Thoughts for May and June

The 40 days which follow Easter are called Eastertide – a season when the new life and hope of Easter spreads across our lives like a great tidal wave --or so we hope. Certainly we remember the joy of brand new life and renewed love when we celebrate Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day. When children run with wild glee on the last day of school, and young men and women march with self-conscious new dignity to “Pomp and Circumstance”, we are reminded of many new beginnings, in their lives and ours.

In the Christian tradition, the season of Eastertide concludes with the greatest opportunity for new life –the holy day of Pentecost. On Pentecost we decorate with red for the sign of the fire of the Holy Spirit. It is celebrated as the day when the Holy Spirit came to the men and women of the early church and filled them up with new power and wisdom and joy. We give thanks for the gift of the Holy Spirit coming into our own lives, too, giving us courage and strength to be true followers of Jesus, here and now, as individuals and as a community. Through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit we are able to experience mysterious and marvelous moments when we become the Church at its best, the Body of Christ alive in our world.