In the next few weeks, a lot of students are going to be graduating.   At colleges and universities, at local high schools, our eighth graders here at St. Maria Goretti School, even our Kindergarteners, are going to mark the next transition in their lives by going through ceremonies celebrating their accomplishments, and sending them on to the next phase of their lives.  These are exciting days.  For those graduating, these days are filled with hope, and expectation, and anticipation, and maybe even some anxiety, as they move on to what’s next.  Certainly, today, as we celebrate Pentecost, the Church can relate to all of these same feelings, that our graduates have.  Today, on It’s birthday, the Church is hope-filled, that the same Holy Spirit that two-thousand years ago, empowered the early Church, is leading us, guiding us, to what God wants us to be more and more every day.  Like our graduates, we as Church have lots of expectations.  Jesus made lots of promises two-thousand years ago.  We believe in those promises.  We expect them to be fulfilled.  We are excited by God’s inviting us to have a role to play in the fulfillment of those promises and in the building up of His Kingdom.  Also, like our graduates, we anticipate the good things that we know are going to happen.  By living out our Faith and by the Holy Spirit working in us, through our vocations, God becomes more and more a reality in our lives and in our world.  Finally, like our graduates, maybe we have some anxiety today.  It is not easy to abandon one self completely to the power of God.  We like to know what’s happening to us.  We like to be in control, in charge.  Many of our graduates know that there are many “unknowns” as they leave behind the familiar.  We have Faith even when faced with the unknown. 

      Today the Church graduates.  It’s time to get out there.  It’s time to fulfill our roles.  It’s time to do what God has asked us to do.  We’ve all got to find our place, our role, in the Church.  Are you listening to the Holy Spirit?  He alone can get you where you need to be!

      We’ll see you at the Ministry Fair…

God bless us this Pentecost,  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti…Pray for us !!!