Cardinal Tobin: Come, Holy Spirit. Fill our hearts with the fire of your love!
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Vol. 7. No. 20
[Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, 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” (Jn 20:21–23).
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
Peace be with you.
In two days, we will celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost. The risen Lord sends the Holy Spirit to fill the hearts of his disciples with the fire of God’s love. Like the burning bush described in the Old Testament’s Book of Exodus, the divine fire burns brightly, but it does not consume those whose hearts are set ablaze.
As we read in the Acts of the Apostles,
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim (Acts 2:1–11)
Wind and fire are signs that point to the presence of the Holy Spirit, but as Pope Leo frequently reminds us, there is nothing destructive about God’s power. The gifts of the Holy Spirit build us up. They empower us to serve as bold and courageous witnesses to the nonviolence of God’s grace. The Holy Spirit is also portrayed in sacred scripture as a dove—the universal symbol of peace. The Spirit is compared to a gentle and loving creature, the opposite of a bird of prey, who brings unity and peace to all who welcome him into their hearts.
In his Pentecost Sunday 2025 homily (see selection below), Pope Leo XIV describes the Holy Spirit as a force that “opens borders” in diverse and powerful ways. “The Spirit breaks down barriers and tears down the walls of indifference and hatred,” the pope says, “because he teaches us all things and reminds us of Jesus’ words: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.’” (cf. Jn 14:26)
We are celebrating Pentecost Sunday this year, mindful that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are needed now more than ever. Too often, our hearts are filled with anger, violence, and duplicity. As the Holy Father reminds us, peace is often far removed from us, and too many regions of our world suffer terribly from the brutal effects of war.
“Where there is love,” Pope Leo insists, “there is no room for prejudice, for ‘security’ zones that separate us from our neighbors, or for the exclusionary mindset that, tragically, we now see emerging even in political nationalisms.” The gifts that the Holy Spirit shares with us are intended to build bridges, not walls, and to open our borders rather than seal us in behind fortresses of stony hearts.
Each year on Pentecost Sunday, our Church’s liturgy offers us the powerful words and melody of the Sequence Veni Creator Spiritus (see below):
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
It is the Holy Spirit who strengthens us in our commitment to follow Jesus, and it is the Spirit who empowers us to proclaim the Gospel with courage. By the grace of the Spirit, our hardened hearts and our stubborn wills are softened. Borders are opened; walls are torn down; and the stains of guilt are washed away.
Pope Leo invokes the Blessed Virgin Mary, Woman of Pentecost and Mother full of grace, as the one who can intercede for us and accompany us as we continue our synodal journey, filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Mary was the first Christian disciple, and her “Yes” to God’s invitation to receive the Holy Spirit and become the mother of our Redeemer serves as a model for all of us.
Come, Holy Spirit, come! Fill our hearts with the fire of your love. Grant us joys that never end!
A blessed Pentecost Sunday to all.
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
Sequence for Pentecost Sunday
Veni, Sancte Spiritus
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.
A Message from Pope Leo XIV: In the One Christ, We are One
Dear brothers and sisters,
The Spirit opens borders, first of all, in our hearts. He is the Gift that opens our lives to love. His presence breaks down our hardness of heart, our narrowness of mind, our selfishness, the fears that enchain us and the narcissism that makes us think only of ourselves. The Holy Spirit comes to challenge us, to make us confront the possibility that our lives are shriveling up, trapped in the vortex of individualism. Sadly, oddly enough, in a world of burgeoning “social” media, we risk being ever more alone. Constantly connected, yet incapable of “networking”. Always immersed in a crowd, yet confused and solitary travelers.
The Spirit of God allows us to find a new way of approaching and experiencing life. He puts us in touch with our inmost self, beneath all the masks we wear. He leads us to an encounter with the Lord by teaching us to experience the joy that is his gift. He convinces us, as we just heard in Jesus’ words, that only by abiding in love, will we receive the strength to remain faithful to his word and to let it transform us. The Spirit opens our interior borders, so that our lives can become places of welcome and refreshment.
The Spirit also opens borders in our relationship with others. Jesus tells us that this Gift is the love between him and the Father that comes to dwell within us. We then become capable of opening our hearts to our brothers and sisters, overcoming our rigidity, moving beyond our fear of those who are different, and mastering the passions that stir within. The Spirit also transforms those deeper, hidden dangers that disturb our relationships, like suspicion, prejudice or the desire to manipulate others. I think too, with great pain, of those cases where relationships are marked by an unhealthy desire for domination, an attitude that often leads to violence, as is shown, tragically, by numerous recent cases of femicide.
The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, brings to maturity within us the fruits that enable us to cultivate good and healthy relationships: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal 5:22). In this way, the Spirit broadens the borders of our relationships and opens us to the joy of fraternity. This is also a critical yardstick for the Church. For we are truly the Church of the Risen Lord and disciples of Pentecost if there are no borders or divisions among us; if we are able to dialogue and accept one another in the Church, and to reconcile our diversities; and if, as Church, we become a welcoming and hospitable place for all.
Finally, the Spirit also opens borders between peoples. At Pentecost, the Apostles spoke the languages of those they met, and the confusion of Babel was finally resolved by the harmony brought about by the Spirit. Whenever God’s “breath” unites our hearts and makes us view others as our brothers and sisters, differences no longer become an occasion for division and conflict but rather a shared patrimony from which we can all draw, and which sets us all on journey together, in fraternity.
The Spirit breaks down barriers and tears down the walls of indifference and hatred because he “teaches us all things” and “reminds us of Jesus’ words” (cf. Jn 14:26). He teaches us, reminds us, and writes in our hearts before all else the commandment of love that the Lord has made the center and summit of everything. Where there is love, there is no room for prejudice, for “security” zones separating us from our neighbors, for the exclusionary mindset that, tragically, we now see emerging also in political nationalisms.
(A selection from the homily of Pope Leo XIV for the Solemnity of Pentecost 2025.)
My Prayer for You
Please join me in praying these words of our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV:
Brothers and sisters, Pentecost renews the Church and the world! May the strong wind of the Spirit come upon us and within us, open the borders of our hearts, grant us the grace of encounter with God, enlarge the horizons of our love and sustain our efforts to build a world in which peace reigns.
Mary Most Holy, Woman of Pentecost, Virgin visited by the Spirit, Mother full of grace, accompany us and intercede for us. Amen. Alleluia!