Catholic Liturgical Calendar - June 2011
1: Memorial of Justin, martyr.
2: Optional memorial of Marcellinus and Peter, martyrs.
3: Memorial of Charles Lwanga and companions, martyrs.
5: Psalter III, Easter Week 7. (Memorial of Boniface, bishop and martyr.)
6: Optional memorial of Norbert, bishop.
9: Optional memorial of Ephrem, deacon and doctor.
11: Memorial of Barnabas, apostle. Vigil of the Solemnity of Pentecost.
12: Psalter III, Ordinary Time Week 11. Solemnity of Pentecost.
13: Memorial of Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor.
18: Vigil of the Solemnity of The Holy Trinity.
19: Psalter IV, Ordinary Time Week 12. Solemnity of The Holy Trinity. (Optional memorial of Romuald, abbot.)
21: Memorial of Aloysius Gonzaga, religious.
22: Optional memorial of Paulinus, John Fisher, Thomas More,: Vigil of the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.
23: Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Vigil of the Solemnity of Birth of John the Baptist.
24: Solemnity of Birth of John the Baptist.
26: Psalter I, Ordinary Time Week 13.
27: Optional memorial of Cyril of Alexandra, bishop and doctor.
28: Memorial of Irenaeus, bishop and martyr. Vigil of the Solemnity of Peter and Paul, apostles.
29: Solemnity of Peter and Paul, apostles.
30: Optional memorial of First martyrs of the Church in Rome. Vigil of the Solemnity of Sacred Heart.
##################################
"Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church"
The account of the event of Pentecost is rich in details: The place "where they lived" -- the cenacle -- is an environment "in the upper room"; the 11 apostles are listed by name, and the first three are Peter, John and James, the "pillars" of the community, already integrated into this new family, no longer based on family bonds but on faith in Christ.
The total number of persons, which was "about 120," a multiple of the 12 of the apostolic college, clearly alludes to this "new Israel." The group constitutes an authentic "qāhāl," an assembly on the model of the first covenant, the community convoked to hear the voice of the Lord and to walk in his ways. The Book of Acts emphasizes that "all of them devoted themselves with one accord to prayer" (1:14). Prayer, therefore, is the principal activity of the nascent Church. It is through prayer that she receives her unity from the Lord and allows herself to be guided by his will, as the decision to cast lots for the one to take Judas' place shows (cf. Acts 2:25).
This community found itself gathered together again in the same place, the cenacle, on the morning of the Jewish feast of Pentecost, a feast of the covenant, in which there was commemorated the event on Sinai where, through Moses, God proposed that Israel be his property among all the nations, to be a sign of his holiness (cf. Exodus 19). According to the Book of Exodus, that ancient covenant was accompanied by a terrifying sign of power on the part of the Lord: "Mount Sinai," one reads there, "was all wrapped in smoke, for the Lord came down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently" (Exodus 19:18).
We find the elements of wind and fire again at the Pentecost of the New Testament but without the resonances of fear. In particular the fire takes the form of tongues that come to rest upon all the disciples, "who were all full of the Holy Spirit" and on account of that outpouring, "began to speak in other languages" (Acts 2:4). We have here the community's true "baptism" with fire, a kind of new creation. At Pentecost the Church is not constituted by a human will, but by the power of the Spirit of God. And it immediately appears how this Spirit gives life to a community that is at the same time one and universal, thus overcoming the curse of Babel (cf. John 11:7-9). Only the Spirit, in fact, which creates unity in love and in the reciprocal acceptance of diversity, can liberate humanity from the constant tension of an earthly will-to-power that wants to dominate and make everything uniform.
"Societas Spiritus," society of the Spirit: This is what St. Augustine calls the Church in one of his sermons (71, 19, 32: PL 38, 462). But already before him, St. Irenaeus formulated a truth that I would like to recall here: "Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and every grace, and the Spirit is truth; to distance yourself from the Church is to reject the Spirit" and thus "to exclude yourself from life" (Adv. Haer. III, 24, 1). Beginning with the event of Pentecost, this connubium or "marriage" is manifested between the Spirit of Christ and his mystical body, that is, the Church.
Courtesy:- http://www.pontificalorientalinstitute.com/news/catholic-world/benedict-xvi-pentecost-homily.html