Pentecost - Cycle C

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General Intercessions: [English PDF]
	Celebrant: Let us now unite in prayer, as the disciples did on the first Pentecost, and open ourselves to receive the very same Holy Spirit. Deacon/Lector: That the Church, in the power of the Spirit, may make the Gospel understandable to people of every race, language, and culture, we pray to the Lord... That the Holy Spirit of Peace may unite and reconcile the peoples and nations of the earth, bringing an end to war, hatred, and discrimination, we pray to the Lord... That the Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life, may renew the face of the earth and make it a place where the poor are fed, the strangers are welcomed, and the unborn are brought safely to birth, we pray to the Lord... That each baptized Christian may develop more fully his or her response to all the gifts which the Spirit bestows for the service of the Body of Christ, we pray to the Lord... That the Holy Spirit, who purifies us of sin and raises the dead, may bring all our departed loved ones into the fullness of God's presence, we pray to the Lord... Celebrant: Father, we rejoice in your Spirit. Send him again into our hearts, into our lives, and into our world. Hear our prayers, and save us in your love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Bulletin Insert:
	Pentecost Voice The Holy Spirit, who came on Pentecost, gave voice to the apostles to proclaim the truth of the Gospel. The Spirit, the Soul of the Church, continues to enable the Church to speak, and enables us to speak in our individual capacity. As the late Cardinal Elio Sgreccia, former President of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life once said, “The Church must speak out in today's context on fundamental rights, the right to justice, the right to peace, but above all and in the first place, the right to life. If the Church did not speak, did not proclaim the truth, it would be abandoning its duty; it would be unfaithful to society, to the good of society. Therefore, its precise duty is the very liberty to intervene with word, and also with example -- the example of promoting human life, of intervening for the salvation of mankind."
Homily Suggestions:
	Homily Suggestion Video Vigil: Gn 11:1-9 or Ex 19:3-8a, 16-20b or Ez 37:1-14 or Jl 3:1-5 Rom 8:22-27 Jn 7:37-39 Day: Acts 2:1-11 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13 or Rom 8:8-17 Jn 20:19-23 or 14:15-16, 23b-26 Fifty days after the Passover, the People of Israel celebrated “Pentecost,” observing the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, when God wrote the law with his own finger on the tablets of stone. The feast was originally rooted in the celebration of the harvest. It was on that Pentecost Day that the apostles reaped the harvest of the Lord’s Passover of suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection, and received the Holy Spirit, who writes the law on our hearts. This same Holy Spirit who came mightily on Pentecost comes to us. The same Spirit is in us, by our baptism and confirmation – the same Spirit who transformed the apostles, who raises the dead, and who changes bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood. That same Spirit is in us, and this should give us tremendous confidence in following Christ. The Holy Spirit, the “Lord and Giver of Life,” brings us back to our truest selves as he illumines us regarding the sanctity of life. The Spirit brings many gifts, and one of them is to enable us to see creation in its proper relationship to God – including the crowning of his creation, the gift of human life. When we do not have this light of the Holy Spirit, the law we have to follow seems like an imposition from the outside that limits our freedom. That’s what people in the world sometimes feel about our attitude toward abortion and euthanasia. They think we are “restricting rights.” But when the Holy Spirit fills us, he gives us an inner attraction to all that is right and good, so that we do not feel pushed where we would rather not go, but rather pulled by the attractiveness of what is good and right. The Holy Spirit is also the Advocate, who pleads our cause. When he fills us, he makes us advocates for all our brothers and sisters in need, including the most vulnerable, the unborn.

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