Pentecost Sunday May 19, 2024

After the fast of Lent we pull out all stops to celebrate this most joyful season in the liturgical year. The fifty days of Easter come to an end with Pentecost. We’ve celebrated in many ways, singing Alleluias, sprinkling water to remember our baptism, lighting the Easter candle and displaying it. Now the Easter season draws to an end.

Pentecost is primarily a feast celebrating the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is at the heart of our transformation through baptism, where we receive the Spirit. Pentecost is a celebration of God indwelling the church. Jesus ascends the sign of the end of his earthly ministry, and then the disciples experience Pentecost, the anointing of the Holy Spirit in the upper room. They go forth to proclaim the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection.

The flames part and come to rest on the disciples, and we hear “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be moved to speech – to proclaiming God’s presence in our lives and God’s message to our world.

Throughout this day and the weeks ahead, let us not lose our grasp on our Easter joy, our sense of God’s presence with us. Increase your awareness of what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to live with the understanding that God is truly with us.