St. Bartholomew Church

When I was still in Oil City, in the Jubilee year 2000, we started coming together as a community of 5 separate Parishes to celebrate one common Mass on Pentecost.  There was only one Mass in town that Sunday and we all, surprisingly, worked together and had an incredible Mass at the local high school.  It was a wonderful way for us to set aside all the divisions that separated us and to allow the Spirit, rather than all the other entrenchments of our human condition that so often stand in the way of that, to motivate us.

So this feast today always reminds me of how the Holy Spirit calls us to work together – like our second reading talks about today – how the many parts of the body of Christ are called to work together for His greater Glory.

And there is so much work to be done for His Glory in our lives! Moments like this past week reminded me so vividly of that sacred work and His presence here in our community – we had 3 Baptisms, 2 Funerals, 2 anointings as we asked for God’s healing, a Wedding, a day of Eucharistic Adoration, Faith Formation for our catechists, feeding the poor, visiting the sick and the homebound, and so much more.  The Spirit is alive here at St. Bartholomew’s ! Because God is so actively at work here among us, if we let Him be and cooperate with Him.

This Pentecost – how is the Spirit trying to work in our lives, in our families, in our hardships, in our brokenness – how is God trying to drive us, to direct us, to draw us into a deeper relationship with Him?  He gave us His Spirit to do all those things and so much more that we can’t even begin to imagine.  Let’s not stand in the way! God help us all!