Reflection for Friday of the ninth week of Ordinary Time - the Holy Spirit in the midst of our reality today - 5 JUNE 2020

Hurry Sacred Spirit!

Come with your sacred fire.

Shape our emotions and our anger so that our words may transform.

Blow us with a mighty wind so that we may walk when we are weary. 

Birth in us questions that help us confront things that bind us. 

Shatter stones that entomb us: violence, hunger, frustration, abuse, oppression, and confusion. 

Help us build bridges when things separate us, divide us, and keep us apart.  

Gift us with the truth that defies lies that hang mist-like over our world.

Come to us, sacred movement of God: prod us, push us, convince us, and convert us.

Seep into our souls, so that we become one, so that we need not fear. AMEN. 

I adapted the above prayer from a prayer that was written by Sister Peggy O’Neill, who served in El Salvador in Central America in the 1980s.  We just celebrated the Holy Spirit in a special way last weekend during Pentecost.  It was a special weekend for us in our Diocese, as we were able to resume our public Masses after a two and a half months.  We have been working very hard in our Diocese and in our parishes to live out our faith in very difficult circumstance.  I was so happy to see so many of you at St Jude over the weekend and over the week at the masses.  

As I see events unfold in our country, as we see injustices, frustration, and anger, I think of different experiences in my life where I have tried to serve: as a Peace Corps volunteer in the country of Guinea, West Africa; as a lay missionary at a soup kitchen and a food bank in Canada; as a lay missionary in the jungles of Ecuador; as a teacher in a missionary school serving a poor farming community in Texas; as a high school teacher with the Mississippi Teacher Corps in the Mississippi Delta. I served in those communities and tried my best to make a difference.  But, in all honesty, I came away from those experiences with more questions than answers.  

May we work together to proclaim God’s kingdom here on earth and the values of the kingdom.  May we work together for peace and justice - the two must go hand-in-hand.  May we be there for each other.  May we not resort to violence and hatred.  May we dialogue together and work together, not assuming that we know the story of our neighbor, not willing to listen to that story.  May the Holy Spirit set our hearts on fire to do what is right and just in the eyes of God.  

Blessings to all of you - Father Lincoln.