The Solemnity of Pentecost

The meaning of the celebration

+ On this day, we recall the descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary, the Apostles, and other followers of Jesus on the fiftieth day after the Resurrection.

+ Gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot—the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai—these first Christians were filled with the gifts of the Spirit and empowered to proclaim the Risen Lord in Jerusalem and throughout the world.

For prayer and reflection

“Like dry flour, which cannot become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become one in soul.”—Saint Irenaeus of Lyons

Prayer

O God, who by the mystery of today’s great feast
sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation,
pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit
across the face of the earth
and, with the divine grace that was at work
when the Gospel was first proclaimed,
fill now once more the hearts of believers.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal)
Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.