Fire From Heaven, Igniting the Sacrifice

By Chris Sparks

[Y]ou will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. - Acts 1:8

If you want hearts afire, then Pentecost is the feast for you.

On Pentecost, celebrated on Sunday, June 5, we commemorate that Jesus has ascended to the Father, and He has sent the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and the Church (see Jn 16:7-15), gathered with His mother in the upper room. After the first novena - nine days of Mary and the Apostles gathered in prayer in the upper room (Acts 1:13-14) - the Church has her great birthday: Pentecost. Now, the Church can proclaim with Jesus her Head:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord ... "

Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing. - Lk 4:18-19, 21

Special anointing
We all share in this special anointing through the sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Confirmation. We are the anointed ones of the Lord Jesus, the anointed Christ of God - we are Christians, chrismated and sealed in His service. We are given a share in His Spirit - but do we live as though this is true? Do we pray as though we have the Holy Spirit of the living God in our lives and loves? Do we adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament as though the very fire of the divine life and love is animating our worship?

Do we remember the Holy Spirit, and ask for His help?

We are initiated into the Trinitarian life and love through Jesus Christ, as Fr. Michael Gaitley explains in The 'One Thing' is Three. We are given access through faith, the sacraments, and prayer to the very life and power of God. Do we use that power, fueled by divine love? Do we speak to God in faith, asking our Father in heaven for our needs and the needs of those around us, reconciled to let His will be done, knowing that He will act, if only we let Him, for our good and the good of the whole Church, of the whole world? Do we truly trust in Jesus and the grace that flows from His pierced Heart?

As St. Catherine of Siena is reported to have said, "If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world on fire!"

Live that life of love
Let your heart be set afire by the Holy Spirit through consecration to Jesus through Mary, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Console the Heart of Jesus by letting Him pour out the flames of His Mercy from His Heart to yours. Learn how we are divinized by communion with Jesus and sanctification by the Holy Spirit. And then live that life of love by doing to the least of these what the Love of God will lead us to do.

This Pentecost, let us pray that all hearts may be set afire, and may nothing ever quench this flame.

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