PENTECOST

The Energizing Extravagance Of The Holy Spirit

HOLY ANGELS CATHOLIC COMMUNITY 1436 NE 26th St Wilton Manors, FL 33305

954-633-2987 - HolyAngelsFL.net

Sunday Mass at 11AM

CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOR, MCC Church of Our Savior, MCC 2011 S. Federal Hwy. Boynton Beach. churchofoursaviormcc.org | 561-733-4000

Sunday Service 10AM

SAINT MARK'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH AND SCHOOL

1750 East Oakland Park Blvd Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334

954-563-5155 | www.saintmarksftl.com

Worship Sundays @ 8am and 10:30am

ST. NICHOLAS EPISCOPAL CHURCH

1111 E. Sample Road Pompano Beach, FL 33064

954-942-5887 | StNicholasFL.org

Sunday Service 9:30AM

On the Feast of Pentecost, we celebrate the gift of the energizing extravagance of the Holy Spirit. It is also a time when, I suggest, the LGBTQ+ community should attend worship services in droves, precisely because of the emphasis on the Spirit –that person of the Most Holy Trinity with mixed pronouns.

She is often perceived as Sophia – the embodiment of divine Wisdom in the Old Testament, even as the New Testament uses the masculine pronoun “He.” Kittredge Cherry, in his article “Pentecost: Holy Spirit Brings LGBTQ Visions,” describes this mixed pronoun experience as “a rather queer blurring of gender duality.”

“Pentecost” means “the fiftieth day.”

During the Great 50 Days of Easter, we celebrate our new life in Christ. Pentecost caps off the Eastertide celebration with the gift of the Spirit igniting our awareness to the passionate presence within us of a loving God who promises to lead us into all truth (John 16:13) – truth about God, about love, and about ourselves.

Pentecost is the day when the Spirit descends in a blazing fire of compassion and rests upon each of us, enabling and emboldening us to dream dreams and see visions. Pentecost is the day the Spirit reveals the depth of love that overcomes the world’s exclusions. Pentecost is the Power of the Spirit to live as our true selves – loving as we are loved.

As the LGBTQ+ community knows well, choosing to see reality through the lens of love in the midst of rabid xenophobia can be extremely difficult. The Holy Spirit helps us recognize that God’s love is what is most true. She is our personal advocate testifying that each one of us is created out of love, in love, and for love and that we are “very good” (Genesis 1:31).