Bishop Erik Pohlmeier, bishop of the diocese of St. Augustine, Florida, delivered the following homily at Pentecost Mass on Sunday, May 24th, 2026, at the launch of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
This is truly an incredible moment. I am awed by this coming together that we celebrate today, the feast of Pentecost with this event, the kicking off of our eucharistic pilgrimage in this place. These are three aspects of the life of our faith, the richness of our faith that give us great reason to celebrate, but hopefully also will give us a deeper conviction about the mission that is ours as uh God’s family here and now.
As we celebrate the feast of Pentecost, I want to focus on two of the effects of that day. The first is the missionary impulse because of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The second effect is the divine power of the church’s work because of the coming of the Holy Spirit. We see these two effects immediately on the day that the room shook and the apostles were given this gift. We see them compelled to exit that room with the message of the gospel. The missionary impulse that sent them forward. And so we have the beginning of the church. We see that that missionary impulse was immediately effective.
The story that recounts for it tells us about the people from so many lands and languages that they were confused. It says because they heard the message of the gospel and understood despite what they thought was a barrier of language the power of the Holy Spirit sending them forward the divine power behind the church’s work translating the message of the gospel to the hearts of those who would hear it. So from the beginning we see that the church is able to carry out the mission entrusted by God himself. Able to carry it out because God provides. And what God asks is that we faithfully receive the gifts that he gives. That in receiving those gifts we step out in faith allowing God to work in us.
So think for example of that miracle of understanding in different languages. This highlights the reality that we have of working toward unity of overcoming boundaries that we might experience because of different languages. But I am often struck by this miracle as I think about a different need for translating because I have no doubt that many of you here today have found yourself speaking the message of the gospel but wondering if your grandchildren and children understand you at all. And so the obstacle is not about the language itself.
But the miracle that is still necessary is the translating of the words we speak by the power of God to penetrate the hearts of those that we hope will hear them. Now, it is also amazing in that first moment that not only were they amazed that they heard and understood the message spoken by the apostles, but it tells us that they were able to recognize the mighty works of God.
So, it might be interesting enough if someone would speak and we just knew the words they spoke, but that’s not that impressive. What’s far more impressive is to recognize the mighty works of God. To realize that what is being spoken has effect far beyond that moment and that place because the mighty works of God that they began to understand, those are the mighty works that would carry the church forward from that day.
We see the effect of Pentecost in that moment. But now I want you to consider the same effects of the spirit in another moment in 1565 as missionaries were landing on these shores as people of faith motivated by their desire to explore by their desire to discover new lands but by their desire to discover new people. When they arrived on these shores, they had had the experience now of bringing the message of the gospel farther south in Latin America. And as they encountered a people who did not know the gospel, they wrestled with how do we effectively communicate? How is it that we even encounter these people that we didn’t know existed that we understand as so little?
And so we see the effect of Pentecost in 1565. The missionary impulse that sent them to far away lands that sent them to an encounter with a people they did not know. That moved their hearts to search for a way for their message to be effective, to allow the spirit to translate so that the words they spoke would enter the hearts of those who receive them.
And so on these shores they immediately encountered a new people. And they did not know how far this land would extend. They did not know what would be demanded of them. And yet they stepped out in faith. We also see the effect in 1565 of the divine power of the church’s work.
So they celebrated mass and they experienced the power of the words of the priest transforming bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. And so from that beginning, they centered their life around the Eucharist, around the recognition that God himself is what gave power to that missionary impulse. And as they began to expand and as they moved farther inland and more people experienced their presence, we have reports of those asking for a priest to come because they wanted to experience the divine power of God in the work of the church. They wanted to hear the words of the priest that would speak, “This is my body. This is my blood.” the words that would speak, I absolve you from your sins. And so the church grew, it expanded because the same gift that was given at the beginning was given in 1565.
But now consider another moment in our history. Now consider the effect of Pentecost in this moment. Because here we are today receiving that same heritage but still with the same call that God gives to his church. And so here today as we celebrate Pentecost, as we recall the heroic witness of faith of those who have gone before us, we should open our hearts so that we experience the same missionary impulse. That we should recognize the Lord sends us out. That we should be compelled to speak the message of the gospel, to see that the Lord can take our words and penetrate the hearts of those who would hear them.
And so we work to be missionaries within our own families to extend further into our own communities to take up our part in the grand work of the church so that today the message of the gospel may reach into every corner of the world. And so the missionary pulse impulse is an effect that God desires now. But in this moment, the effect of Pentecost is what gives us hope this is possible. Because in this moment, it is the divine power that gives God’s life to the work we do. It is why in just a moment I will repeat those words spoken so many times. And this will in fact be the body and blood of Christ. That we will again do this in remembrance of me.
So that our witness around the eucharist as we go in procession as we work on a revival of our understanding of the eucharist that all people will experience the divine presence of God. The stories that many of us have heard are truly remarkable. How many people have been searching in some way, maybe even unaware of their search and they find themselves in a church or they find themselves observing a procession go by and deep within them they sense God speaking in their heart. They realize the divine power at work and they know there’s something different there. There’s something real here.
This is the gift of God that we celebrate. And so on this day of Pentecost at the beginning of this pilgrimage in this holy place, we pray that those effects of the spirit may continue to guide us, may continue to bear fruit in the plan that God has always had, the plan to gather his family to himself. So that building on the heritage of faith we have received and convicted to go forth into the world around us that the effects of Pentecost may be powerful in our time that we may feel and respond to the missionary impulse that we may rely in hope on the divine power of the church’s work.