Pentecost

Pentecost is the fiftieth day of Easter and the solemnity of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. The name comes from the Greek word for fiftieth. In Israel, the feast of Weeks already fell fifty days after Passover. Luke’s account in Acts 2 sets the Christian event on that day: a sound like wind, tongues as of fire, and the apostles speaking so that visitors from every nation hear the mighty works of God in their own languages.

The Church calls Pentecost the birthday of her public mission. The Spirit does not replace Christ. The Spirit makes the risen Christ known and gathers a people. Peter’s sermon that morning interprets the event with the prophet Joel and with the resurrection. About three thousand are baptized. The day is a solemnity of the Lord, kept in red vestments, the color of the fire of the Spirit and of the martyrs’ witness.

Pentecost Sunday ends Easter Time. After Evening Prayer II, Ordinary Time resumes. The Easter candle returns to the baptistery, to be lit at baptisms and funerals. The sequence Veni, Sancte Spiritus belongs to the Mass of the day. Monday after Pentecost is Mary, Mother of the Church, on the universal calendar.

Because Easter moves, Pentecost moves. It is always fifty days after Easter Sunday. There is no permanent civil date to assign it. A parish’s bulletin, not a fixed page of the civil calendar, carries the date for a given year.