Pentecost doesn't end the Easter season; Easter never ends! But it does begin the formal story of the church and ignites a series of "idea feasts," which include Pentecost (church), Most Holy Trinity (God), and Most Holy Body and Blood (Eucharist).

Have you ever inherited money or property, perhaps from a parent or other close relative who has died? Do you recall feeling that you were being given something that you had not really earned or “deserved,” something that was pure gift?

What’s the main difference between the disciples before and after the Pentecost experience? No, it’s not the flames dancing on their heads, improved communication skills, or that wind-blown look. In a word, it’s courage.

Her family had moved away long before I arrived at the parish. Her last years were spent in a nursing home somewhere downstate. When she died her children called the parish.

When  my mother was 43 years old, she was diagnosed with a rare cancer that required radical surgery that she had only a 50 percent chance of surviving. I was 12 years old at the time, and not completely sure of all that was happening.

Pentecost left the disciples no room for confusion. They could not doubt what was really going on. After all, we hear nothing of their internal experience in that room. Rather, they witnessed it with their human senses.

Let us ask God for a spirit of forgiveness.

Let’s ask ourselves: Are we open to the Holy Spirit, do I pray to the Spirit to enlighten me, to make me more sensitive to the things of God?