Pentecost Sunday

On 4 June 2017, the Church celebrated Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples as tongues of fire.

Sunday was a day of multiple celebrations. Apart from it being Pentecost, the ICPE Mission celebrated its 15th anniversary of Pontifical recognition and it was the 50th anniversary of the Charismatic renewal.

The Sunday began with the 10:30am Mass at St Gerard's Church where we celebrated the baptism of John Matthew Remnant. This was followed by a charismatic gathering called Ablaze at 2:00pm at St Joseph's church, Mt Victoria, organized by the Archdiocese Service Group.

Ablaze began with a time of praise and worship led by the ICPE Mission NZ Music Team and continued with testimonies shared by Steve Ready and Binnari Lee. A team from ICPE Mission NZ performed to a song 'Receive the Power from the Holy Spirit' using sign language. Scripture passages were read followed by a beautiful time of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament after which Fr. John Rae shared to us the history of the charismatic renewal in NZ which brought us in awe of the movement of the Holy Spirit.

After the talk we had a time of prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We were encouraged to receive gifts of the Holy Spirit in faith. People received different gifts ranging from prophecy, faith, wisdom, word of knowledge, healing, tongues and evangelization.

The afternoon ended with a song of praise giving all glory to God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.