From Head to Heart: Understanding Pentecost's Spiritual Gifts

Pentecost and the Holy Spirit: Knowing Jesus in Your Heart, Not Just Your Head | Mary’s Message Podcast

Cristy Murray and Father Perry Kenaston open part two of their Pentecost episode with prayer to the Holy Spirit and reflect on Pentecost as the gift of the Spirit that makes faith more than intellectual knowledge. Father Perry shares a story of a renowned Jesus scholar confronted by an elderly man who says he has Jesus in his head but not in his heart, using it to challenge the “fallacy” that academic religious knowledge makes someone Christian. He recounts Paul’s unsuccessful philosophical approach in Athens versus the Spirit-filled preaching in Corinth, emphasizing holiness that radiates Christ without “soapbox” talk. He urges priests and laypeople to prepare prayerfully for Mass, receive Communion with gratitude, and let the Spirit renew them like the Upper Room. The episode closes with discussion of a November pilgrimage/retreat to Poland and nearby cities and an invitation to subscribe and connect.

00:00 Welcome to Mary’s Message
00:35 Pentecost Part Two Prayer
01:07 Tongues of Fire and Confirmation
01:53 Head Knowledge vs Heart Faith
05:22 Saint Paul’s Athens Lesson
07:12 Living by the Spirit Today
09:19 Preparing for Mass Like Mary
11:32 Pentecost Joy and Blessing
13:20 Cristy Reflects on Pharisees
15:12 Poland Pilgrimage Invitation
17:53 Pilgrimage as Retreat Mindset
18:54 Subscribe and Stay Connected

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Transcript

Restream recording May 24, 2026 • 01:26:37 AM 0:01

Welcome to Mary's Messages: Leading Hearts to Jesus Today, the podcast where we listen to the voice of the Blessed Mother and allow her to guide us ever closer to her Son in our modern world. I'm Cristy Murray, along with Father Perry Kenaston, and each week we explore stories of faith, conversations with Catholic voices, and practical spiritual tools to help you encounter Christ more deeply. In a world longing for peace and clarity, Mary continues to speak to her children with love, hope, and a mother's gentle wisdom. Thank you for joining us as we open our hearts to Mary's message and let her lead us into the loving embrace of Jesus. So today, Father wants to talk about the Pentecost. Um, would you like to start us with prayer, Father? Yes. Thank you, Cristy. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of, of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen. Amen. As, as Cristy said, tomorrow is Pentecost. Now, what happened at Pentecost? I think we've already heard the stories, uh, depending on how you look at this, but, um, Pentecost is a special time for the church. In one way, it is the epiphany of the church itself as the apostles responded to the presence of the Holy Spirit within them. It is that same Holy Spirit which we anticipate to the forthcoming, this coming Pentecost. In ancient tradition of the church, prayers have been offered in sets of nine days when praying for something. This is not a drought or calamity that we are offering prayers for, but instead it is for that which Christ has promised us. In order to properly receive the Paraclete at the appointed time, this nine days of prayer is certain around the Spirit and the working of the Holy Spirit in the church. What I'm taking from is a retreat that was given by Bishop Kenny. He was one of the, uh, bishops of, of the d- arch- archdiocese of, um, of Alaska. And in it he, he gave out nine days. I, I realize that tomorrow's Pentecost, but I just thought I'd reflect a little bit on what the Pentecost is, not only Catholic tradition, but what happened. And I, and I might add, on the different trips that I've had of the Holy Land, we did see the upper room, and we probably spent about maybe a couple of hours just there. And if you, if you need to, if we want to, just imagine the tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Um, by the time you li- listen to this, you may have already read the scriptures for the day. But just imagine you're there, Jesus is gone, and you're all in one room, and you're afraid to open the doors because you don't know what's gonna happen. And all at once, you hear thunder and rumblings and everything else, just like a gigantic thunderstorm. Oh my goodness. And tongues of fire come down on you, and you start talking, you know, and you open the doors up, and you start talking in, in another language and everything else. And on that day it's said, it's rumored, that anywhere from 3 to 5,000 people were converted to, to Christ's way of life and everything else, so. Hmm. I'm not, you know... Uh, I'm not suggesting that right after you listen to this, that you go out and get yourself a mix, a ladder or something like that, or a step stool, and start preaching the Lord. But you know, there is a way that you can do that, and St. Francis has said to us, shared with us, he says, "You know, a lot of times I don't-" Need to talk. I just, I just do my thing for Jesus, and it's all part of what is called the living sermon, and that's, that's all part of it. But that's one of the things. What I'd like to do is share with you, um, a homily that I'm gonna be giving as it's-- it states exactly what Pentecost is all about. Pentecost is Jesus completing his act of saving us through his passion, death, and resurrection. As we heard in the gospel today, on Easter Sunday evening, Jesus appeared to the apostles gathered in the upper room and gave them the Holy Spirit to forgive sins in His, in His name. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you give... forgive anyone's sin, they are forgiven. If you retain another one's sin, they are retained. Fifty days after, later at Pentecost, Jesus is in heaven, sent the Holy Spirit for the inauguration of the people mission of the church, found this in Acts. Many times Jesus had promised to send the Holy Spirit, and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was the fulfillment of Jesus' promise. We could say that Pentecost completed Easter. We see that symbolized in the Paschal candle, lit all during Easter until Pentecost Sunday, and the double Alleluia again today at the Mass as during the Easter Oct-Oct- the Octave. For us, our Pentecost is a sacrament of confirmation. The apostles received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the bishops, successors of the apostles, hand on the Holy Spirit to us in the sacrament of the sacre- confirmation. Confirmation is the extension of the Pentecost to us. We call the sacrament confirmation because it is a confirmation and strengthening of the grace of the baptism Since the bishop anoints us with sacred chrism oil on the forehead during confirmation, the Eastern churches call the sacrament chrismation. It is the same sacrament we call confirmation, and they call it the other name. These are some of the words that a bishop may use when given the sacrament of confirmation. On the day of Pentecost, the apostles received the Holy Spirit as the promise-- as the Lord promised. They also received the power of giving the Holy Spirit to others and so completing the ba- work of baptism. Bishop, bishops are successful of the-- successors of the apostles and have this power of giving the Holy Spirit to the baptized, either personally or through the priest they appoint. In our own day, the coming of the Holy Spirit is con-confirmation. It is no longer marked with the tongues of, of tongues, but we know of His coming by faith. We heard in our first reading of Acts that coming of the Holy Spirit was accompa-accompanied by winds and tongues of fire. And because of the tongues of fire, we wear red vestments today The wind and the fire were visible signs of what was taking place interiorly in the apostles. When we receive the sacraments, there are also visible signs of what is taking place interiorly in us. For example, in the baptism, water poured over the f- head. In confirmation, the bishop, um, anoints the forehead with chrism. The sick are anointed with the oil on the forehead and palms of the hand. In the sacred o-- sacrament of holy orders, in which the priests are ordained, the bishop imposes hands on, uh, his head of the being ordained. At Pentecost, wind and fire accompanying the company of the Holy Spirit, and anointing with the oil of chrism by the bishop is a sign accompanied by the Penny- Pentecost of confirmation. In the first reading, we heard that the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost brought unity because people from all over the world of that time could hear the apostles speaking in their own languages. It was not the apostles spoke in tongues as a charismatic meeting. They spoke in foreign languages, and all the foreigners in Jerusalem from the Jewish feast that was held there then understood the apostles speaking in their own language. On the day of public inauguration of the church, the confusion of languages since the Tower of Babel was healed. Pentecost was the up- undoing of the Tower of Babel. That is emphasized by the list of peoples and nations at the time of the first reading, where we see that the visitors in Jerusalem for their Jewish feast were from all over the world. So on the very day of the church's public inauguration on Pentecost Sunday, the church was Catholic because the word Catholic means universal, referring to being a- all over the world. It was even more am-amazing that the people from all over the world could understand the apostles speaking in their own languages because Galilee had its own distinctive accent, which among all other things, dropped two symbols Just as might find it difficult to understand people in other coun- parts of this w- country because of their accent to their different... It was the same with the Philist- Philistine people, Palestine people, and the Galilee accent. Galilee and accent was distinctive. All foreigners in Jeru- Jerusalem understood the apostles speaking in their own foreign languages. The apostles were strengthened at Pentecost to minister boldly despite the threat of persecution. Confirmation is the extension of Pentecost to us, and in other words, according to the Catechism number 1303, it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as the true witness of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never, never to be ashamed of the cross. So, my friends, here you are. You're in the upper room And once you hear all this thunder and ripping and everything else going around, and you're wondering to each other, "Well, he did say something's gonna come down, and I don't know what's gonna happen," but there it was. So just imagine the image, and you know, if you've read the... or you've been to mass already, that's one thing, or you can just reread it again. But just imagine, do a like s- like a Lexa Noveno type thing, and reread it, but put yourself there. Put yourself in the upper room and remember him with all the other... You're talking to the other guys, and you're saying, "Hey, what's gonna happen at all once you hear that?" And then the thunder and the lightning comes around, and you're able to speak another language, and you bring Jesus to, to other people. And that's what I said earlier, right? They, on some accounts, they said anywhere from three to five thousand people were added to the, to the group and everything else. So who knows what's gonna happen, but on Pentecost. We're doing this now so that everybody can listen to it, uh, at the proper time and everything else. And if you wanna get into a novena or other prayers, um, for Pentecost Sunday, alls you have to do is Google it. Uh, you know, and, uh, Pentecost prayers. Or listen attentively to the priest when he's doing his, when he's doing his prayers and everything else. Supposedly, there's supposed to be some special prayers at Pentecost. I'll, I'll find out tomorrow too. I'll see what the good pastor has to do. But as far as I'm concerned, uh, we just are there to Be part of the ceremony that's going about, and it's, it's really nice, you know? You relive... W- we're supposed to relive everything anyway, but Pentecost is, is it, and then we go jump into ordinary time real quick. But for now, you know, just remember, huh? Just remember that when you go through those sacred doors of your church, you're supposed to be the Mary, not the Martha, and you listen attentively to, to what's not only in your heart, but also what the, what the priest is saying. And as you do that, you bring about and you fully realize the true meaning of Pentecost and what it means to us as well. Amen. Amen. So we're getting a s- we're getting special gifts today and tomorrow, huh, from the Holy Spirit? Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, we're- Wisdom Wisdom. We have seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Mm. And if you want a full explanation of that, alls you have to do is open your laptop up or computer and go to catholic.com. And it's got a, and it says Catholic Answers, and it's got a great big old dove in color, and it's Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit And other than, other than, see that's, that's all part of this. That's- So the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and then the charisms are also from the Holy Spirit, right? Yep. And there's, there's 12... There's fruits of the Holy Spirit too. Mm-hmm. Which can be a... Which is another session and everything else, but- Okay we'll go from there. Maybe we'll have an episode about the different charisms and several gifts of the Holy Spirit. Yeah. That's a good idea. Um, we'll do that. Okay. That'll give me something to work on. Keep you busy. Well, you know, and dear friends, I just wanna let you know, uh, my sidekick here, her and her family are gonna go to Medjugorje here in a couple, two or three days. And I've, I've shared with them in all earnest, when you get on the ready plane, you be the Mary and not the Martha. I mean, beforehand, of course, you, you pray for the plane, the tires, the engine, and oh, and most importantly, my friends, you pray for the luggage. Make sure the luggage gets there at the same place. Mm-hmm. Wherever that might be. Mm-hmm. And we wish them well as they begin their journey for a couple of weeks. I know I've, I've been there, done that for... I've been there over two different times. Mm-hmm. First time I was there, they had just put in the hot water at Marian Center, which was the mother house there when it first started up, so... And they, uh... Turned out really well. They had good weather. And when you enter St. James Church there, you come, you come in there, and in those days, I'm not quite sure how it... If it still does or not, but in those days you could, uh, smell the roses, which was nice. Mm-hmm. And you go outside and some saw the sun spin and some people didn't, so... But it's, it's all part of the, the journey. Maybe depending on the time change, Father, we can go live from Međugorje. Sure. Sure. I, w- well, 'cause you got nine hours basically difference. Yeah. So we'll- 'Cause Europe is nine hours we'll see how, how that works out. But, um, yeah, pretty excited. So, um, but right now, so it's Pentecost. And then, so my question is actually why is it a nine-day novena? Any significance? Well, nine days is, is the normal time for a, for a, uh, for a novena. If you look at church history, they've always had nine days. Oh, okay. You know, so in, in short, that's the answer. Historically. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So. Well- But ideally, ideally what happens is that this novena should have started on S- Ascension Sunday, but this is, this is all part of it. I mean, you can, you can g- the nice thing about electronics nowadays, you can Google just about anything and start, you know, a nine-day novena anytime you want, so. Mm. It'll give you, it'll give you those who are listening, uh, something to do. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. So All right. Well, um, that's all the questions I have right now. Do you want to close us for prayer? Yeah. Let me, let me check something out here The Holy Spirit reminds us, he reminds us of all that Jesus said. He is the living memory of the church. When he reminds us, he helps us to understand the words of the Lord This remembrance in the Holy Spirit and virtue of the Spirit is an essential aspect of Christ's presence within us and within His church. The spirit of truth and charity and clarity reminds us of all that Christ has said and helps us to entertain more fully into the meaning of His words. Amen. Amen. In the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. All right. Well, thank you for joining us today on Mary's Message: Leading Hearts to Jesus today. This convers- if this conversation brought you closer to Jesus, I invite you to subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share this, this episode with someone who needs a little hope. And every time you do, you help Mary's message reach more hearts. For links, resources, and ways to stay connected, be sure to check the show notes below. And if you'd like to go deeper, we now have a newsletter just for you. Head over to our subscription landing page in the show notes to join our community and receive reflections, resources, and Marian inspiration delivered straight to your inbox. And you get to ask Father Perry questions or spiritual direction. And until next time, Mary-- may Mary's message echo in your heart and lead you ever closer to the loving embrace of Christ