at Pentecost upon the nascent Church and made her missionary, sending her out to proclaim to all peoples the victory of divine love over sin and death.

The Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church. Without him what would she be reduced to? She would certainly be an important movement in history, a complex and solid social institution, perhaps a sort of humanitarian agency. And to tell the truth she is considered such by those who do not see her from a perspective of faith. Yet, the reality is that in her true nature and also in her authentic presence in history, the Church is ceaselessly formed and guided by the Spirit of her Lord. She is a living body, whose vitality is, precisely, the fruit of the invisible divine Spirit."

-- Pope Benedict XVI, Regina Coeli address on Mary 31, 2009, Solemnity of Pentecost

"Dear friends, let us too learn at the school of Mary to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to listen to his inspirations and to follow them with docility. He makes us grow in accordance with the fullness of Christ, in accordance with those good fruits which the Apostle Paul lists in his Letter to the Galatians: "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal 5:22). I hope you will be filled with these gifts and that you will always walk with Mary, in accordance with the Spirit..."

-- Pope Benedict XVI, address on Mary 30, Marian Vigil

Make this my life!

“O Holy Spirit, you will be the one who will inspire not only my prayer, but by actions as well, who will rule over my relations with my neighbor, and who will produce within me those wonderful fruits which are your gifts, just as all the virtues are your gifts, since we act in a human way, but in a divine way through you, O Holy Spirit, who are within us. Those who are moved by the Spirit of God are children of God.  This is the true life, the life of the children of God.  Oh, make this my life!”


-- Sr Carmela of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit - bond of love of the Holy Trinity

"O Holy Spirit, God of love, bond of love of the Blessed Trinity, You remain with the children of men and find Your delight in them, in that holy chastity which under the influence of Your power and attraction, flourished on earth like the rose among thorns. Holy Spirit! Love! Show me the way that leads to this delightful goal, that path of life that ends in the field made fertile by the divine dew, where hearts burning with thirst may find refreshment. O Love, you alone know this road which leads to life and truth. In You is consummated the wonderful union of the three divine Persons of the Holy Trinity. The most precious gifts are diffused in us by You, O Holy Spirit. From you come the fertile seeds which produce the fruits of life."

-- St Gertrude the Great