Dear Sisters, dear brothers, and dear friends!

Our congregation was founded as a “religious missionary community dedicated to the life-giving Spirit” (Prologue of our SSpS Constitutions).

Because we are dedicated to the life-giving Spirit, Pentecost is one of our most treasured feasts and holds special significance for us. It is a good time to renew our commitment to this life-giving Spirit.

The God-given Ruah enables life and restores life. Today, we see so many places in our world where life is threatened and where people cannot “breathe” because of oppression, exploitation, prejudices, war, and polarizations in politics, societies, and churches. It seems almost normal to distort reality and truth through fake news or alternative truths/realities. While some do not know what to do with their millions, others are starving and living in extreme misery. With all our technological advancement, we have not yet solved some of the most basic issues of our world. The developmental goals of the UN are still a wonderful dream that has yet to be realized.

Our Congregational Directions invite us to listen to the manifold cries of people, especially the marginalized, and to let our hearts, hands and feet be moved by them. These cries and the cry of our Mother Earth are reaching the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity takes them in and sends out the messengers of today. We strongly believe that the Holy Spirit is the life-dynamic coming out of the overflowing Holy Trinity to stir our hearts into a movement towards love and compassion, faith and hope, justice and reconciliation. “So that they may have life and have it to the fullest.” (John 10:10)

As Holy Spirit missionaries, we are called to be the messengers of this Holy Spirit in our very concrete contexts on five continents. We are invited to take a fresh new breath, to breathe in and to breathe out goodness. Let life fill our minds, hearts, and bodies so that we can enhance life for the people with whom we live and work. This is our mission and the continuation of God’s Mission through us as Servants of the Life-giving Holy Spirit.

Let this Pentecost be an occasion to renew ourselves in the Holy Spirit.

We, the CLT, offer the Pentecost Reflection 2024 as a contribution and, hopefully, an inspiration towards this great goal. May it help us all to embrace our vocation and be the missionaries we are called to be.

The text reflects on the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout salvation history and its role in empowering individuals. It explores various biblical figures, particularly women, who exemplify the Spirit’s life-giving and liberating action. It also reflects the early Church’s experience of the Spirit, particularly at Pentecost, emphasizing the transformative power of communal prayer and the Spirit’s inclusive nature. Finally, it calls us to embody the Spirit’s values of compassion, hospitality, inclusion, and interculturality in our mission, echoing Pope Francis’s call for a Church that goes out into the world with compassion and solidarity.

May it inspire your own prayer and sharing in the communities or lay groups and help in our renewal in the Holy Spirit. May our lives, guided by HER, be instruments of transformation in our societies where compassion is also expressed by our social commitment.

Let the Holy Spirit be the heart and motor of all our mission.

United with you in this Holy Spirit!

Sr. Miriam Altenhofen, SSpS and Team