The Day of Pentecost
This Sunday we celebrate The Day of Pentecost, one of the highest or most important days of the church liturgical year. It is the remembrance and celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. This is the moment when Christ’s promise to send a helper, a comforter, occurs. Christ sends the Holy Spirit who empowers and guides the followers of Jesus after he withdraws from them into heaven, at the Ascension.
It is the Holy Spirit that gives the disciples the courage to preach the Gospel message even under the threat of martyrdom. This is the beginning of the Christian mission in the world, the work of the church, the body of Christ.
Pentecost was the Greek word for the festival of Shavout (The Festival of weeks), the time that the Jewish people from far and wide brought their offering of the first fruits of their harvest to Jerusalem. This explains what we read in the Acts of the Apostles of people from “every nation” being present.
Even though our celebration of the Christian Pentecost is no longer at the same time as the Jewish festival, we still call it Pentecost in commemoration of the event and because we celebrate it on the fiftieth day of Easter. This important day not only concludes the Easter season (the last Sunday the paschal candle is routinely lit), it also marks the beginning of the season after Pentecost, or Ordinary Time.
God Bless you
Parish Officers
Parish Governance
Parish Groups
