Pentecost: A Bit of Wisdom & Then Imagination

Email Newsletter

Subscribe to our email newsletter to stay up to date with the latest news, articles and events from Our Lady of Mercy:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Neque aliquam vestibulum morbi blandit cursus risus at ultrices mi. Quam lacus suspendisse faucibus interdum posuere lorem ipsum dolor sit. Nibh sit amet commodo nulla facilisi nullam vehicula. Nullam vehicula ipsum a arcu cursus vitae congue mauris. Proin libero nunc consequat interdum varius sit amet mattis. Arcu felis bibendum ut

Pentecost: The central reading describes a meeting of the apostles fifty days after the Easter period, during which this windstorm came roaring through the room where they had hidden and locked themselves. But the words the writer used to describe it is not a storm, or hurricane, or whatever. He uses breath. The Hebrew and Greek for breath. So, from this point on, we know that we’re not dealing with an ordinary story. This is a symbolic tale. And an important one. Put simply, oversimply, actually, but it’s my story here so I can do it—we are being told that perhaps the best way to get a sense of the life of God is to think of breath—the breath of life.

Well, with this Covid crisis, and people, sick people, by the hundreds of thousands fighting just for the next breath of life—we know how important that simple ability to breathe in and out can be for us. Those of us who have been kept alive under oxygen, or worse—stood in silent agony by the side while someone we loved was depending on the next pump of that machine—we know what it is like to be so helplessly beaten so low. But even down there at the bottom of dependency I at least have had one support and help that I held onto: my imagination, my mind, or whatever it is; picturing people I held onto in my way, in pictured life, life I could go back to. And not just life, but a life that might be, freed from all that crap that waited for me to no purpose back home.

When I got back home months later, still a young man, I eventually made two decisions. First, I was not going to waste what time I had on other people’s dumb pet projects. There really can be some ‘no mores’ in life. And then I was going to go out and get a nice new pair of skis and boots—which I did on the anniversary of the attack.

Imagination is possibly the most undervalued asset in the human arsenal. It lifts us up. It helps people see life on the other side of what can function as their prison walls; or outside the iron bars that somehow I got locked behind when I was too young or too dumb to know what was going on. Or, worse, being done to me with no one to protect me, or who thought I was worth protecting.

The breath of God, as in these readings, can ram its ways through walls solid enough to put smiles of pride on the faces of Roman Governors. How did those absolute nobodies from nowhere crack open the military, commercial, agricultural and naval culture of the Roman Empire? From the highest points in Marseille to Ostia outside Rome, and Palermo (Paramus) in Sicily, those great Roman Ports now have towers with beautiful statues of Our Lady as the beacon for the cities—and lights of safety at night for their sailors at sea.

Imagination—real imagination that has spirit, not dollars, behind it—can have a tough time in our well-buttoned-up church today. We have to make room for it in little backwaters like our own here. Which we know we can do. And now it’s time.

et egestas quis. Vulputate ut pharetra sit amet. Sed ullamcorper morbi tincidunt ornare massa eget egestas purus. Elit ut aliquam purus sit amet luctus venenatis lectus. Etiam sit amet nisl purus in mollis nunc sed id. In tellus integer feugiat scelerisque varius morbi enim nunc. Laoreet non curabitur gravida arcu ac.

Ullamcorper malesuada proin libero nunc consequat interdum varius sit amet. Nisl tincidunt eget nullam non nisi est sit amet facilisis. Justo nec ultrices dui sapien eget. Ullamcorper malesuada proin libero nunc consequat interdum varius sit amet. Sed augue lacus viverra vitae congue eu consequat ac. Varius vel pharetra vel turpis nunc eget lorem. Hac habitasse platea dictumst quisque sagittis purus sit amet. Urna duis convallis convallis tellus id interdum. Suspendisse in est ante in nibh mauris. Quis blandit turpis cursus in hac habitasse platea. Est placerat in egestas erat imperdiet sed euismod nisi. Quis vel eros donec ac odio tempor orci dapibus.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas eleifend velit at elit aliquet euismod. Nunc venenatis mi ac mi fringilla ornare. Donec posuere tortor iaculis volutpat hendrerit. Cras semper augue quam, in tincidunt purus iaculis sed. Nullam arcu mi, viverra ac aliquam id, hendrerit eu libero. Sed eu odio arcu. In orci tellus, sodales et cursus a, dapibus eget ante. Quisque sollicitudin arcu nec quam rhoncus finibus.

Proin malesuada dictum tellus, quis aliquam leo pretium eu. Quisque consequat id sem consequat convallis. Praesent volutpat, orci eu posuere vulputate, tortor eros dictum leo, tincidunt elementum tellus ipsum quis justo. Nullam feugiat, nulla sit amet venenatis tincidunt, lectus elit feugiat felis, a ultricies magna lacus vel magna. Nunc gravida nibh eu finibus feugiat. Fusce sagittis nec ex sit amet facilisis. Phasellus malesuada, dui eu interdum semper, lorem orci pretium diam, ac porta libero leo vel lacus. Mauris accumsan egestas sapien, ac ultricies tellus varius vel. Cras iaculis eros vitae ligula feugiat, vestibulum dictum massa iaculis. Vestibulum venenatis molestie convallis. Curabitur facilisis risus a enim ultricies, a interdum nisl consectetur. Proin hendrerit placerat dignissim. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aliquam eros sem, congue vitae nisl ac, pellentesque fringilla massa. Aliquam at massa et diam sagittis maximus. Nulla facilisi.

Praesent eget tristique lacus. Morbi non aliquet nulla. Pellentesque luctus pretium enim id finibus. Morbi vehicula ultrices justo molestie venenatis. In at porttitor velit, a congue tellus. Ut tincidunt gravida nulla vitae porttitor. Integer eleifend elementum velit, ac mattis neque luctus in. Vestibulum id ex molestie, auctor eros non, bibendum purus. Aenean laoreet egestas dignissim. Mauris lectus purus, ultricies et malesuada sed, dapibus vitae purus. Proin finibus semper lectus. Quisque placerat tincidunt arcu non pulvinar. Proin nec neque iaculis tellus vulputate faucibus. In facilisis diam a sapien ullamcorper mattis. Quisque gravida urna ac posuere sollicitudin.

Sed non odio malesuada, tincidunt tellus quis, faucibus metus. Vivamus orci mi, auctor ac lacus at, lacinia porttitor arcu. Aliquam purus lectus, venenatis ut nisi a, aliquet aliquet massa. Etiam dictum porta malesuada. Mauris sit amet tempor augue, dapibus imperdiet ex. Proin nec ullamcorper ex. Nunc fermentum sollicitudin felis, ac feugiat dui malesuada ac. Nulla pellentesque leo vitae sapien placerat mattis. Vestibulum velit nibh, tristique ut tellus vitae, volutpat auctor quam. Vivamus pretium, felis vitae pellentesque condimentum, lorem turpis ultricies lectus, hendrerit viverra felis velit ac erat. Duis id nisl erat. Nam nisl enim, accumsan eu mauris sed, iaculis finibus velit.

Vivamus ornare magna vel lacus sagittis, at facilisis massa pharetra. Praesent ultricies volutpat nulla, et sollicitudin lectus porta eleifend. Etiam posuere lobortis vehicula. Nullam eu neque ut elit elementum consequat. Praesent dictum lobortis orci vitae molestie. Integer a ipsum non tortor molestie facilisis. Nam pulvinar lacus quis egestas pharetra. Donec ut nibh lorem. Integer id risus lacus. Aenean ultrices tincidunt dictum. Duis sed enim nec neque egestas rhoncus.