Deacon's Pen May 16, 2021

Dear friends,

This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. During this past week, as we heard in John’s Gospels, Jesus is preparing His Apostles for His upcoming departure. He reassures them by telling them about the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. If Jesus doesn’t leave, the Advocate cannot come. Only by letting go of Jesus physically, is He able to send His Spirit, who will then become part of them. He will be with them and in them spiritually.

Bishop Barron tells us that the Spirit is the fuel of the Church, the energy and life force of the Body of Christ, and we can only get Him by asking for Him. Jesus tells us that the Father would never refuse someone who asked for the Spirit.

In my second year of formation, I began to doubt my ability to grasp the material. Our professor, Father Damien Dougherty, a brilliant Franciscan priest with more letters behind his name than Carter has pills, was teaching us Trinitarian Theology and Christology. During one of our study sessions, a classmate and dear friend told me, “don’t sweat it, just ask the Holy Spirit for help.” So I began each class the same way, “COME HOLY SPIRIT!” Before every test and every exam…”COME HOLY SPIRIT!” A’s and B’s followed, and I finished the year with a B+ average. There is no way that I could have done that on my own. Even after my ordination, I continue to ask for His assistance, and before every Gospel that I feel so blessed to preach, I pray “COME HOLY SPIRIT!”

So as we move forward to the celebration of Pentecost next Sunday, I would encourage each and every one of you to ask, and continue to ask: “COME HOLY SPIRIT!