Saturday night the followers of the Way finish their "Eucharistic Feast" and disperse from the Upper Room, agreeing to meet early the next morning as had become their custom since the Lord's resurrection. They refer to Sundays now as "the Lord's Day."
So, early in the morning they begin to trickle into town to visit Joseph's house again.Up in the Cenacle, all are in quiet meditation contemplating the events over the last months, preparing to celebrate the Lord's Supper again when a terrible noise roars overhead. Is it a thunderstorm? Is it the a Roman raid upon the town? What is happening?
As they are raising eyes upward from where the sound came, through the very roof of the building, as if it were not made of stone but paper, a blazing fire pours into the room. The ball of flames then seems to break up into so many sparks of fire and each one softly falls and rests upon the heads of each disciple in the room.
No sooner did this occur than the disciples, each and every one, find themselves overcome by gladness of heart. Joy bursts forth from deep within. They cannot contain themselves and each and all of them blurt out their feelings to the Father of love, to each other, to themselves---they do not even know who they are addressing---they only know that they must speak or they will explode.
But as they praise and sing and shout with excitement they are hardly aware that the words they speak are not in their own languages, not Aramaic,nor Hebrew, but something else. What are they doing? What are they saying?--Oh, they hardly know--except that God's Love has filled them and overcome them in a way that is beyond them!
The Blessed Mother is here among them and She is laughing and crying and Her hands are raised in prayer. Lazarus and his sisters are here... Oh, they are all like children at a wedding feast! They are swinging each other around. One young couple (the bride and groom from Cana) has dashed down the steps and has burst through the door to run merrily into the streets. They have started a trend and the whole group is following them into the streets.
Some children are dancing in a ring and singing the merry songs that flow from their hearts--all different words--all different languages--and yet they harmonize with one another.
The little old lady, healed of a hemorrage, is on her knees, arms raised and praising her Maker in a language not of her own. The Blind Man, standing with arms extended, shouts out and laughs to the world before him, also in a language not of his own. The Strong Man, healed of many demons, kneels and cries with hands folded and eyes closed, praying in the language of Love that the Holy Spirit gives him. Oh, what happy chaos! What a crazy and beautiful sight I see!--- all my people!... the Apostles, and lay people alike!
Meanwhile, many townspeople and visitors to the town, who gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, are drawn to the house of Joseph, where they have just witnessed the loud noise and terrible ball of fire come crashing down upon it. They wonder what cosmic disaster is occurring. But arriving at the place they are mesmerized by the sight of this crowd, not only because of the energy and festiveness it possesses, but because of the words coming from the believer's lips. The visitors are from every part of the world, speaking many different languages and yet they are all able to understand what these simple Galileans are saying! How is this so? "How do they know our languages?"
But the towns folk who begin to recognize these people as followers of Jesus cruelly dismiss the whole affair with the accusation that "They're all drunk! They don't know what they're saying!"
This is, of course, when Peter calls them all to order and, with tears of great joy and with laughter ringing from his mouth, my dear Father Peter begins his famous discourse of Acts 2....
So, early in the morning they begin to trickle into town to visit Joseph's house again.Up in the Cenacle, all are in quiet meditation contemplating the events over the last months, preparing to celebrate the Lord's Supper again when a terrible noise roars overhead. Is it a thunderstorm? Is it the a Roman raid upon the town? What is happening?
As they are raising eyes upward from where the sound came, through the very roof of the building, as if it were not made of stone but paper, a blazing fire pours into the room. The ball of flames then seems to break up into so many sparks of fire and each one softly falls and rests upon the heads of each disciple in the room.
No sooner did this occur than the disciples, each and every one, find themselves overcome by gladness of heart. Joy bursts forth from deep within. They cannot contain themselves and each and all of them blurt out their feelings to the Father of love, to each other, to themselves---they do not even know who they are addressing---they only know that they must speak or they will explode.
But as they praise and sing and shout with excitement they are hardly aware that the words they speak are not in their own languages, not Aramaic,nor Hebrew, but something else. What are they doing? What are they saying?--Oh, they hardly know--except that God's Love has filled them and overcome them in a way that is beyond them!
The Blessed Mother is here among them and She is laughing and crying and Her hands are raised in prayer. Lazarus and his sisters are here... Oh, they are all like children at a wedding feast! They are swinging each other around. One young couple (the bride and groom from Cana) has dashed down the steps and has burst through the door to run merrily into the streets. They have started a trend and the whole group is following them into the streets.
Some children are dancing in a ring and singing the merry songs that flow from their hearts--all different words--all different languages--and yet they harmonize with one another.
The little old lady, healed of a hemorrage, is on her knees, arms raised and praising her Maker in a language not of her own. The Blind Man, standing with arms extended, shouts out and laughs to the world before him, also in a language not of his own. The Strong Man, healed of many demons, kneels and cries with hands folded and eyes closed, praying in the language of Love that the Holy Spirit gives him. Oh, what happy chaos! What a crazy and beautiful sight I see!--- all my people!... the Apostles, and lay people alike!
Meanwhile, many townspeople and visitors to the town, who gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost, are drawn to the house of Joseph, where they have just witnessed the loud noise and terrible ball of fire come crashing down upon it. They wonder what cosmic disaster is occurring. But arriving at the place they are mesmerized by the sight of this crowd, not only because of the energy and festiveness it possesses, but because of the words coming from the believer's lips. The visitors are from every part of the world, speaking many different languages and yet they are all able to understand what these simple Galileans are saying! How is this so? "How do they know our languages?"
But the towns folk who begin to recognize these people as followers of Jesus cruelly dismiss the whole affair with the accusation that "They're all drunk! They don't know what they're saying!"
This is, of course, when Peter calls them all to order and, with tears of great joy and with laughter ringing from his mouth, my dear Father Peter begins his famous discourse of Acts 2....
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