Paraclete

I would like to share a short story about Joe. Joe is a parishioner St. Mary in Anacortes, WA. He was one of our employees. His work at the parish involved training our altar servers for Mass, especially the big ones like Christmas and Easter. He has a passion and enthusiasm for serving at church. He loves going to church ever since he was a kid, and continues to do so until this day. He loves God very much. 

Once, he shared a story with me about his Confirmation Retreat. The Confirmation Retreat was a requirement, and is the final stage before receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. On the last day of the Confirmation retreat, each group had to put on a biblical skit. 

Joe's small group thought a lot about what to do. They finally came up with an idea and wanted to tell the story about Pentecost and the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. 

When the time came to present their skit, members of the group pretended that they were the Apostles gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. Then all of a sudden, Joe took a pair of soccer cleats, and threw them onto the table. 

The people didn't get it at first, but after a few seconds, they understood the pun. It was a pair of cleats, or the Paraclete. The Paraclete is a Greek word for the Holy Spirit. 

If you ever talk to Joe, he's a funny guy, but very brilliant. He always come up with stuff like that.