Please find attached my offering for today.
This weekend will be an awesome occasion across our Chaplaincy, and the Holy Spirit will be alive and active in our hearts, so please do your best to be wonderful ambassadors of Christ, and share the love.

Good Day My Friends,

What a week it will be – Churches across our Chaplaincy, and indeed across the world are gearing themselves up for the great Feast of Pentecost. This year, as you know, in the Chaplaincy of the Holy Spirit Costa Blanca we are also celebrating 50 years since we were formally recognised a Chaplaincy and Fr Cyril Mudford was Licensed as honorary Chaplain. Services were originally at his house, then at the Ermita del Popul in Jesus Pobre, and we still worship there. That was our first Spiritual Home in the Costa Blanca.

So, there will be lots of excitement, enjoyment and enthusiasm for our celebrations this weekend. But let us not lose sight of what we are doing. In the Eucharist we are giving thanks for all that God has done, is doing and will do to bring about the furtherance of his Kingdom in not least by the original sending of his most Holy Spirit to bring about the church in its many and varied forms.

We talk a great deal about the Holy Spirit, but sometimes we take for granted the impact it has had on our lives. Yes we were promised it and we believe we received it at our Baptism, and that gift was confirmed by God at our Confirmation. We say we rely on it, trust it and are inspired by it, but sometimes we just continue to make our own plans and follow our own desires. So let’s get a few things straight.

The Holy Spirit is part of the Blessed Trinity, sometimes referred to as ‘The Power of God at work in his church and the world now’. That same power that brings about creation, that gives life to you and I and that fills our very souls. This Holy Spirit is no little thing, but the activity of God working through you as he abides in you and drives you forward renewing, revealing and recreating his will within each of us.

The Holy Spirit has given you personally a range of Spiritual Gifts in order that you may play your part in building the fellowship of the Body of Christ. These God given gifts enable you to reach out to your full potential, and achieve things in the name of our Father that on our own we would not think are possible. Those early disciples suddenly found themselves with an ability to tell folk the great things that God had done in ways that they could understand. They moved with confidence out of the security of their comfort zone, and filled with the utmost joy they lived their lives showing that what they believed was true. And through the work of the Holy Spirit they founded the church to which you and I belong.

The Holy Spirit has inspired Preachers, Priests, Parents and Prophets to share stories with you that have influenced your lives, and led you on this lifelong journey of faith.
The Holy Spirit has filled you with Faith and Love to such an extent that you have been able to see and experience the Grace of God at work in your lives, and the lives of others. To forgive and be forgiven. To accept the mystery of how God can dwell in your heart, and to accept that absolute bliss that comes not from the desires of the world, but from discerning and following the Will of God.
The Holy Spirit brings the scriptures alive, and reminds us that when Jesus is talking, he is speaking very clearly to us in our own situation. 
But the Spirit is not just about Power and Gifts and Building the Kingdom. It is also the source of those fruits that we all long for. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control. These things come our way freely when we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts. They are a consequence of us Living by the Spirit rather than elusive things which we have to strive for.
My hope and prayer, this year more than any other is that we will not only allow, but will welcome openly the Holy Spirit into our hearts and minds and souls, and we will allow ourselves to be transformed and moulded by his presence.
It is the Holy Spirit who leads and guides us on our mission, and we regularly pray the following prayer before we leave church.

Almighty God,
we thank you for feeding us
with the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.
Through him we offer you our souls and bodies
to be a living sacrifice.
Send us out
in the power of your Spirit
to live and work
to your praise and glory.
Amen.

In this prayer we are offering ourselves to God, and we are praying that we be sent out in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Imagine the difference to the world if every Christian put into practice the content of that beautiful prayer. I know we will, and I can’t wait.

Bless you, Bless you, Bless you,

Fr Marcus