Grace and peace to you, dear community of St. Patrick’s. This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit came down upon the apostles, setting them afire and giving them the ability to speak the many languages of the world, equipping them to go out and spread the Good News to all the people. It is also traditionally celebrated as the birthday of the Church.
We share the challenge of those first apostles of how to speak our faith to a world that yearns to know God’s enduring love. We live in a rapidly changing world and language of faith. Only 27 percent of millennials, for example, attend weekly services. But millennials still seek a spiritual life. Our challenge is to listen to culture for God’s movement and the intersection of faith and life.
New practices are emerging. Last Friday, the New York Times published an article (“These Millennials Got New Roommates,” 5/31/19) about an unlikely intersection of nones (people who self-identify as atheist, agnostic or no particular religion) and nuns (Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy). The nones were seeking the experience of living in intentional communities and found it in the practiced wisdom of nuns. Rather than looking for a system of beliefs, they were looking for a “road map for life and ritual.” I wonder what spiritual gifts St. Patrick’s has to offer the world.
How is the Spirit nudging us out into the world and what new language of faith might we need to learn to share the Good News? I invite you to ponder these questions in the days leading up to Pentecost.
