Once again, Cardinal Dean Giovanni Battista Re presided over the celebration, while Pope Francis gave the homily.
On the Solemnity of Pentecost, the Pope focused on the power of the Holy Spirit to instill courage and hope, especially in difficult moments.
POPE FRANCIS
It is not easy to forgive oneself: the Spirit teaches us this way, teaches us to reconcile with the past. To start again.
He said that it is not the Holy Spirit that discourages and takes away the will to live and face life.
POPE FRANCIS
Complaint is the language of the evil spirit: it leads you to complaining, which is always a sad being, with a funeral procession spirit. Complaining... The Holy Spirit, on the contrary, invites you to never lose confidence and always start again. Get up! Get up!
Pope Francis said that the Holy Spirit gives hope without falling into naivety because it is as realistic as it gets.
POPE FRANCIS
It leads us to love here and now, concretely: not an ideal world, an ideal Church, not an ideal religious congregation, but what is there, in sunlight, in transparency, in simplicity. The worldly spirit, on the other hand, presses for us to focus only on our own problems, and on our own interests, on the need to appear relevant, on the strenuous defense of our national and group affiliations. The Holy Spirit does not. It invites us to forget ourselves, and to be open to all. And thus rejuvenates the Church.
Unlike the past two years, the Pentecost celebration was attended by more than just curial personnel. St. Peter's Basilica opened its doors to capacity.
JRB
TRANS: OG
