Let her rip!

Living outside Australia for so long, I see how so many just do not get the Australian culture, nor our sense of humour.  Sometimes, I experience that my use of  Aussie humour is totally misconstrued, even causing people upset, where no harm is intended, for we are only using our humour to deal with life. 

So, "Let her rip!"  This is a a good Aussie line for 'let's get on with it; let's just do it'.  This seems appropriate for the season, for specifically yesterday, when the Church celebrated Pentecost.  

Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit let rip and empowered the Church.  This is not a 'one off'' nor a 'once for all' event, for the Spirit is ever empowering the Church.  The call of the Second Vatican Council was to open up the windows of the Church to the Spirit and allow for the New Pentecost.  This remains so true for our present time, as we are always in need of the power and the inspiration of the Spirit, in a broken world and a failing church.  

The language used is itself powerful, for we talk of the 'pouring out' of the Spirit.  The imagery struck up by this verb is one describing the tremendous power of the Spirit, in our world and in our lives, like a powerful river rushing forth.  When talking to Elliott, at mass yeaterday, about his own, recent Confirmation, I compared the pouring out of the Spirit to finding an eternal spring of ice-cream.  Huh?  Well, I am doing my best to speak with a 11 year old boy, in language he understansds.  Think about it.