EASTER
IN the year of the Great Jubilee, 2000, the Lord impressed a Scripture upon me that penetrated my soul so deeply, I was left on my knees weeping. That Scripture, I believe, is for our time.
THE VALLEY OF BONES
The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he led me out in the spirit of the LORD and set me in the center of the plain, which was now filled with bones. He made me walk among them in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were! He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come to life? “Lord GOD,” I answered, “you alone know that.”
Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! …I prophesied as I had been told, and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise; it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone. I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them, and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.
Then he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright, a vast army. (Ezekiel 37:1-10)
NEW PENTECOST
As I wrote in A Circle, there are many dimensions to Scripture, fulfillment on several levels. We have most certainly seen fulfillment of Ezekiel 37 on one level at Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out upon the budding Church. We have experienced an outpouring at other times since then, such as in the past forty years through the Charismatic Renewal. Still, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have prayed for a “new Pentecost.” Indeed, not all of the Church has experienced a “personal Pentecost;” the Renewal, unfortunately, seemed to linger on the fringe of the Church rather than penetrating deep within her soul, on every level.
And so, we join in prayer with our present Pope:
Upon all of you I invoke an outpouring of the gifts of the Spirit, so that in our time too, we may have the experience of a renewed Pentecost. Amen! —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Homily, June 3rd, 2006, Vatican City, Rome
FORESHADOWINGS
There is a time coming in the “last days” when God will again pour out His Spirit upon, not just the Church, but “all flesh”:
It will come to pass in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. (Acts 2:17)
Certainly, there will be something of a Pentecost during and following the so-called “Illumination“—a worldwide event in which many of the “spiritually dead” will be raised. For the Spirit is also the one who reveals Truth (John 16:13). Many souls who were walking in the Valley of Death will awaken to the Good Shepherd who will lead them to Living Waters, the waters of the Holy Spirit. But I believe this outpouring, and the brief period of evangelization which will ensue, are but foreshadowings of what will come in the new Era, after the earth has been purified. It is during this Era of Peace that I believe “all flesh” will experience this “new Pentecost” in its fullest sense.
SPOUSE OF THE SPIRIT
The presence of our Blessed Mother is an unmistakable sign of this coming Pentecost. The Virgin is the “spouse of the Holy Spirit,” and her presence among us through her apparitions is as significant today as her presence was in the upper room 2000 years ago. The Woman is laboring to give birth to the whole body of Christ in a new era, an era in which her Spouse will be poured out upon all flesh. Hence, the consecration to Mary in which one gives his life to imitating her so as to know and imitate Christ more perfectly, is an essential devotion of our times.
The Holy Spirit, finding his dear Spouse present again in souls, will come down into them with great power. He will fill them with his gifts, especially wisdom, by which they will produce wonders of grace… that age of Mary, when many souls, chosen by Mary and given her by the the most High God, will hide themselves completely in the depths of her soul, becoming living copies of her, loving and glorifying Jesus. —St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, n.217, Montfort Publications
St. John speaks of a “first resurrection” which appears to inaugurate the Era of Peace (see The Coming Resurrection). As we celebrate with great joy the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ today, we also anticipate and pray for this remarkable day when God will pour out His Spirit, and “renew the face of the earth.”
At Jesus’ Resurrection his body is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit: he shares the divine life in his glorious state, so that St. Paul can say that Christ is “the man of heaven.”—CCC, n. 645
…[a] new springtime of Christian life will be revealed by the Great Jubilee if Christians are docile to the action of the Holy Spirit… —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Tertio Millennio Adveniente, n. 18
