Dear brothers and sisters,

Pentecost is one of the most important Feasts of our liturgical calendar. Yet it is not as celebrated as Christmas or Easter. The coming of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity, is somehow not as popular as the feasts connected to the incarnation, death and resurrection of the second person of the Trinity. This is not surprising as the Holy Spirit is by far what our human minds find hard to grasp and comprehend. This, after all, do impact our relationship with him. We enthusiastically agree that he dwells in us, that he provides us with a variety of gifts and that he is very active. However, more difficult is to have a relationship with him as with a person unlike as with the Father and the Son; we would rather usually relate to him thanks to his attributes and merits. Jesus himself introduced the Holy Spirit in the same way.

As we celebrate Pentecost, we are surprised how fast the Ordinary time is already settling. No transition, no period to adjust and we are already diving into Ordinary time. Ordinary time is this long period which does not look very attractive, which does not look ahead to exciting Christmas, Easter or Pentecost. But this long and seemingly uninteresting period is the time of realisation of the gifts given at Pentecost. Because the Holy Spirit is the one to experience in our hearts and more specifically in the heart of our lives. He is someone who is present in our ordinary and unusual activities, the invisible one who is present in all. At Pentecost we all receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and become once more temples of the Holy Spirit. We indeed receive it because it does not depend on us but rather on the free will of God who gives according to his own endeavour and initiative. As a result, the Spirit is the one to experience and we are to welcome his action in our lives by opening ourselves to his inspiration.

I wish to all of you a very happy feast of Pentecost.

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