From "Pentecost"

By Rev. Ronald Knox, May 1948.

A sermon preached at Ampleforth Abbey.

In those six weeks before Pentecost the apostles had already lived through, as it were, the whole cycle of Church history; there was nothing callow, nothing tentative, nothing inexperienced about their methods from the very first. And, because she was born old, the Church remains ever young. That is why men fear her and hate her; they are conscious, even when they are furthest from believing in her claims, that she is neither new nor old, but eternal. She retains the memory of the cenacle and of the catacombs, yet for her Pentecost is continually repeating itself, making all things new. May the Holy Ghost who descended this day guide her and us in these disillusioned times, as in that first joyful dawn of her history.

[Pastoral Sermons and Occasional Sermons, ed. Philip Caraman, S.J., p. 475.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 06/08/03 11:52:49 PM
Categorized as Religious & Speeches and Suchlike.