INFANT JESUS SISTERS
22 HEXHAM CLOSE, WORTH, CRAWLEYWEST SUSSEX RH10 7TZ
ENGLAND
Email: adminijs@btinternet.com
Website: www.infantjesussisters.org

PENTECOST 2019

Dearest Sisters and Friends,

The great and joyful feast of Pentecost is approaching and we celebrate it this year justbefore a very significant event in the life of the Institute: the General Chapter. Let us be
united in our prayer that we may be open to how the Holy Spirit chooses to guide us at the General
Chapter and in our everyday lives.
In the Gospel of the Mass on Pentecost Sunday (John 20:19-23), we see that Jesus’ disciples areliving in fear behind locked doors. As companions of Jesus they are afraid they may face arrest oreven worse. Suddenly, Jesus is there among them. He gives them the usual Jewish greeting‘Shalom’, ‘Peace be with you’, which can be taken as a wish, or can mean, more truly, ‘Peace iswith you’. In the presence of Jesus they experience a kind of peace that only he can give – a peacethat cannot be found anywhere else and that cannot be taken from them by anyone or anything.
The disciples had locked themselves into an upper room because they were afraid of theauthorities. They were also locked inside their own fear, anger, guilt and grief. Jesus brokethrough it all. He appeared among them and shared with them the first gifts of the resurrection:
forgiveness and peace. He commissioned them to share those gifts with others. He sent them out
as the Father had sent him.
The peace of the risen Lord, and all the gifts of his Spirit, unlocked the door of the upper room –and also unlocked the disciples’ hearts and lives. The peace and joy they have received are
immediately communicated to others: Jews and non-Jews, strangers from many countries andpeople of many different languages. Those gifts were available to everyone. The apostles spoke auniversal language at Pentecost: the language of love,
peace, forgiveness and hope – the story of God’s
We cannot walk the path ofmighty deeds and the call to discipleship. This calla Christian life without thecould be heard and understood by everyone; it was aHoly Spirit.
call into a relationship with Christ and with one(Pope Francis)
another. It is no wonder that the disciples, who had
earlier been terrified, are now filled with joy.
The call to mission follows: ‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you’ (Jn 20:21). The baton is
being passed. On the feast of Pentecost, the Spirit continues to make Christ ever more present in
the world. In their spirit-impelled mission, the followers of Jesus are called to be ‘fearlessly open
to the workings of the Holy Spirit’ (The Joy of the Gospel, 259).
Jesus invites us all to follow him, to identify with him, to take on his attitudes and values, to live
as he lived and to share in his mission. We, too, continually encounter Jesus present and alive inothers, especially when we pass beyond what is familiar to us. Listening and learning, we are filledwith the Holy Spirit and can become more like Jesus in our own lives.
Bringing peace is central to the mission of Christ’s disciples. It is offered to all those who long forpeace amid the tragedies and violence that mark human history. Today, more than ever, oursocieties need ‘artisans of peace’ who can be messengers and authentic witnesses of God theFather, who wills the good and the happiness of the human family (World Peace Day message2019). May the Holy Spirit burst into our lives, giving us the energy and desire to share the peaceof Christ with all those we encounter in our day-to-day lives.
We are already praying and listening to God’s Spirit as we prepare for the forthcoming General
Chapter, the theme of which is Listen! I am sending you on a new path. It is atime for true discernment as we search together for how God is calling us
today in the Institute. Deep listening and openness to God’s Spirit will lead
us on a new path or perhaps renew our way of walking on our present path.
Pope Francis tells us, ‘We cannot walk the path of a Christian life without
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our daily companion…a gift from theFather, a gift from Jesus. Let us ask the Lord to give us this awarenessthat we cannot be Christians without walking with the Holy Spirit, without
acting with the Holy Spirit, without letting the Holy Spirit be at the centre ofour lives’ (Homily 30 April 2019).
Periods of discernment of God’s will and the movements of the Spirit are equally as important
now as they were in those early days of the Christian community. For Pope Francis, the gift ofdiscernment has become all the more necessary today. It is not just for extraordinary times. We
need it at all times to recognise God’s patience and God’s timing, which is often not our own.
‘There is no greater freedom than that of allowing oneself to be guided by the Holy Spirit,renouncing the attempt to plan and control everything to the last detail, and instead, letting him
enlighten, guide and direct us, leading us wherever he wills. The Holy Spirit knows well what isneeded in every time and place’ (The Joy of the Gospel, 280).
During this season of Pentecost and throughout the General Chapter we
invite each one of our sisters, friends and colleagues to ask the Holy Spirit tolead the delegates, your representatives, on the path to new life and hope for all.
We have confidence and trust that Nicolas Barré, too, is interceding for us.
Speaking about the Institute just before he died, he assured us, ‘I will tell theHoly Spirit that He must always be its source of life…. He must always
be at its head to lead it’ (AD 9).
Together with Kimiko, Maria and Noreen, I pray that the Holy Spirit may
lead us to become people of peace and awaken us to the hope that burns in our hearts as we are
led into the fullness of life and truth.

on behalf of the General Council.