Welcome to this final part of our Eastertide Retreat. 

We reach Pentecost - a feast of the Lord's fruitfulness, the culmination of the Paschal Mystery.

In the first video we wait with Mary and the Apostles, reflecting with some of the art of Pentecost.

In the second video we reflect in the light of the readings the Church gives us for the Vigil, from Genesis, Exodus, Exekiel and the prophet Joel.

Thank you for joining us on this Easter journey.

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Fr Brendan

We are used to following the Stations of the Cross, the Via Crucis, but in more recent years there have developed another set of Stations to supplement and complete them - the Stations of the Resurrection, the Via Lucis. 

There is no definitive list, but this is close to the typical one. 

Via Lucis: Stations of the Resurrection

1. Jesus is raised from the dead (Matthew 28:1-10)

 2. The Discovery of the Empty Tomb (John 20:1-10)

 3. Mary Magdalene meets the risen Christ (John 20:11-18)

 4. The Risen Lord Appears on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-27)

 5. Christ is Known at the Breaking of Bread (Luke 24:28-35)

 6. The Risen Lord Appears to His Disciples in Jerusalem (Luke 24:36-43)

 7. The Risen Lord Gives the Disciples the Power to Forgive Sins (John 20:19-23)

 8. The Risen Lord Strengthens the Faith of Thomas (John 20:24-29)

 9. The Risen Lord Appears by the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1-14)

 10. The Questions to Peter (Primacy of Peter) (John 21:15-17, 19b)

 11. The Great Commission on the Mountain (Matthew 28:16-20)

12. The Ascension of Christ (Acts 1:6-12a)

13.  Mary and the Disciples wait in Prayer (Acts 1:12-14)

14. The Holy Spirit Descends at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13)

To read more of its history:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stations_of_the_Resurrection

Acts 2

Pentecost 

2- 1 When Pentecost day came around, they had all met in one room, 2 when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house i which they were sitting; 3 and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. 4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech. 

5 Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, 6 and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language. 7 hey were amazed and astonished. "Surely," they said, "al these men speaking are Galilean? 8 How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia ans Pamphylia, Egypt and the part of Libya around Cyrene; as well as visitors from Rome - 11 Jews and proselytes alike - Cretans and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God." 12 Everyone was amazed and unable to explain it; they asked one another what it all meant. 13 Some, however, laughed it off. "They have been drinking too much new wine." 

First reading: Genesis 11:1-9 ·

Throughout the earth men spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary. Now as they moved eastwards they found a plain in the land of Shinar where they settled. They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.’ (For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen). ‘Come,’ they said ‘let us build ourselves a town and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we may not be scattered about the whole earth.’

Now the Lord came down to see the town and the tower that the sons of man had built. ‘So they are all a single people with a single language!’ said the Lord. ‘This is but the start of their undertakings! There will be nothing too hard for them to do. Come, let us go down and confuse their language on the spot so that they can no longer understand one another.’ The Lord scattered them thence over the whole face of the earth, and they stopped building the town. It was named Babel therefore, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. It was from there that the Lord scattered them over the whole face of the earth.

Second reading: Exodus 19:3-8,16-20

Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God

Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Say this to the House of Jacob, declare this to the sons of Israel:

‘“You yourselves have seen what I did with the Egyptians, how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. From this you know that now, if you obey my voice and hold fast to my covenant, you of all the nations shall be my very own, for all the earth is mine. I will count you a kingdom of priests, a consecrated nation.”

‘Those are the words you are to speak to the sons of Israel.’

So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people, putting before them all that the Lord had bidden him. Then all the people answered as one, ‘All that the Lord has said, we will do.’

Now at daybreak on the third day there were peals of thunder on the mountain and lightning flashes, a dense cloud, and a loud trumpet blast, and inside the camp all the people trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain of Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended on it in the form of fire. Like smoke from a furnace the smoke went up, and the whole mountain shook violently. Louder and louder grew the sound of the trumpet. Moses spoke, and God answered him with peals of thunder. The Lord came down on the mountain of Sinai, on the mountain top, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain.

Third reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14

The hand of the Lord was laid on me, and he carried me away by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, a valley full of bones. He made me walk up and down among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the ground the whole length of the valley; and they were quite dried up. He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord.’ He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The Lord says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am the Lord.”’ I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a sound of clattering; and the bones joined together. I looked, and saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, “The Lord says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!”’ I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life again and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.

Then he said, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, “Our bones are dried up, our hope has gone; we are as good as dead.” So prophesy. Say to them, “The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this – it is the Lord who speaks.”’

Fourth reading: Joel 3:1-5 

Thus says the Lord:

‘I will pour out my spirit on all mankind.

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

and your young men see visions.

Even on the slaves, men and women,

will I pour out my spirit in those days.

I will display portents in heaven and on earth,

blood and fire and columns of smoke.’

The sun will be turned into darkness,

and the moon into blood,

before the day of the Lord dawns,

that great and terrible day.

All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved,

for on Mount Zion there will be some who have escaped,

as the Lord has said,

and in Jerusalem some survivors whom the Lord will call.

THE YOUNG MAN 

There is a young man 

who lives in a world of progress.
 

He used to worship a God 

Who was kind to him. 

The God had a long, white beard.
 

He lived in the clouds.

But, all the same,  

He was close to the solemn child
 

who had secretly shut Him up

in a picture book. 

But now
 

the man is enlightened.
 

Now he has been to school 

and has learnt to kick a ball 

and to be abject
 in the face 

of public opinion. 

He knows, too
 

that men are hardly removed from monkeys. 

You see, he lives in the light
 

of the twentieth century. 

He works twelve hours a day
 

and is able to rent a room 

in a lodging house 

that is not a home. 

At night he hangs
 

a wretched coat
 

upon a peg on the door
 

and stares
 

at the awful jug and basin 

and goes to bed.
 

And the poor coat, 

worn to the man’s shape—
 

round-shouldered and abject—
 

watches him, asleep, 

dreaming of all 

the essential,
 holy things 

that he cannot hope to obtain
 

for two pounds ten a week. 

Very soon
 

he will put off his body,
 

like the poor, dejected coat 

that he hates.
 

And his body will be
 

worn to the shape
 

of twelve hours’ work a day 

for two pounds ten a week. 

If he had only known that the God in the picture book 

is not an old man in the clouds, 

but the seed of life in his soul;
 

the man would have lived, 

and his life would have flowered
 

with the flower of limitless joy.

But he does not know,
 

and in him
 

the Holy Ghost
 

is a poor little bird
 

in a cage,
 

who never sings 

and never opens his wings,
 

yet never, never
 

desires to be gone away. 

-Caryll Houselander 

Without the Holy Spirit, God is far away,

Christ stays in the past,

the Gospel is a dead letter,

the Church is simply an organisation,

authority a matter of dominion,

mission a matter of propaganda,

the liturgy no more than an evocation,

Christian living a slave morality.

But in the Holy Spirit:

the cosmos is resurrected 

and groans with birth-pangs of the Kingdom,

the risen Christ is there,

the Gospel is the power of life,

the Church shows forth the life of the Trinity,

authority is a liberating service,

mission is a Pentecost,

the liturgy is both memorial and anticipation,

human action is deified . 

Metropolitan Ignatios of Latakia, 1968 Address to the World Council of Churches

Quoted by Cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens, Archbishop of Malines-Brussels in ‘A New Testament’ p.19 and 20.