A New Pentecost

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

“Suddenly, there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them, tongues as of fire which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” How does the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, 2000 years ago, how does it affect us? The Catechism, speaking of the Sacrament of Confirmation, and speaking of the effects of that sacrament; one of the effects, it says, “is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.” So, confirmation is a sacrament which flows from Pentecost and shares with us that grace. But maybe you didn’t feel that grace when you were confirmed. Maybe you didn’t really feel anything when you were confirmed, and maybe we still feel that our weakness, our sinfulness, we don’t feel very much maybe like Pentecost. We need that grace, that boldness, the strength of the Holy Spirit, which permitted the apostles to be witnesses until the end. As Catholics, we believe that since baptism, we receive grace of the Holy Spirit, and then at Confirmation, there’s this new grace of Pentecost to prepare us to be witnesses of the Lord. So, the sacraments confer those graces that we need, maybe we could say like the release or the activation of those graces. And it makes me think of the apostles – for Pentecost. The Gospel we just read today was the gospel that happened on the day of the resurrection. And it says that “Jesus, on that day, came and breathed on the apostles and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” So right then, He’s giving them the Holy Spirit, and He’s manifesting that the grace of the Holy Spirit comes from His sacrifice on the cross and from His resurrection. So, at that moment, He’s giving them the Holy Spirit. But there’s no sign that the apostles felt the Holy Spirit. Even though they had been with Jesus all that time, they had spent so much time with Him, in fact, they had already been themselves, sent to preach, to teach, even having graces of healing and casting out demons, and even after seeing the apparition of Jesus risen from the dead and still were not ready to be His witnesses. And Jesus tells them to wait, to wait in Jerusalem until the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then Pentecost comes; they didn’t have to wait too long. Then comes that great transfer, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit and the transformation that it brings. And now they are ready to be witnesses, even to give their lives. And so, most of us feel like we don’t feel yet, that grace of Pentecost. We need that grace of Pentecost, and this is a very traditional need. The sequence, the traditional sequence of Pentecost, is again from the Holy Spirit. We know that we’ve already received Him in Baptism and Confirmation, and yet we’re still asking Him to come, to come, pour out His gifts. And we want, like the grace of a new Pentecost for ourselves, for all the challenges that we face in this world, which desperately need witnesses with the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, it’s striking to me that when the Lord has spoken of the manifestations that He will bring about soon here at the mission; and I don’t know what soon means, what His soon means, because to me, it seemed like He’s taking a long time. But anyway, He says soon. He speaks of it as a new Pentecost. And I want to read you passages from two messages we’ve already published. One was from last year, from May 21 of last year, and it was entitled, “The strength of a new Pentecost,” of a new Pentecost. And here’s our Blessed Mother speaking, and she says, “I remind you once again of what happened to my beloved apostle sons at Pentecost. They were transformed and strengthened in order to fulfill the mission entrusted to them, at all cost and sparing no sacrifice. The Most Holy Spirit of God descended into their hearts and completed and sealed their preparation,” completed and sealed their preparation. Jesus had already given them an intense preparation, but they still needed this final grace of the Holy Spirit to complete that. And then this is a key phrase. She says. “It will be the same with you,” it will be the same with you. It will be the same with you. “Little children, do not be afraid.” So, she’s saying that the Lord wants to renew in us the grace of Pentecost. She says, “what you lose now, each of you, each in such varied circumstances as part of this preparation prior to His coming.” But when she says His coming, she’s not talking about the final coming of the Lord. She’s talking about His coming through this manifestation of the Holy Spirit. So, she’s saying that what we’re living now is preparing for then. “What is the purification? The removing of the old and dirty garments in order to be clothed with the garments and armament of my soldiers, do not be afraid.” So she’s saying that just as the apostles had that long preparation then, with the terrible trial of the Cross, which was preparing them for this great fire, this great gift of the Holy Spirit, which would complete their formation, for their mission, she’s saying we’re living now also the preparation which will be completed by this coming, this special New Pentecost. She says, “Blessed children, what has been promised will be fulfilled, and what has been announced will take place. The rivers of grace will flow from my little hill.” Our poor little, poor little Tepeyac, the rivers of grace will flow from my little hill. So, she’s being very specific that poor little hill over there, poor, little rocky, rocky hill. She says, “there’ll be….” which is very dry, very dry. And she said, “there’ll be rivers of grace flowing from my little hill, and will gather all the pure waters that the Father has brought forth in each continent, people and regions.” So, it’s linked to all the graces that the Lord is giving and will give throughout the world. Then she says, “The New Pentecost that will seal the preparation of my army and ready it for the battle.” So, she is very clearly talking about a new Pentecost which will seal, seal, complete the preparation of her army and ready it for the battle. And thanks be to God, because I’m not ready yet. I’m still very weak and very sinful, and maybe you are too. And so, I need this grace that she is promising, of a new Pentecost. So, like the activation, the full activation of the Sacrament of Confirmation. And then in another message, which she gave last year, on August 15, so, the Feast of the Assumption. And I’ll just read you an excerpt. She said, “I call you to my heart, to the refuge created by the Father for you for these times. And just as after the death of my son, the apostles and disciples were dispersed, so now my children are dispersed, full of fear and confusion. And just as in that hour,” so the hour after the death of our Lord, “and just as in that hour, the hour of my offering, in pain and in crushing weight.” The crushing weight, Our Blessed Mother waiting for the Lord on Holy Saturday, – the crushing weight. “I called and gathered around me, the scattered sheep of my son and those who were called to be their shepherds.” So, in this tremendous hour, she’s speaking at this tremendous hour, speaking about this as a very grand, challenging, difficult, but also Grace filled hour. She’s talking about how important, how difficult, but how essential was that hour of Jesus death on the cross, and that the hour of gathering and wait and hope for His resurrection – and she’s comparing it to the hour that we’re living, right now. This also is a “tremendous but grace filled hour,” she says. So, “in this tremendous, tremendous hour, I gather my children and my priest sons in my heart around me, and I give you life and the certainty of” … what… “the certainty of the coming of my Jesus.” But again, she’s not speaking of final coming at the end of the world. She’s speaking of His coming in this grace that she’s called a new Pentecost, the certainty that Jesus coming through the Holy Spirit. “The certainty of the coming of my Jesus, and of His victory and the direct intervention of the Father.” So it’s through the Holy Spirit, it’s Jesus, and it’s the Father Himself intervening. “The direct intervention of the Father, to renew and reconquer His creation.” And that’s what we sing on Pentecost, and the psalm speaks of “come and renew the face of the earth.” By the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Father renews the face of the earth, of creation. And so, she goes on to say, and this is the final paragraph I read from that message. “And just as I once again gathered the apostles around me in prayer to implore and prepare the coming of the Most Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth and life.” So, she’s speaking, she compares it to two times when after the death of Jesus, when she gathered the apostles to strengthen them to wait for His resurrection. So, the first absence of Jesus, which was His death on the cross. And then His second absence, when He ascended into heaven. And once again, she was called to gather the Apostles in prayer, to prepare for the Holy Spirit. So, she says, comparing that time in which after the Ascension, she gathered them to await the Holy Spirit. She says, “so I once again gather you that you might implore with me the new coming, the new Pentecost that will restore all to its original state.”  So, she’s saying right now, her role is to gather the faithful and the shepherd into her heart to prepare a new Pentecost. A new outpouring of this transforming grace of the Holy Spirit. That’s what I desperately need. I’ve been waiting for a long time, a long time, and I think I’m not the only one who needs it. That’s why I’m because the Lord’s been talking to us about this manifestation, in my own case, for over 30 years, and so it’s been a long, painful wait. But that’s why I’m so anxious for these manifestations, not just for curiosity, but to be transformed by the Holy Spirit, to be able to be fully, to fully accomplish the mission that He has for us and these very challenging times, to be His army, His witness and His army for the reconquest against all the powers of evil. So that’s what He’s been talking to the mission about. That’s what these manifestations are about, the grace of a new, the new Pentecost, which is to prepare us to fulfill fully our mission in this very challenging time in which evil is so powerful. So that’s what all this is about, preparing for a new Pentecost. That’s what that little hillside is about, and it’s been sitting there for a number of years. It’s not just to have a little place to celebrate Mass outside. It’s to prepare. That’s what they told us to do to prepare for this new Pentecost. And they said there will be, when that happens, there will be 1000s and 1000s of people, ready to come, and those people will experience these graces like never before. I don’t know what it’ll be like. I mean, they’ve told us some things about it, but it’s still very mysterious, what it’ll be like. But you can imagine why we’re so anxious for that to happen, and why the wait is so painful. And the reason I’m saying that loudly and clearly is not just for you, I want God to hear that. I want the Holy Spirit to hear that. Then you all complain awful. Call him. We’re waiting, because if we felt that’d be nice someday, if the Holy Spirit came, maybe He will, maybe He won’t you know, but I’ve got other things to do in the meantime. like us know who that’s not good. He needs to know that we are anxious, that we are dying for him to come, Come Holy Spirit. We need to bug him, over and over. Come, Holy Spirit. So, what are we called to do now? To prepare this. Jesus told the apostles to wait in Jerusalem. So, what were they doing? He didn’t say, Okay, you all get your talks ready. Prepare your speeches. Study a whole bunch, you know, organize, decide where you’re going to go. He wasn’t telling them to make human preparations. He was telling them to wait. What that means is that only God can do this. There’s not something that they’re going to do to make this happen. And it’s not some magic formula that they’re going to do to make it happen. What they have to do is obey Him. And what He’s telling them to do, to wait. So, He said, “you’re going to be My witnesses to all the world.” And so how are you gonna prepare that by staying here? It doesn’t seem to make sense. But the key thing that they’re called – and he just said, “Wait in Jerusalem.” And how are they gonna wait? What did that mean? So, remember that the key point here is that only God can make this happen. They can’t make this happen. Only God can. But He’s asking them, He’s telling them what to do, to obey Him, to wait, to wait in a special way, wait with our Blessed Mother. That’s how they’re called to wait. They’re called to gather together with our Blessed Mother in prayer. And that’s why there’s been so many messages. I mean, not the messages that the Lord has given Sister Amapola, but also so many other like we, you know, like, say, for instance, Saint Louis de Montfort, and then so many other saints, and then so many manifestations of our Blessed Mother, especially Fatima, with the call to consecration, to her Immaculate Heart, and so many other like Medjugorje and so many others, which are always in which Our Blessed Mother is gathering us into her heart, gathering us to her Immaculate Heart. Invite us to entrust ourselves to her, to consecrate ourselves to her, to prepare for this gift of the Holy Spirit. So that’s a key point, to prepare for the Holy Spirit. How do we do that? We gather with our Blessed Mother. We consecrate ourselves to her Immaculate Heart. We entrust ourselves to her. She’s like this new Jerusalem, where we are called to gather, where the whole Church is called together. And the Acts of the Apostles said they were gathered in prayer, gathered in prayer. So that doesn’t just mean vocal prayer, but it’s talking about a spirit of prayer, not giving in to discouragement, not giving in to distractions, not giving in to the temptations and seductions of the world, but to learn with Mary, in faith and in hope.  And as the messages have said so often, keeping our eyes, keeping our attention fixed on Jesus. And so, it talks about a spirit of silence. That doesn’t mean that we can never talk, right? Doesn’t mean that you’re not going to say anything, but it means a spirit of silence. That is, we’re trying to quiet ourselves and to close off the distractions of the world, to be attentive to the Holy Spirit. Attentive to the Holy Spirit, listening to Him, as the Lord said to Saint John seven times, “let he who has ears hear what the Spirit – (and I messed my mic up), “let he who has ears hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.” So this is a time to gather with our Blessed Mother, listen in silence and in attentiveness and in faith and in hope to what the Spirit is saying. And I think that, you know this as the Creed says, the Holy Spirit has spoken through the prophets, and the Holy Spirit continues to speak through the prophets. That’s just that’s exactly what He was telling Saint John, that he who is here is here with the spirit of saying. And so I think there’s many prophetic manifestations, like, you know, like Fatima, like Divine Mercy, like so many others, and also the messages that He’s given us. Those I think are also one of the ways we can listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying. That’s what I’ve just been doing with you. I’ve been sharing some passages from those messages. And I think it’d be very helpful to reread those messages. I read them all the time, and I’ll go back and read messages, right? I’ve read many times, and I’ll still discover things that I didn’t even notice the first time. So, I think that’s one of the helpful ways to prepare is to be rereading the Scripture and rereading other inspired works of the Holy Spirit, including, I think, because I think these messages are given for right now. The Church is facing new challenges right now, and these messages are being given right now for our time. And with the recent election, there’s new challenges. And so, there was a new message which helped us. And one of the key things the messenger was saying was silence. Be quiet. Focus on the Lord. So, to conclude, the passage we heard our Blessed Mother said, just as once, “just as I once again gathered the Apostles around me in prayer to implore and prepare the coming of the Most Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth and of light. So now I once again gather you that you might implore with me,” implore with me. That is she wants us also to be calling out, “Come Holy Spirit,” like the Church teaches us, Come Holy Spirit. She wants, she is imploring that grace, but she wants us to help her pray “Come Holy Spirit,” that you might implore with me the new coming, the new Pentecost. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we, who are poor sinners, can be made powerful witnesses today. So, with our Blessed Mother, in silence, in prayer, in trust, in hope, let us pray, Come Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Acts 2:1-11