Solemnity of Pentecost – “The Spirit Came As Wind and Fire!”
Fifty days after the Resurrection, on the Jewish feast of Pentecost (thus the large crowd in Jerusalem), the new People of God, the Church, embarked on its mission to go into the world. The Apostles and early disciples, animated by the “fire” of the Holy Spirit in their gut, swung into action. Impelled by the powerful “wind” of the Holy Spirit, they probably surprised themselves with their success in moving many Jewish people to believe in Jesus and follow his way of life – the Christian life of loving God and loving everyone else too. 

The same Spirit the disciples received unites us today as the Church. The same Spirit blows us forward to spread our Catholic faith, despite our reluctance or timidity. The same Spirit that gifted the earliest members of the Church 2,000 years ago powerfully burns in each of us today. Are you letting the Holy Spirit blow in your life, and burn in your heart? What gift(s) have you received to bring to the Body of Christ?  What gift(s) have you been blessed with to build up the Church?

This weekend of Pentecost is unique in our history! Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski is announcing to every parish the final form of the “All Things New” plan to restructure parishes. St. Louis Catholics will be given a golden opportunity to make a new start in bringing the message of Christ and his Church to all the people of St. Louis – to make a real difference in our community. A huge mission to tackle, no doubt, but we have to start new somehow. What we have been doing in recent decades has not been helping the Church to grow in members and in effectiveness in bringing Christian values into our society. 

So we in this part of the diocese are called by the Holy Spirit this Pentecost to develop a new parish setup that will make a much more positive difference in Lemay for the good of Christ’s Church, for the good of God’s Kingdom here on earth, and for the good of our own souls. I believe that the Holy Spirit is the “fire” in our hearts and the “wind” in our sails enabling us to move forward with the “All Things New” plan. What about you?

The Pentecost Announcement Timeline

• Saturday, May 27 at our 4 p.m. Mass, we will hear the letter of Archbishop Rozanski to our parish concerning the “All Things New” plan about the future for St. Bernadette Parish and the announcement of the new pastor of the parishes in Lemay.
• At 5:30 p.m. the Archbishop will have a News Conference that should be covered by the news media.
• At 6 p.m. the “All Things New” website of the Archdiocese will be updated with a video by the Archbishop and include all the decrees for all parishes.
• Later Saturday evening, our St. Bernadette website will have this information: www.churchofsaintbernadette.org.
• On Sunday morning, the Archbishop’s letter to St. Bernadette Parish will be read at the 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Masses.