The month of May (2002) calls us to meet the living God through liturgical celebration of the Post-Easter feasts of Ascension (May 9), Pentecost (May 19), Trinity (May 26). And, traditionally the church declares May as the month of Mary. We will celebrate the Feast of the Visitation on May 31.

These liturgical feasts and the celebration of these great mysteries offer special moments in which the Lord allows himself to be encountered and experienced. It is in these special moments that we, the Christian community, gather to contemplate the Gospel truths and to participate in the liturgical action of God-Spirit renewing the Word-made-flesh in Eucharist and in community. It is in these special moments that we, the Christian community, are called to worship in adoration the God Who IS.

The late Swiss theologian and cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar, in his book on prayer, notes that "the liturgy points beyond itself to our personal contemplation ?and listening in adoration ? to the word" as it applies to our everyday life. . .

In contemplation...we have found the link which joins the two halves of Christian existence ­ the "work of God" in the realm of the Church and the work of man in the everyday world ­ into a firm unity. Contemplation binds the two together in a single liturgy which is both sacred and secular, ecclesial and cosmic. Without contemplation it would scarcely be possible to unite the two, for the simple reason that, practically and psychologically, the effect of the Church's liturgy fades as the day proceeds, and the world's work is for the most part remote from it. Some link is necessary if they are to be drawn together in a lived, spiritual unity. In contemplation, however, liturgy becomes Spirit, and this Spirit can become incarnate in everyday life. In some way or other, of course, this is what happens necessarily in every authentic Christian life: anyone who assists at Mass with devotion and knows what he is doing when he receives communion is bound to pay attention to the spiritual meaning of the celebration and its offer to refashion the Christian's everyday life. (Prayer by Hans Urs von Balthasar [Originally published in German in 1961; re-published by Ignatius Press in 1986; translated by Graham Harrison])

REFLECTION:

1. Let us ask Mary to help us understand what impact the realization of Jesus return to his Father had on her life. How can the liturgical celebration of this mystery impact my everyday life?
2. As the Holy Spirit at Pentecost came upon the early Church, lives, as we know from Sacred Scripture, were deeply changed. How can this liturgical celebration of Pentecost 2002 bring us, as Christian community, to worship in adoration the God Who Is? Will our lives, my life, be deeply changed by this ever new coming of the Spirit?

After celebrating and contemplating Jesus' Ascension and his sending of the Spirit, we are called to the celebration and contemplation of the greatest of mysteries, the mystery of the Trinity. Before this mystery we can but stand in awe, and call on Mary to teach us how to truly adore -- how to let our daily lives bear the mark of encounter with Triune God!