GOSPEL MEDITATION - ENCOURAGE DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF SCRIPTURE
May 24, 2026
Pentecost Sunday
John 20:19-23
“He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’” (John 20:22–23)
For those of us who go to confession regularly, there is often a familiar frustration: “Why do I keep confessing the same sins?” It can feel like a loop, cleansed but unchanged.
Pentecost reveals a hopeful perspective. When the Risen Jesus breathes on his ashamed and fearful disciples and gives them the Holy Spirit, he echoes Genesis, when God breathes life into Adam. This is not just primarily the removal of guilt, but new creation.
In confession, we receive more than forgiveness. We receive a fresh outpouring, the breath of the Spirit, and a renewed mission. Jesus does not say to us, “You’re forgiven, now go back to your old life.” He says, so to speak, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21)
That is why penance is not just saying a few prayers. It is reorientation. It is the Spirit summoning us to live differently: with mercy and healing.
Just as Adam was sent into the world, and the Apostles were sent out after Pentecost, so too we are sent from the confessional — not just clean, but consecrated.
Pentecost Challenge: After your next confession, ask the Holy Spirit for one way you can participate in Christ’s healing will for you. Then take one small, concrete step, and do not look back.
— Father John Muir
PRAYER – FOR EVERYDAY AND EVERYBODY
Pentecost Prayer
Come Holy Spirit,
Descend upon us and fill us with the fire of Your love!
Remind us of Your dreams for us,
ignite us with new zeal,
place new visions on our hearts,
and the grace to work alongside You. Amen.
(PRACTICING) CATHOLIC - RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS
By Colleen Jurkiewicz Dorman
Signs of Life
If you’re asthmatic, you know the phrase “as natural as breathing” doesn’t always make a lot of sense.
Maybe that’s because breathing isn’t always natural. Sometimes, it’s supernatural.
I come from a family of asthmatics. In my earliest childhood memories, my sister’s nose and mouth are covered with a bulbous plastic mask connected by clear tubes to her transportable nebulizer. The machine whirs loudly as it vaporizes the medication that will open her lungs. In these memories, I watch my sister — her little eyes wide, her chest contracting and constricting with great difficulty — and wonder what it feels like.
Because I don’t have asthma, and I don’t think about breathing, unless I’m climbing a flight of stairs or chasing down one of my kids. It’s such a utilitarian thing, breathing. It’s unimpressive, unremarkable. Literally anyone can do it.
Until they can’t.
Dead men don’t breathe. That’s what I think as I read the words of John’s Gospel: “He breathed on them.” (John 20:22) So much of what Jesus does in his resurrected Body is extraordinary and superhuman, making it unmistakable that here is a Body no longer playing by the rules of the physical world. He’s passing through locked doors. He’s in two places at once.
But today, he’s just breathing.
So we have to ask ourselves: why? His Blood no longer requires oxygen. If he were asthmatic, neither bonfire nor damp night air could cause his lungs to constrict. His Flesh has been perfected.
But here we see a reality that is as spiritual as it is physical: where there is breath, there is life.
In Genesis, God breathes into dust and creates man. In today’s Gospel, He breathes His Spirit onto man, and creates a Church.
WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS PARISH
Our Mission Statement:
We, the North American Martyrs Parish, a strong community of faith, Nourished by the Holy Eucharist, Guided by the Holy Spirit and Trusting in the grace of God, Dedicate ourselves to live God’s Word and Let the light of Christ shine through our Community. We strive to provide sound religious formation for people of all ages; To care for the spiritual, social well-being of one another With particular attention to the stranger and the poor in our midst.
“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ John 20:21
Upcoming Events
MAKE PLANS TO JOIN US AT ONE OF OUR CEMETERIES ON JUNE 1ST AT 6PM AS WE PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOULS OF OUR LOST ONES.
ST ALBERT ST BRENDAN ST PIUS X
