It’s Time to
Wear Red!!!
Please wear RED this Sunday, May 28 when we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. on Sunday, May 28. RED is the color of the Holy Spirit and wearing RED signifies our unity with the Holy Spirit and the community. Our Service on Sunday is going to be a little different and we ask that you go with the flow and the spirit of the day. It will be an uplifting service with a few additional songs meant to inspire you and assist you in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Please evangelize and invite family members and friends to this service. We will also be passing out Fr. Dale’s Pastoral Letter on Revival in the Church.
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Join Us in Person this Sunday
@ 10 am for Worship
The scripture reading for Pentecost Sunday, May 28, is Acts 2:1-11. Here is a synopsis of the reading: The Holy Spirit descends upon the apostles gathered in Jerusalem.
Please come to Sunday worship prepared to hear the Word of God proclaimed; we invite you to read the scripture passage before service. The music for this Sunday can be found on the top-right hand corner of our website.
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Our new PWC Summer 2023 Calendar is out with lots of exciting opportunities for you to get involved with our ministries!
Check it out here:.
Summer 2023 Calendar
You can print a copy or pick one up at the church.
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Please pray for our deacons this weekend, they will be on retreat starting today and Saturday. May the Holy Spirit inspire them!
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The church office will be closed on Monday, May 29 in honor of Memorial Day.
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Mark your calendar in June for:
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• Re-Envisioning the Church with Fr. Dale: Wednesdays, June 14 & 21: 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm
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• Contemplative Prayer with Deacon Karen Klemens: Wednesday, June 14 & 21 @ 6:00 pm
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Don’t forget about the PWC website, we have a lot of important information for you: PWC Website.
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Thank you for your tithing and commitment to PWC! Your generosity allows us to minister to so many who come through our doors with their spiritual, emotional, and physical needs. From pastoral counseling to grief support, to Bible Study, to Adult Education, to providing food through Matthew’s Crossing for families who are economically struggling to PWC Kids and Marriage Enrichment and our funeral ministry; your consistent giving makes a difference, a big change in people’s lives!
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Here are the different ways you can tithe to PWC:
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• Mail in your gift to: Praise and Worship Center, 2551 N. Arizona Avenue, Chandler, AZ 85225.
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• Sign up for monthly giving with a credit card or voided check. Just call the office at 480-649-0300 or stop by the office.
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A Reflection from
Ronald Rolheiser:
Needed: A New Maturity
to Match our Freedom
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We are the freest people to ever walk this planet, at least in terms of opportunity. Our freedom is so great that, at times, it is almost a burden, an over-choice. We often find it difficult to commit ourselves to marriage, to a vocation, to a career, and to a friendship precisely because we are so free and have so many choices.
Freedom is a great gift. But it’s easily misused and easily becomes a destructive thing. We’ve all hurt others and ourselves through the misuse of our freedom.
But something doesn’t become bad just because it’s misused. Food remains a good thing, even when we overeat. It’s the same with freedom. It remains always the greatest gift that God has given us, even though we don’t always use it maturely. Jesus came to bring us freedom. But it’s easy to lose that perspective and, today, it’s not uncommon to hear sincere, good-hearted, religious people speak out against freedom, as if it were an enemy, something that should be restricted in the name of God, church, and morality.
While that’s sincere, it’s also misguided. What’s needed today is not less freedom but more maturity. We don’t need to roll back freedom in the name of God and morality: we need raise the level of our maturity to match the level of our freedom. Simply put, we are often too immature to carry properly the great gift of freedom that God has given us. The answer to that is not to denigrate freedom in the name of God and morality, but to invite a deeper maturity so as to more properly honor the great gift that we have been given.
Our model here is Jesus, himself. Nobody has walked this earth as freely as he did. But he also had the maturity to carry such great freedom without ever misusing it. If we can believe the gospels, Jesus wasn’t afraid of anything – Satan, temptation, tax-collectors, prostitutes, street people, rich people, poor people, church people, non-church people, moral people, and immoral people. He went into the singles’ bars of his time, but he didn’t sin.
And in that lies the challenge: To walk in freedom, but not compromise ourselves in doing so. Not an easy thing to do. There is always a double danger: On the one hand, we can be too timid and too frightened to use our freedom to take God’s presence and grace into places that are morally threatening, like Jesus did. That’s often where we, as church people, sell ourselves and our freedom short. We are so afraid of seemingly godless places that we simply stay away from them, fearing for our own safety. That’s sometimes a very prudent thing to do; it isn’t always an imitation of Jesus. He wasn’t afraid to go into godless places.
As well, there’s the opposite danger, namely, that we go into morally dangerous places and lose ourselves there. Like Jesus, we eat and drink with sinners, but, unlike him, we sin because we don’t have the maturity and moral strength to be in dangerous situations without falling.
But, dangers notwithstanding, the great challenge is to become mature enough to walk in the freedom of Jesus without compromising. Whenever we are able to do that, we become missionaries in the true sense, namely, we take God’s love and light into places that are devoid of them. But that’s not easy to do. We need models to help us.
Someone who can help mentor us on this, I believe, is Henri Nouwen. One of his great gifts was his honesty about his own moral and emotional struggles and the capacity to share that in a way that helps us in our own struggles.
Nouwen was searingly honest in admitting that he struggled. He shared that, even if you are sincere, prayerful, morally honest, and trying your best, it doesn’t mean that you won’t, at the same time, also be weak, complex, tempted, torn, discouraged, forever at war with certain parts of yourself, sinful, and subject to obsessions, addictions, and pathologies. Our desires are deep, complex, unyielding, wild horses, bent on their own path – and all of this co-exists with what’s healthy, good, and best in us. So, it’s not easy to be whole, mature, and to walk into morally dangerous places and not sin.
Nouwen was so honest and humble about this that there were seasons in his life when he wouldn’t travel by himself, but always took along a companion, because he recognized that there are a lot more moral dangers travelling alone than there are when we have family, companions, and community along with us.
We aren’t all as mature and as strong as Jesus. Like Nouwen, we need to be honest and humble about our weaknesses, sometimes we simply don’t have the maturity to walk into dark places alone. We’re wise to take someone with us so that, in the strength given by family and community, our maturity can measure up to our freedom.
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Understanding the
Feast of Pentecost and
Its Importance for Us
as Christians
Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31).
The day of Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Easter Sunday. The word "Pentecost" comes from the Greek word pentekoste, which means "fiftieth." The Jewish feast of Shavuot, which is also celebrated on the 50th day after Passover, is a time to commemorate the giving of the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai. In the Christian tradition, Pentecost marks the beginning of the Church's mission to the world.
The story of Pentecost is told in the book of Acts. After Jesus' ascension into heaven, the Apostles and other followers of Jesus were gathered in Jerusalem. Suddenly, a sound like a rushing wind came from heaven and filled the room. Tongues of fire appeared above their heads, and they began to speak in other languages. This event was witnessed by a crowd of people from all over the world, and many of them were converted to Christianity.
The Holy Spirit is often depicted as a dove, and in the story of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is seen as a wind and as tongues of fire. These images suggest that the Holy Spirit is a powerful force that can bring about change. The wind can blow away obstacles, and the fire can purify and transform. The Holy Spirit can empower us to speak the truth, to love our enemies, and to serve others.
Pentecost is a time for Christians to reflect on the power of the Holy Spirit and its role in their lives. The Holy Spirit is seen as the comforter, the guide, and the advocate, and it is through the Holy Spirit that Christians are able to live out their faith. Pentecost is a time for Christians to pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in their own lives and in the world.
Pentecost is also a reminder that we are not alone in our faith. The Holy Spirit is with us, and we are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the world. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in our lives and in the world, bringing about peace, justice, and love.
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We are looking forward to seeing you on Sunday for a Spirit-filled celebration!
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Love,
Fr. Dale and Pastor Mark
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Praise and Worship Never Ends, It Must be Lived! Let us go forth to love and serve the Lord. Thanks Be to God! Alleluia! Alleluia!
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