Jesus, before ascending to the Father, promised the disciples that they were to receive the Power of the Holy Spirit. On Pentecost, the fiftieth day after the resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit came to be known to our senses. The disciples’ eyes perceived tongues as of fire resting on their heads. Their ears heard a noise like a strong wind. They felt the house filled with the power of the Spirit manifesting the fire of God’s love. The Spirit of the Father and the Son filled the disciples enabling them to proclaim God’s wondrous love without hindrance of languages’ limitations. All present that day were astounded and amazed. The Holy Spirit has chosen a body to live in, the Church is born. And a new age has begun, the age of the Spirit.
What the disciples had heard and seen on that day, Pentecost day, became prophetic signals of what the Church will go forth witnessing in her life. The newly baptized through water and imposition of hands, receive the Holy Spirit. The community at Corinth testified to the presence of the Holy Spirit dispensing different spiritual gifts to the members, the Body of Christ. The Church is powered up by divine energy that needs just a spark to ignite in with life and joy, just a spark to change your life and my life. It is the Holy Spirit that led the disciples into missionary trips; it is the Spirit that builds the Church; it is the Spirit that empowers any person to confess that Christ is Lord; it is the Spirit that forgives sins.
Some members of the Church today say that they were baptized and confirmed but never had any experience of the presence of the Holy Spirit. If you, brother or sister in the Lord, share in this question, then it is the time for you to open up your heart to welcome the divine Spirit. Examine your conscience before the Lord, make a sincere confession and pray for the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in your life. Remember the Lord Jesus saying that his father will give the Holy Spirit to whoever asks him.(Luke 11:13). Trust in the Lord and stay constant in your love for Jesus. At the appropriate moment of God, the
Spirit's gift will unfold in your life for the building of the Church.
On a note of testimony, 317 years ago, a young seminarian at a Jesuit college in Paris, France, together with some friends of his, prayed on that Pentecost day for the Spirit’s gifts. The little group soon formed into a community that will receive the mission of Jesus to minister to the less fortunate members of their cities. This community was put under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Through the three centuries, the Holy Spirit has led them and those who followed them to the ends of the earth. So, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit was born, spread and reached to you. These are the Spiritans to whom I belong as a religious-missionary in the Church. Let us all celebrate with rejoicing and gladness the outpouring of the Spirit, the birth of the Church and the birth of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.