Dear Parishioners and Friends of St. Mary’s of the Lake:

This Sunday along with the universal
Church we celebrate the SOLEMNITY
OF PENTECOST –50 days after Easter.
PENTECOST was the day the Apostles
individually and the Church
collectively were enriched by the
Power of the Spirit; And the Holy
Spirit has been at work in our lives
and in the life of our Church! In the
Creed which we proclaim each SUN
we call the Holy Spirit ‘THE LORD, THE
GIVER OF LIFE. We pray that each one of us constantly live according to the prompting of this GIVER OF LIFE. In the Second Reading (2nd option) in the Pentecost Liturgy, St. Paul wrote: ‘Brothers and sisters, LIVE BY THE SPIRIT and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Sprit, and the Sprit against the flesh.’

When hearing ‘the desire of the flesh’ we may almost think of something related only to ‘sexual sins’. While as bad as sexual sins are (and should be), especially in our modern culture saturated with sexual immorality, we need to be reminded that THE DESIRES OF THE FLESH and THE WORKS OF THE FLESH are more than just ‘sex & lust.’ In the Reading St. Paul gives us quite a list: ‘Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.’ In other words, in order to ‘live by the Spirit’, we need to avoid not only sexual sins, but others in the list (as well as other similar ones). St. Paul is also so firm: ‘I warn you...that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.’ On the positive

side, St. Paul invites us to nourish THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT –i.e. ‘Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.’
May we always open our hearts for the prompting of the Holy Spirit (the Lord, the Giver of Life), so that we may avoid the works of the flesh, live by the Spirit, and bear abundant fruit

of the Holy Spirit in our daily living.
Spirit of the Living God

Fall Afresh on us!

 After Pentecost, we enter the Church’s ORDINARY TIME (7th Week in Ordinary Time). Also, annually, the two Sundays after Pentecost are the Solemnity of THE MOST HOLY TRINITY (May 27) and the Solemnity of the MOST HOLY BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST -aka Corpus Christi (June 3rd).

Fr. Philip