FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT

Dear friends,

This week we celebrate the birth of the Church in the feast of Pentecost. Filled with the Holy Spirit the Apostles supported by Mary, the Mother of God, enable the beginning of the time of the Church.

With the coming of the Spirit, fear which had filled the Apostles is replaced by power “from on high.” This power refers to the gifts of the Spirit and the true sense of belonging to God as His daughter and son in the unity of the family of God, that is, the Church.

Pentecost is essentially about belonging. It is about having a home in God and in His people...... “and we shall come to him and make a home with him.”
Home is where the heart is. Our hearts are restless until they rest in God, says St Augustine. Home is where you can be truly yourself without any pretence or anxiety about what others may think of you.

The Church is our home and the foretaste of our true home in heaven. In fact, the older one gets the more homesick for heaven becomes a reality.

In our Church we all are welcome to be our true selves. The Spirit speaking to us through each other in the community of the Church is what the Church calls “sensus fidelium.” Let us cherish the collective wisdom of our parish Church family by listening attentively to each other and the Word.

May the language of love, which is the action of the Holy Spirit within every person help us bring about a new birth in our beautiful parishes of Manly and Birkdale.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Amen

God love you
Fr Frank

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