Send Forth Thy Spirit...

This week on From the Housetops, Brother Anthony reflects on the mystery and majesty of Pentecost—the day the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles in tongues of fire. Drawing from Abbot Guéranger, we see how this second Pentecost fulfills what the first had only foreshadowed: not the giving of the tablets of stone, but the outpouring of the Holy Ghost in fire. No longer marked by fear and thunder as at Sinai, but by joy and divine love, the Holy Ghost empowers the apostles to speak in every language, undoing the division of Babel and gathering all peoples into one Church.

Guided by Father Martin von Cochem, Brother Anthony shows how Pentecost marks the moment when Christ planted his church as an everlasting monument of his victory to the end of time. In the church, Christ continues to live: as Redeemer in the sacraments, as Teacher through the Holy Ghost, and as King through His priests. Though despised and crucified, as his doctrines have been misrepresented, denied, and rejected by misguided men, and though his faithful followers have been violently attacked and persecuted both in private and in public, the Church stands firm, victorious through every trial, for she is founded on Christ and sustained by the Holy Ghost until the end of time.