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How exciting is Pentecost Sunday? It ought to be exciting because birthdays are always exciting events. And Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. All members of the Catholic Church celebrate this day by wearing red and rejoicing in God's holy gifts. The Church is the Bride of Christ, which was conceived from his wounded side on Calvary, modelled on the Blessed Virgin Mary, and given new life born of the Holy Spirit on this day, the fiftieth day after the resurrection. Back then the Jews celebrated this day as a principal feast in the annual calendar. For us here at our Armadale Cathedral, it's also a tremendous feast of great significance because our confirmants, those being confirmed, will receive today the fullness of the Holy Spirit. God will download abundant grace complete with the sevenfold gifts into their souls, leaving an indelible mark or character that will better configure them to Christ. How did we arrive here? Not by car, but what's the cause of our being here today as families in this church? For every cause has an effect. Parents, you are the cause of your children being confirmed. We thank you thus for honouring your promises made at your children's baptism so long ago. And as we encourage the sponsors to assist these children today and into the future, we remind in turn the confirmants, the children, that today you will promise God yourselves to keep the faith. How will you fulfill those promises? Before you answer, let's return back to the upper room, sometimes called the cynical in Jerusalem, to that first Pentecostal encounter with the Lord. Christ had promised to send his Holy Spirit that would transform his apostles from within. If he had stayed here on earth with us, his presence would have remained external to the apostles. But now, via the Holy Spirit they were internally imbued with his living and dynamic presence. A presence made known by those mystical tongues of fire that proceed from his grace. What's grace after all? Well that's a divine power. The word in the original Greek is dynamis, which is close to the word dynamite, a tremendous invisible power was given to them on the day via the senses of sight and sound, our two most powerful external senses. We are told that the apostles heard the roar of the wind around them. I tend to liken that to the engines of a bowing jet as it takes off from the tarmac. It's both deafening and powerful. Then they saw these mysterious flames, the shape of tongues burning over their heads. Flames that expel light and heat, but do not burn. Some gas fireplaces today seem to manifest flames of this type, yet these are godly flames of divine origin, that signify the charismatic blessings and sevenfold gifts that are poured into the souls of those present. One of the charismatic blessings given on this original Pentecost Sunday was the ability to be heard in different languages. We call this today simultaneous translations. But the apostle spoke in his own language, yet was heard in every other language. By the way, the word for language and tongue is much the same, which gives rise to the phrase speaking in tongues or speaking in languages. Down through the course of history there were two great missionaries who seemed to receive this gift for the sake of their pastoral work. One was Saint Francis Xavier, a Jesuit evangelizer and patron of the missions. He died at a young age, forty six years old, after being a missionary in India, Japan, and China. In twelve short years he baptized, they say, thirty thousand people, but he had to teach them to convert them, which required linguistic talent or gifts. Another Spanish Jesuit who also received this gift of tongues or speaking multiple languages, died a hundred years after Xavier in 1654. His name was Father Peter Claver, known as the patron saint of the slaves. His ministry was down in Colombia, meeting the ships from Africa. And it required him to learn their languages and then baptize them, for these were the slaves being brought to the Americas. It's estimated in his forty years of ministry, long time, he baptized over 300,000 people. Both of these saints left us a great legacy. What legacy will you leave one day? Now a legacy left is like a baton passed on in a relay race, which always involves a giver and a receiver. Today the flame of faith has been given to you. God's the giver, and he's saying receive it and pass it on. Your children, your confirmants will keep your faith if you do three things something daily, something weekly, and something monthly for God. Daily prayer to God who is real. Prayer is an actual conversation with him. And remember he has a plan for you. Something weekly refers to a Sunday Mass commitment that sadly most Aussie Catholics today willfully don't do. They fail and incur therefore a mortal sin by this loss of grace in their souls. It's a godly moral obligation, not an optional extra for the religious. See, we need to remain connected to God so that we worship someone and not something. Lastly, monthly. Monthly confession to heal our souls with divine forgiveness. All relationships need healing at times. So let us do our daily, weekly, and monthly tasks and entrust our lives to God's divine spirit and pray that He renews us by His powerful sevenfold gifts on this Pentecost Sunday.