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“Rivers of Living Water” (John 7:37-39)Last weekend Susan and I went to Excelsior Springs, Missouri, to attend the wedding of Pastor and Mrs. Paul Flo. Excelsior Springs got its name and its fame long ago from the springs of water located there--healthful, healing waters, with restorative powers, it was said. Well, it so happened that when we went out there on that Friday, I wasn’t feeling so well. But when we returned on Sunday evening, I came back . . . with a bad case of acute bronchitis. I guess the healing waters of Excelsior Springs didn’t do me much...

Beloved brother Hierarchs, Reverend Clergy, God -fearing Monastics, and all my Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ our True God: Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise, having sent upon them the Holy Spirit, and through them Thou hast fished the universe, O Lover of mankind, glory to Thee. Having celebrated the Holy Ascension of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ to his throne in heaven, we turn our attention to the coming of the promised Holy Spirit – the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. It was through the inspiration and...

“The Centrality of Baptism: On Pentecost and in Your Life” (Acts 2:1-42) Today is the Day of Pentecost, one of the three great festivals of the Christian church year, along with Christmas and Easter. This festival commemorates the day of Pentecost that we read about in Acts chapter 2. And what happened that day--the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Peter’s preaching of Christ crucified and risen and repentance and forgiveness in his name--what did that result in? The baptism of 3,000 souls that day. And we even see what happened in the life of the newly baptized in the days...

Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

BERLIN — Women in traditional white dresses have carried a centuries-old statue of the Virgin Mary to mark Whit Monday in an annual ritual in the eastern German town of Rosenthal. Hundreds of Catholic Sorbs, a Slavic minority, held prayers in rural churches in about a dozen areas before walking to Rosenthal for another service. They then ended their pilgrimage walking with the young women carrying the 1480 wooden statue of Mary through the town to a field for an open-air mass. The ritual marks Whit Monday, the day after Whitsun or Pentecost, which falls seven weeks after Easter Sunday...

May 23 , 2021 Pentecost St. Anne's Church, Mazagaon, Mumbai, India Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White.These readings are for the extended-form Vigil Mass on the evening before the feast. First readingGenesis 11:1-9 ©The tower of BabelThroughout the earth men spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now as they moved eastwards they found a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.’ (For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen). ‘Come,’ they said ‘let us build ourselves a town...

“The Day of Pentecost: What Does This Mean?” (Acts 2:1-21) You know those people we heard about in Acts 2, the ones in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost? I think they must have been Lutheran. I mean, it says in our text, “And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’” That’s the Lutheran question, isn’t it? “What does this mean?” We’d almost expect the answer to begin, “We should fear and love God so that. . . .” Well, even if it isn’t right out of the catechism, this is still a good...

The Lord Is God 32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God[a] speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and...

JERUSALEM—Authorities are investigating after witnesses accused a local religious nut named Simon Peter and several others of hosting an unauthorized super spreader event in an enclosed room in Jerusalem. Experts say the event, which was not authorized by the local Jewish or Roman authorities, may put everyone in the area at risk for infectious diseases such as leprosy. "This is completely inexcusable," said local magistrate Biggus Tookus. "We have found that there were at least 11 people at this event. No one's address was recorded at the door and we don't know where they are now." One medical expert named...

Pentecost Reminder: The Church was Born on Good Friday It is not traditional to celebrate a person’s birthday weeks after they were born.  Likewise, it is not Traditional (as in Catholic Tradition) to celebrate the ‘birth of the Church’ on Pentecost – 52 days after the Church was born on Good Friday, as unanimously taught by the Fathers of the Church.The practice of Catholics baking birthday cakes for the Church on Pentecost Sunday is lamentable. ‘Homilies’ proclaiming the birth of the Church on Pentecost, like the related birthday cakes, are constructed from a recipe with non-Catholic ingredients. We need more...

Posted on May 31, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope I Have Come to Cast A Fire on the Earth – A Homily for Pentecost Sunday What a wondrous and challenging feast we celebrate at Pentecost! A feast like this challenges us because it puts to the lie a lazy, sleepy, hidden, and tepid Christian life. The Lord Jesus said to the apostles, I have come to cast a fire on the earth (Luke 12:49). This is a feast about fire, a transformative, refining, purifying fire that the Lord wants to kindle in us. It is a necessary fire, for...

A church hymn like people sang a century ago. It's by one of "America's first composers", like Irving Berlin and Stephen Foster, this Louis Moreau Gottschalk of New Orleans. A quant, old fashioned sound, any Christian can sing to the Holy Spirit using the words. Podcast click to new window, Holy Ghost, With Light Divine, Piano only, for singing-to, very slow and devout, in prayer, spiritual karaoke. Just you singing alone to your greatest friend, the Holy Ghost, Who wants to join His heart with yours. Holy Ghost, with light divine, Shine upon this heart of mine; Chase the shade...

May 31 2020 Mass during the Day of Pentecost Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.Now there were devout Jews from...

May 31 2020 Pentecost Sunday - Extended Vigil Reading 1 Genesis 11:1-9 The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While the people were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, "Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire." They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered...

May 31 2020 Pentecost Sunday At the Vigil Mass Reading 1 Gn 11:1-9 The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While the people were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.” They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be...

Sunday, May 31, 2020 PENTECOST SUNDAY JOHN 20:19-23 Friends, in today’s Gospel, on the evening after his Resurrection, the Lord appeared to his disciples and greeted them, saying "Peace be with you." According to the Gospel accounts, the risen Jesus typically did two things: he showed his wounds and he pronounced a word of peace. The wounds of Jesus are a continual and salutary reminder of our sin. The author of life appeared in our midst and we killed him, and this gives the lie to any attempt at self-justification or exculpation. But the risen Lord never leaves us in...

Today we reach the high point of our Easter celebration, the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost -- meaning 50 days after the Passover — was the feast day in which the Jewish people celebrated the Giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. This is where the different tribes of Israel entered into covenant with God and with one another and so became the people of God. Being a people of God means relating to God and to one another in a way that God Himself has mapped out...Whenever human beings try to take the initiative in our dealings with God, what...

“Out of His Heart Will Flow Rivers of Living Water” (John 7:37-39) Please take a look at the front of your bulletin for today. There you will see a photograph of water flowing out in a river. And written over the picture are these words from John 7:38, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Those are the words of Jesus from today’s Holy Gospel. There Jesus says exactly that: “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But the question is: Who is it that Jesus is talking about? Out of whose heart will...

Do not miss this inspiring message from Amir, one of his best presentations ever. Get your thoughts off COVID-19 for a while and look at the rest of the world and what we should actually be doing. The first part is a discussion of Netanyahu and what is going on politically in Israel. The middle section is probably the only lucid account of the confusing scene over there in the Middle East that you will hear. The third and best part is an inspirational and superbly well-informed explanation of Pentecost and what it means to us as believers, with a...

“The Peace of Pentecost” (John 14:23-31) Jesus tells his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” How can you say that, Jesus? How can you tell your disciples to be at peace? You’ve just told them that you’re going away! And now they’re supposed to be OK with that? They’re just supposed to take it easy? Come on, Jesus, get real! And how about us? Yeah, we here today. How are we supposed to...