Sunday, May 24, 2026 • Pentecost Sunday
We were all given to drink of one spirit — 1 Corinthians 12: 13
Do you find it hard to believe sometimes that we have one spirit in common? On the surface we seem so different. We come with different life experiences and have such a variety of interests and causes that we feel take priority. . .the spirit seems to get lost in the weaving of lives and attitudes. Yet, if we keep that one spirit as our guide, our lives will be formed in a transformed way. Pentecost is not just another day.
If we had a picture of a person of spirit, what would we notice about them? Looking beyond the superficial, would we discover a person touched by the dove of peace, a person on fire with passion and love for others, a person who is just and life-giving like water? Looking further at that person, would we discover the creative wind of service in their actions? Would we not notice them at all? A person of spirit can appear as ordinary as anyone else and at the same time, full of revealing light.
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit empowers the believer to spark the flame of this inner person who is so hidden. Announcing we are loved and anointed in an incomparable peace, we are to spread this love and peace to others, including, and especially, those who are not like us. We begin to see as God sees and act as God acts. God’s priorities for a just world become our priorities. The prophet Joel states that God will one day pour out divine spirit “upon all mankind” (Joel 3:1). Joel envisioned a world in which all people would be enlivened and transformed by the divine life breathing within them. This is a world-altering change in your own thinking and being. Pentecost will have arrived.
Imagine, just imagine, a people of spirit creating a world of unity amid diversity; a just world filled with love and peace for all.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created.
And you shall renew the face of the earth.
O God, who, by the light of the Holy Spirit,
did instruct the hearts of the faithful
grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy your consolations.
Through Christ our Lord, let us drink of the one spirit, the spirit that connects us all. Amen.
Barbara Molinari Quinby, MPS, Director
Office of Human Life, Dignity, and Justice Ministries
Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral Raleigh, NC