We celebrate two important feasts during the month of May:

Ascension ~ ~ ~

means the presence, not the absence, of Jesus. The apostles did not understand the ascension to mean that Jesus was no longer with them. They expressed no grief or disappointment. Instead they "returned to Jerusalem with great joy" (Luke 24:52). That's not the emotion you feel when you lose your best friend. The ascension did not mean they lost something. They gained something. Jesus' ascension brought him closer to them and to us than he was before. He left us on Mount Olive so that he might be with us in Chicago or Los Angeles or London. He was taken from our sight so that he might come to us wherever we are.

16. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

17. That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

18. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also.

—Gospel of John (NASV)

Pentecost ~ ~ ~

is not just about a single supernatural spiritual explosion on an afternoon in Jerusalem long ago. It's about the life of every one of us Christians. Deep inside us from Baptism and Confirmation burns a flame, maybe just a pilot light, maybe a fire but still a flame, a gift, promised by Jesus as the fulfillment of His Easter and that is the Holy Spirit. This gift of the Holy Spirit to us means several things.

It means that God is not remote; the Holy Spirit is with us, "in our hearts He takes up His rest." God is close to us. It means that whatever happens in our life, there is within us the Holy Spirit almost as a "holy enzyme" that can always renew the youth of our soul, whatever the age of our bodies. It means that He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. The Spirit of God is greater than the spirit of the world.

The Holy Spirit shows His power not primarily in events that are fantastic but in lives that are faithful. The Holy Spirit is our personal link to what counts, our link to what is right, our personal link to God. The Holy Spirit is Christ's Easter gift to the Church and to each one of us.

"O Spirit of God,
Who once drove Jesus into the desert to pray,
propel me now into prayer and praise.
O energy of God, electrify my sluggish
heart to whirl out
In wonder passionate prayers of God's love.
O Holy Spirit, spin me wildly and freely,
dancing in your holy whirlwind,
as once you revolved within and around Jesus.
O Enthusiasm of the prophets,
spark me now into flames of zeal to speak for God
in your ever daring and audacious ways.
O Expeller of demons, be my holy
broom to sweep out evil spirits
that make my soul and God's good
world unclean.
O Generator of creation, stir up deep
within me heaven's fiery creativity
in fixing meal in making love in all of life.
(Ed Hays)

--- excerpt from reflection by Fr. Joseph Krempa