Vatican City, May 28, 2023 / 05:15 am (CNA).
On the Solemnity of Pentecost, Pope Francis urged Catholics to invoke the Holy Spirit daily to bring harmony to a divided world, a polarized Church, and to broken hearts.
Speaking in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope explained that the role of the Holy Spirit, both at the beginning of the creation of the world and at all times, is to make “created realities pass from disorder to order” and “from confusion to harmony.”
“In our world today, there is so much discord, such great division. We are all ‘connected,’ yet find ourselves disconnected from one another, anesthetized by indifference and overwhelmed by solitude,” Pope Francis said in his homily on May 28.
“If the world is divided, if the Church is polarized, if hearts are broken, let us not waste time in criticizing others and growing angry with one another; instead, let us invoke the Holy Spirit. He is capable of resolving these things,” he said.
The pope added that without the Holy Spirit, “the Church is lifeless, faith is mere doctrine, morality mere duty, pastoral work mere toil. … With Him, on the other hand, faith is life, the love of the Lord conquers us, and hope is reborn.”
“Let us put the Holy Spirit back at the center of the Church; otherwise, our hearts will not be consumed by love for Jesus, but by love for ourselves,” he said.
Pope Francis added that he sees the Holy Spirit as not only as the “soul of the Church,” but also as “the heart of synodality.”
He called for the Synod on Synodality, which will culminate in October with the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, to “place the Holy Spirit at the beginning and at the heart of the work of the synod.”
“The Synod now taking place is – and should be – a journey in accordance with the Spirit, not a Parliament for demanding rights and claiming needs in accordance with the agenda of the world, nor an occasion for following wherever the wind is blowing, but the opportunity to be docile to the breath of the Holy Spirit,” he pope said.
Pope Francis, who canceled all of his audiences on Friday due to a fever, presided over the Mass but was not the main celebrant. The pope sat at the front of the congregation in a white chair to the right of the altar.
Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, the Brazilian prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, served as the main celebrant for the Pentecost Mass.
In his homily, Pope Francis underlined that the Holy Spirit also forgives sins, reconciles souls, and creates harmony in hearts that are “wounded by evil, broken by hurts, torn apart by feelings of guilt.”
“Only the Holy Spirit restores harmony in the heart, for he is the one who creates ‘intimacy with God,’” he said, citing St. Basil.
“Let’s invoke the Holy Spirit every day. Let’s start each day by praying to him. Let’s become docile to him,” Francis said.
During the Mass, the Palestrina Choir from Dublin led the congregation in the traditional “Veni Sancte Spiritus” sequence for the Mass for Pentecost.
Pope Francis urged Catholics to invoke the Holy Spirit daily upon the whole world to bring unity and peace.
The Solemnity of Pentecost, which is celebrated 50 days after Easter, marks the descent of the Holy Spirit. Thousands were gathered inside St. Peter’s Basilica for the Mass.
At the end of his homily, Pope Francis prayed: “Holy Spirit, Spirit of Jesus and of the Father, inexhaustible wellspring of harmony, to you we entrust the world; to you we consecrate the Church and our hearts.”
“Come, Creator Spirit, harmony of humanity, renew the face of the earth. Come, Giver of gifts, harmony of the Church, make us united in You. Come, Spirit of forgiveness, harmony of the heart, transform us as only you can, through the intercession of Mary.”
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Actually, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit along with Jesus caused a great schism and tremendous polarization away from God’s authorized Jewish Church leaders on earth. Jesus and the Holy Spirit caused this great disharmony in the Church, because God authorized Jewish Church leaders were so evil.
I think we all agree that on every Sabbath, Jesus and His Twelve Apostles worshiped God at the Jewish synagogue during Jesus’ ministry on earth. It was not until the schism of Pentecost that Jesus started His own Catholic Church.
It did not have to be this way. God authorized Jewish Church leaders could have been holy and faithful to God, but they weren’t. Pope Francis’ equivalent, Jewish High Priest Caiaphas condemned Jesus to death.
Just a reminder to present day God authorized Church leaders as to just how evil they could, or have, become.
Whether the Holy Spirit is the “heart of Synodality” cannot be confirmed by simple proclamation, rather by adherence to what the Spirit, “the soul of the Church”, has revealed. Revelation that is permanent, the eternal Word of God spoken singularly for all time.
Francis has a preconceived agenda for the Synod that presumes on the Holy Spirit’s affirmation. Francis’ own words, Widening the tent with radical inclusion. Radical inclusion has no other meaning than reception of all the sacraments absent of repentance. This is not at all a compassionate loosening of doctrinal strictures.It’s parallel to what Bishop Bätzing alleges, that “Pope Francis knows very well where he opens doors that no one can afterwards close”.
Open doors refers to primacy of conscience in every dimension inclusive of revelation and Church doctrine, mitigation theory that dissolves the permanence of moral principles, the accommodation of a person’s existential [concrete] circumstances as valid mercy, the absence [in Ch 8 Amoris Laetitia] of reference to grace as it relates to strengthening the Christian in his mission to struggle and suffer the Cross in this world for sake of their salvation.
What Synodality actually represents is what Robert Royal perceived as a “template” of what’s now occurring in Germany’s Synodale Weg. The agenda for the Synod on Synodality is engineered by Cardinals Grech and Hollerich. Grech envisioned ‘widening gray areas’ Hollerich openly espousing error in promoting homosexual relationships. Marriage and the family has come under systematic assault during this pontificate, done the the usual format of orthodox affirmations on one hand, and heterodox proclamations on the other. A tactic that has confused many into believing the pontiff is pious, holy, a friend of Christ. Whether he may be in his own mind is for God to decide. Our responsibility is to call out the deleterious effects on the whole of the Church for sake of the faithful and the wavering.
We are all ‘connected,’ yet find ourselves disconnected from one another, anesthetized by indifference and overwhelmed by solitude,” Pope Francis said in his homily on May 28.
Cutting oneself from the college of Cardinals and persecuting latin Catholics Worldwide didn’t help afterall?
The appeal to The Holy Spirit, for “unity” (!) by the Pontiff Francis has a very hollow ring, coming from the Pontiff of Zeitgeist, the “Dirty Schism,” and his bitter persecutions.
Such appeals from Pontiff Francis had best not be made out-of-doors under energetic cloud cover.
How can Francis bring harmony to the Church when he is the very cause of division in the Church? Let’s get real.
I have to agree with the above two comments (Chris in Maryland and Deacon Edward Peitler).
And I can’t agree more with TCT today. Boomers need to wake up. It’s not 1972 anymore.
The absence of the Holy Spirit is evident in this church. True repentance is first needed from the pope and all who are in the red robes pictured in the Basilica. The outside of the cup appears clean, but the inside is putrid and disgustedly filthy.
Blow, blow, blow till I be, but a breath of the Spirit blowing in me.
Do as he says; not as he’s done. A very good “rap” for the Holy spirit.
Will the Holy Spirit [Third Person of the Holy Trinity; “Where one of the Persons of the Trinity is, the other Two HAVE TO BE.” Unchangeable Catholic theological principle] get Pope Francis to halt this pontiff’s undermining of the Church’s Sacred Deposit of the Faith ? [cf. Bishop Strickland; Bishop Athanasius Schneider; Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò; others]. The Church’s Leadership CANNOT BE “bi-polar”, i.e. diabolical AND Faithful to the Chair & Keys of St. Peter !!
Unity for any religion – true or false – comes from the orthodoxy of its adherents. If there is any heterodoxy, then there is no unity. … Francis clearly promotes heterodoxy in practice and in theory.
One must recall the 9 ways by which a person is complicit with the sins of others. A method of doing so (i.e. complicity) is tolerance of heterodoxy by those in positions of authority.
Those who are heretics are excommunicated by the Catholic Church. Anything less promotes disunity.
“Those who are heretics are excommunicated by the Catholic Church. Anything less promotes disunity.”
The problem here is that those who occupy positions of spiritual authority are not exercising that authority when it comes to issues related to professing faith while embracing sin and error. When was the last time a “Catholic” pro-abortion politician was excommunicated? When will faithful bishops excommunicate those in spiritual leadership who have both embraced error and are teaching it to others?
The spiritual authorities will never ex-communicate any of their own….especially now when members have been bailing out for decades. When you change God’s laws to fit your own agenda, this is one of the many consequences. It’s just history repeating itself.
From Francis’ lips to God’s ear.