Are You Listening???

Today is the feast of Pentecost….the birthday of the Catholic Church….and all Christian religions. After celebrating the Easter season for 50 days, we now celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus was ascending into Heaven, He told his disciples that He would not leave them alone. He sent them the gift of the Holy Spirit. It was a dramatic event , that first Pentecost. If you know your Bible, there were tongues of fire on the heads of the believers and they were able to understand each other’s languages even though they were from different lands. In the Catholic Church, we are liturgical…we have seasons throughout the year and they are even color-coded! Pentecost is Red…for the Holy Spirit and the tongues of fire on that first Pentecost 2000 years ago. The priests and deacons don red robes and the vestments on the altar and around the sanctuary are red. The Church is ablaze with the Holy Spirit. I attended the Church of the Nativity in Leawood, KS this morning. The priest commented that if he didn’t know it was the feast of Pentecost, he would have thought it was a Chiefs Football Game Sunday. Most of the parishioners were wearing red. I thought a Husker game connection was in order, but then I remembered I was in Kansas. It was a beautiful, large church.

Do you listen to the Holy Spirit or do you just muddle through life in a rush everyday? This has been a deep and abiding blessing for me over the last several years. I have learned to listen to the Holy Spirit. You have to have your heart and mind open to it. A lot of people will pass things off as coincidence. I say it is a Godcidence….that God has put something or someone in your path for a certain reason. My friend Kelly calls it “A shove from the dove”….I call it shoulder taps. When a thought or action springs to your mind unbidden and you don’t know why….don’t hold back. It is perhaps the Holy Spirit talking to you. How do you know if it is the Holy Spirt or the devil whispering in your ear? Is it borne of love…that thought or action? That’s the Holy Spirit. So, my friends, don’t let the days whiz by as you work…work…work. Pause. Open your eyes and ears to things around you. Then open your mind and your heart and see what comes.

I also wanted to mention a bit about yesterday. I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with my daughter-in-law, Michelle. We met at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. We wondered around talking for a couple of hours and then had an early dinner and talked for a few more hours. There are several people in my life whom I just enjoy talking with and mostly listening to….because I just marvel at the way their brain works. Michelle has always been one of those people. I had a wonderful time just spending some one-on-one time with her. We will be empty nesters pretty soon. I have had a lot of alone time this weekend to reflect on Lily moving to KC….us moving to Montana….missing Joe…missing a lot of people in my life. Here are a few things I saw that I wanted to share with you.

I went to Walgreens and this statue was sitting outside the entrance. I immediately thought of Joe and Michelle. If they had met as little kids, I think it would have looked something like this. I even showed Michelle the photo when I saw her.

I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday morning. It was a HUGE one. I, of course, walked out of the wrong exit….not the one I walked into. If you know me well, this is a common occurrence. I have no sense of direction at all. I ended up walking all the way around the outside of the building. I was talking out loud to Joe because I could just literally hear him laughing at me. I began to think people were going to think I am crazy talking out loud with no one near me. I started thinking about how I would write letters to my Grandma Neitzke during the last years of her life. I looked up and this was the sign I saw. My Grandma Neitzke’s name was Ruby Jean. See? Keep your mind and heart open!!

While Michelle and I were walking around the arboretum grounds, we came across this statue, which with Lily heavy on my mind, made me think of her.

Lastly, there was an area where there were a ton of bird feeders. We could hear the cardinals and bluejays calling out to each other. Michelle and I saw a lot of cardinals. Do I think that is my Joe? No. I don’t think he is a bird. However, I do believe along with many others that people in heaven can send signs. I know that whenever I go to a zoo…any zoo…I almost always see a cardinal. I do always think of Joe sending me this beautiful bird to know he is close to me and to Michelle (as she was with me). He wanted us to know he was also there.