Dear Saints,

Sadly, letter-writing is a dying artform (a poverty we would do well to reverse, by the way: how many grandparents’ days would be brightened, and how many grandchildren’s lives enriched, if we simply brought back the storied practice of communicating by mail every once in a while?). In any event, seasoned letter-writers often make good use of a postscript to add a light aside or stray idea without changing the meaning of their main text. By definition, a p.s. is an afterthought: often incidental, sometimes illuminating, but never essential.

If the Gospel is God’s love letter to the world, the Ascension and Pentecost are far more than a mere postscript; on the contrary, they are indisputably integral to his message. In the Ascension, the glory of the Resurrection is taken into heaven itself; in Pentecost, that glory is returned back to earth as living fire. Far from ancillary footnotes, these mysteries give full expression to the power of Easter, in and through which God and his creation have been wed and welded back together.

This final week before we return to Ordinary Time is not a throwaway epilogue, but a radiant fulfillment. It is God’s crowning invitation to become living agents of his Spirit, boldly bearing the light of the Resurrection into all the ordinary spaces of our lives.

Christ’s Peace,

Father Daniel

δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ