Anticipating Pentecost
“Up to this moment the Spirit has been in your heart, yes, but blocked and waiting
cooperation in order to act. As long as you do not give in, she will be inactive or,
at best, limited to a very narrow field of activity. She needs the help of your will
in order to act fully. There are springs which stay hidden for a long time; they are
there but there are obstacles preventing them from flowing. Rake off a little dirt,
remove what hides them, and immediately clear, pure water will flow…”
St. Madeleine Sophie Barat
This advice Sophie offered in a letter to a friend seems to me to be ideal for all of us during this time of liminality. In anthropology, liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs when we find ourselves in the midst of or in the middle of two moments.
For us there is life before COVID-19 and post COVID-19. While memory reminds us of our lives before the pandemic, we truly do not know what awaits us as we move into the future. Whom do we wish to be as we move forward?
This coming Sunday is Pentecost, the feast that celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit. This past Monday was the Feast of St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, the Foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart. That the two feasts are so closely aligned helps us remember that St. Madeleine Sophie urged members of the Family of the Sacred Heart to live lives closely attuned to the Holy Spirit.
In her final conference, Sophie said… “Let us open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, for she hears the prayers of sincere hearts who give themselves in truth.” She hoped that we would call upon the gifts of the Spirit wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord, especially in moments of uncertainty, of liminality. In the coming days let us pray…
Come, Father of the poor,
Breath of voices of all the world, unstoppable wave of joy.
Take us and enflame us in your universal Heart of Fire.
Bring life to our dryness, drench us.
Soften our hardness, transform us.
Send us to proclaim a time of blessing.
You who are over us and inside us, who heal and sustain us all,
anoint us to search together for the orientations this new future calls forth.
Come, Mother of the little ones,
Light of all the faces of the world, unstoppable wave of compassion.
Come, Holy Spirit. Come
Recreated from the Pentecost Sequence
Schools of the Sacred Heart share in the educational mission of the Society of the Sacred Heart as articulated in the Goals and Criteria. The structure supporting Sacred Heart education in Canada and the United States includes the Conference of Sacred Heart Education and the Network of Sacred Heart Schools. Together they provide services and programs to ensure vitality of mission for the member schools sponsored by the Society of the Sacred Heart.