As the parishioners of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Penang waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit, they came together to listen to the breaking of the word by anointed priests during the Pentecost Triduum and Pentecost Vigil as well as to pray and listen to testimonies during the Pentecost Vigil Prayer Service. The five Ministry Cluster Groups within the Cathedral were tasked with animating different days throughout these last few days.
The Cathedral chose ‘Fan into flame the gift of God’ (2 Timothy 1:6) as her theme for our 10-day journey starting from the Ascension of the Lord. The Cathedral made ready various Upper Rooms for different language communities to listen to the breaking of the word. We were blessed to have Fr Simon Lau ministering to the Mandarin speaking community and Fr John Anandan, OFM, ministering to the Tamil speaking community during the Pentecost Triduum from 24th to 26th May 2023.
Pentecost Triduum Day 3 took on the theme ‘Spirit Come’. On this day which focuses on healing, Fr Desmond explained that many of us are wounded because of our sins, because of our darkness moments and because of the times we failed to listen to God. We are always ashamed of our sins and afraid to return to the Lord. On reflecting the Gospel, Fr Desmond explained that Jesus’ love is always to give us a second chance. Peter denied Jesus three times, the rest of the disciples ran away. Yet Jesus did not approach them to condemn them for their failure but instead Jesus approached them because He loved them.
Fr Desmond encouraged all not to allow our painful moments, our sinful moments to stop us from being one with Jesus. We are to roll out our hearts of stone and allow Jesus to enter into our lives. Allow Him to love us, touch us and heal us. We should not ever doubt Jesus and be afraid to return to Him. His love is greater than our sins. Fr Desmond reminded that every saint has a past, every sinner has a future.
We may have lost our loved ones, lost our job, lost our health but Fr Desmond reminded that God has a purpose for our lives. Every single thing that happens in our life has a purpose. We have to have a lens of faith to see God and see what God has planned for us. Do not let our darkest moments stop us from being one with Jesus.
The Novena and Mass for this day was animated by the Prayer & Spirituality Cluster Group.
