Come Holy Spirit

This weekend we experienced two wonderful liturgical events: the First Monastic Profession of two of our sisters during Evening Praise on Saturday night and the great Feast of Pentecost on Sunday morning. They were both marvelous, joyous, deeply moving and significant experiences, especially, I hope, for the large crowd that attended the Mass on Pentecost.

Our presider, Father Mike, gave fine reflections, the two sisters who planned the liturgy were creative and inclusive and at the very end, when a rousing song began for the closing, we had some spontaneous dancing break out in the center of chapel, similar to what happens at Easter.

This never fails to remind me of a note that went up on our main bulletin board a number of years ago from the planners of the Sunday liturgy. Here is what it read: "At tomorrow's Mass we'd like to have spontaneous dancing accompany the closing song. There will be no practice."

A number of very large gardens are in neighborhoods in the small townships and boroughs surrounding Erie. Many of them open their gardens to the public every year. It's a lovely gesture and these self-guided tours are very popular. We drove out to one last week and caught this beauty in one of the flowered areas. I'd say it is about 12-14" in height. Just stunning.