Dear friends, 

A very happy Pentecost to you all. 
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and renew the face of the earth!

Forthcoming Biblical  events 
The Ecumenical Bible Week 2018 starts on Pentecost Sunday: details here. 
The Scripture Summer School 2018 details are here. 

The Readings
Pentecost — a Jewish feast first of all — offers rich paradoxes: harvest, birth, in-gathering of peoples, out going missionaries, the gift of the Torah, the descent of the Holy Spirit, the birthday of the Church. We've been listening to the Acts of the Apostles all through Eastertide and we've seen the power, the unpredictability, the joy and life of the Spirit. As we wonder again about Church — the why and the whither — let's take our inspiration from the feast today. 
 

Holy Spirit, make my heart open to the Word of God, 
make my heart open to goodness,
make my heart open to the beauty of God every day.
Pope Francis

Notes
1. For the full notes on all readings, click here. 
2. To listen to the Gospel notes, click here. 
3. To view the Gospel notes on your phone or tablet, click here. 

Some inspiration
A poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, entitled "God's Grandeur"

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

The music of the astonishing Hildegard of Bingen often focusses on the Holy Spirit. You can hear her "Spiritus Sanctus" here. For more about Hildegard herself, click here. 

With very best wishes to all, 

Kieran O'Mahony, OSA
Biblical Resources