Welcome, Summer!

 

Summer Prayer . . .

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan,  
and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of              
up and down,
who is gazing around with her enormous and                        
complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly                                                                            
washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, 
how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

~ Mary Oliver

Live Prayer - anyway!

 

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; forgive them anyway.

If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable; be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, there may be jealousy; be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway. —Kent M. Keith

Pentecost . . .

 

May 24, 2026

Pentecost Sunday

Martha

Ligas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0xP3Ou8N3Q&t=3s

Last week’s Ascension story at the very beginning of Acts tells us that Jesus’ friends were looking up at the sky after he ascended to the heavens. Messengers dressed in white appeared and said why are you looking up? He’s gone now. The mystifying reality and the energy of the Jesus movement had come to a halt.With Jesus gone the disciples went upstairs and locked the door, so afraid of being found. So afraid of what would happen if the wrong people found out that they were associated with the one who had been crucified. The fear was tangible. It was consuming. So they hid.

My privilege is such that I don’t know this fear. But I do know that many do. This experience of locking the door as a barrier from the threats that lay behind it has become a bodily reality for far too many. At this very moment far-away neighbors are hiding in shelters from threats of warfare. Neighbors nearby are hiding in churches, desperate to keep their families together. Women are hiding in safehouses from partners turned abusers. Friends are hiding their identities in order to keep their jobs or their families. Our broken world is full of fear that hides behind locked doors. The threats are real. The fear is real. And the reality is, not everyone is in a place to break free from those shackles. We’ve got a lot of work to do until that day comes.

But this Pentecost message today is for those who have locked our doors out of another kind of fear. For those, like me, who are so overwhelmed sometimes by the need that it is just easier to shut the blinds and lock the doors. This message is for those of us who cower away from the threats that keep our neighbors suppressed, because there just seem to be too many of them. This message is for those of us who too often choose fear over courage, not out of necessity, but out of convenience. And the message for us on this holiest of Pentecosts is this: let the Holy Spirit in. If you still yourself and quiet your heart, you can hear the knocking. The Spirit is ready to bust down the door. She is actively waiting to animate our very selves, to set our hearts on fire, to lead us through a thrown open door into a world that desperately needs our ministries. The Spirit is here, the Spirit is ready, and a closed door is no barrier— but a closed heart is. We have to choose to let her in.

While the apostles were no doubt surprised by the Spirit’s grand entrance into the upper room, the concept of a Spirit would not have been new for them. In Hebrew Scripture the term used to define Spirit was Ruah, meaning breath, or wind. Liberation theologian Leonardo Boff describes ruah as “a primitive force that breaks the conventional patterns of human behavior.” Ruah is the force that stirs things up. That works outside of convention. That pays no mind to the way things have been. Ruah is uncontrollable– it blows where it wills. It is the great animating force that defies convention and breathes new life. It fills all of creation—  and it can be embodied in humanity… if we are receptive to its nature. If we open ourselves to creativity, to a new kind of courage, to possibilities yet to be named.  If we let it in.

So while the apostles were left stunned at Jesus’ sudden absence, they were given the greatest parting gift: his animating Spirit. The force that flows through all of existence, the force that animates and creates and stirs things up, channeled by the divine love of God into their very beings. And with the Spirit on their side, how could they be afraid? They opened the door and they never looked back. Can we do this too? Can we make the choice, on this Pentecost Sunday, to open our hearts to the Spirit who has come a’knockin’, to see that our fear is no match for what we can do when we are empowered by her animating force? Lift the window shades. Throw open the door. The world needs you, and the Spirit will show you the way.

One Living Body in Christ

 

Pentecost Sunday 2026

 

May 24, 2026

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104; 1 Corinthians 12:3-13; John 20:19-23

 

The arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost shows us God’s continued interest in our world. God remains an active part of our lives and promises to evolve with us as we head to more complexity. Pentecost reminds us that we live in a time in which our church and our world are unfinished, and we are invited to become fully and actively involved in God’s grand project.

 

God’s project is much more than saving our souls and keeping us from falling into sin and hell. That is what we learned in our religious education of our youth. Pentecost is about consciously creating a positive difference in the world that has become increasingly complex. This is a divine project that respects the innate longing of all creation, not just humans, to reach the fulfillment God always held out for us. Today, people of faith are integrating our beliefs into a rapidly changing and complex world. 

 

Pentecost is the moment when many different people become one living body through the Spirit. This Spirit-event emphasizes that all people are interdependent parts of a greater whole, working side by side in service to God. It focuses on the universality of God’s evolutionary plan. We, therefore, become concerned for issues like planetary ecology, global warming, and overpopulation. We focus our attention on such matters like emerging diseases, terrorism, mass shootings, nuclear weapons, and the displacement of persons. We are developing a cosmic consciousness, that is “for God’s greater glory.” We do not want to simply work, harder, faster, or more efficiently. We want to work more lovingly, more gratefully, more consciously, and more focused on promoting the development of the universal Body of Christ.

 

We can no longer see ourselves as independent persons seeking individual salvation. That is an un-ripened spirituality. We can see ourselves as interdependent parts of a whole. We need to lift up everyone, so that we no longer let people stay in terrible situations. We need to lift up people from poverty, from hunger, from being unhoused, from servitude, from ignorance, or from lack of purpose. This is a project of radical love.

 

What kind of people must we be today? We need to be team players, community builders, peacemakers, and researchers. We need to be flexible, resilient, forgiving, optimistic people. We need to learn to pray together, to contemplate together, to envision and create a new future together. Of course, the church calls us to listen first and then speak compassionately. We want to help others achieve their maximum potential and stretch the horizon, to envision what does not yet exist, and to make that happen. We have to live in the “now” and also the “yet that is to come.”  

 

The Spirit forms us together, breathes through us together, and sends us together for the life of the world. The Spirit guides and unites. Pentecost breaks open every boundary of tribe, nation, language, and status. The Spirit forms a universal Body of Christ stretching across the world and across time itself. We are part of something infinitely larger than ourselves — a people being shaped into the living presence of Christ in the world. To this, I can only say, “Wow. Yes. Sign me up.” Do you want to come?

 

Holy Spirit of Truth and Courage!

 

 

Come, Holy Spirit ~

Replace the tension within me with a holy relaxation,

Replace the turbulence within me with a sacred calm,

Replace the anxiety within me with a quiet confidence,

Replace the fear within me with a strong faith,

Replace the bitterness within me with the sweetness of grace,

Replace the darkness within me with a gentle light,

Replace the coldness within me with a loving warmth,

Replace the night within me with Your day,

Replace the winter within me with Your spring,

Straighten my crookedness, fill my emptiness,

Dull the edge of my pride, sharpen the edge of my humility,

Light the fires of my love, quench within me the flames of envy,

Let me see myself as You see me, that I may see You as You have promised ~

And be fortunate according to Your word, “Blessed are the pure of heart,

for they shall see God.”                                                                                                      

(Anonymous)

Memorial Day . . .

 

From an Irish headstone

For Peace

 

Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!

We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain.

Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: "Never again war!"; "With war everything is lost". Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.

Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness.

Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words "division", "hatred" and "war" be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be "brother", and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam!

Author: Pope Francis