Pentecost and New Beginnings

In Judaism, there is a major festival that commemorates when the first fruits were harvested and brought to the Temple, as well as the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. While Passover freed the Jews physically from bondage, the giving of the Torah redeemed the people spiritually from bondage to idolatry and immorality. This feast, Shavu'ot, is also known as Pentecost – which means 50 – because it falls on the 50th day following Passover; however, it bears no similarity to the Christian holy day of Pentecost, which occurs 50 days after Easter.

Pentecost is one of the most ancient feasts of the Christian Church, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles and St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians. For the followers of Jesus, it supplants the Jewish feast of Pentecost. The second chapter of Acts recounts the story. Jews from all over were gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish feast. On that Sunday, the Apostles and Mary were gathered in the Upper Room, where they had seen Christ after His Resurrection. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to preach the Gospel in all of the languages that the Jews who were gathered there spoke, and about 3,000 people were converted and baptized that day.

On this day, with the descent of the Holy Spirit, Christ's mission is completed, and the New Covenant is inaugurated.

In many Eastern churches, the entire period between Easter and Pentecost Sunday was known as Pentecost, and during that time, both fasting and kneeling were strictly forbidden, because this period was supposed to give us a foretaste of the life of Heaven.

In more recent times, parishes celebrate the approach of Pentecost with the public recitation of the Novena to the Holy Spirit, mirroring the nine days of prayer in the Upper Room.

From Pentecost onward, the Church began her earthly pilgrimage that will be fulfilled one day in glory. The first community of believers in Jerusalem devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread, and to prayers.

The disciples recognized that Jesus’ Ascension marked not an end, but a beginning. As we remember and celebrate the many beginnings in the coming weeks and months – graduations from high school and college, summer weddings – let us remember to give thanks and glory to God, our Creator, for the gift of the Holy Spirit.