Celebrating Pentecost

The theme for World Youth Day Sydney 2008, You wilI receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you wilI be my witnesses (Acts 1:8), focuses on the sending of the Holy Spirit which is celebrated liturgically at the feast of Pentecost. 

Origins

The Jewish Feast of Weeks, referred to in the books of Exodus and Leviticus, celebrated the completion of the grain harvest. Because it was held fifty days after Passover, it was given the name 'Pentecost', Greek for 'the 50th day'. The feast came to be regarded by both Jews and Christians as also commemorating the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt Sinai.

In John's gospel Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on the disciples on the day of resurrection, but according to the account of Luke in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples fifty days after the resurrection, so the same title 'Pentecost' was given by the Church to the feast celebrating the coming of the Spirit.

Another name for the feast is 'Whitsunday', from the old English for 'white Sunday', a reference to the custom of the newly initiated wearing their white baptismal robes for the seven weeks of Eastertide. The Whitsunday Islands off Queensland's tropical north coast were so named by Captain James Cook because they were sighted on the day of Pentecost.

Pentecost and the Holy Spirit had a strong connection with Australia even before this. Many seventeenth century navigators searched for a land mass in the southern hemisphere. One of them, Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros took possession of Vanuatu on Pentecost Sunday in May 1606, mistaking it for the South Land he sought, and named it Tierra Australia del Espiritu Santo. He even enlisted his crew in an order of chivalry, the Knights of the Holy Spirit, in an attempt to establish New Jerusalem in the Pacific.

Originally the term Pentecost was used to refer to the whole of the Easter season, that fifty-day period of great rejoicing following Easter, during which no fasting was allowed, prayer was always said while standing (kneeling was forbidden), and the Alleluia was sung frequently. During the 4th century, this unified season was divided into separate commemorations, with the ascension celebrated forty days after Easter day and Pentecost ten days later. Egeria, the Spanish nun who visited the Holy Lands at the end of the 4th century, describes a celebration of the feast of Pentecost in her travel diary:

On the fiftieth day, that is, the Lord's Day, vigil is kept in the Anastasis, and the bishop reads the passage from the Gospel that is always read on the Lord's Day, namely, the account of the Lord's resurrection. (XLIII)

Like Easter, Pentecost had its owm octave from early times. In the Roman Rite the octave was removed when the liturgical calendar was revised in 1969 to emphasise that Pentecost is not a season in its own right but the end of the great season of Easter. Again like Easter, Pentecost was celebrated with a vigil which, almost from the beginning, became strongly associated with the administration of baptism. Around the year 205 Tertullian, the great leader of the Church in north Africa, wrote: After Easter, Pentecost is a most joyous time for conferring baptisms, because during that time the resurrection of the Lord was repeatedly proved among the disciples. 

The Focus of the Feast

The focus of a particular celebration is expressed in the liturgical texts themselves. The texts for the feast of Pentecost from the new translation of the Missal will perhaps offer some fresh insights.

The Preface of Pentecost makes it clear that the feast commemorates both the sending of the Spirit and the birth of the Church as an active community:

For you brought the Paschal Mystery to completion

when on this day you bestowed the Holy Spirit

upon those you made your adopted children

by uniting them to your Only-Begotten Son.

As the Church first came to birth,

the same Spirit imparted to all peoples the knowledge of God

and united the many languages of earth

in the profession of one faith.

The unifying power of the Holy Spirit is also expressed in the Opening Prayer for the Vigil Mass:

Almighty everlasting God,

who willed the paschal sacrament to be encompassed

in the mystery of the fifty days,

grant that the different tongues of the scattered nations,

may by the heavenly gift

be gathered into one confession of your name.

and in the Solemn Blessing:

May he, who has been pleased to unite diverse tongues

in the profession of one faith,

give you perseverance in that same faith

and grant that by believing

you may journey from hope to sight.

The feast of Pentecost celebrates and enriches communal love in the Church which allows the Church to proclaim universal salvation:

Flood these gifts with the blessing of your Spirit,

O Lord, we pray, so that through them

your Church may be imbued with such love

that the truth of your saving mystery

will shine forth in every place on earth.

(Prayer over the Offerings, Vigil Mass) 

Continuity with Easter

The continuity between the Easter Vigil and the season of Easter can be shown in the worship environment. Banners, hangings and other artistic creations for the Vigil remain in place until Pentecost. The central symbols of water and light are used throughout the fifty days. During liturgical celebrations the paschal candle is placed near the ambo or altar until Pentecost, lighted to remind us that Christ is indeed our light. After the last liturgy on this day, it is carried in procession and placed next to the font for the rest of the year.

The parish's celebration of the Pentecost Vigil can help its new members, and the entire assembly, recall! the joyful Easter Vigil celebration that was held seven weeks earlier. The use of the rite of sprinkling is a powerful and tangible reminder of the Vigil and initiation. Using the three Old Testament readings provided for the Pentecost Vigil, interspersed with appropriate psalms, instead of selecting only one creates a parallel with the Liturgy of the Word at the Easter Vigil.

Pentecost can be linked musically with Easter by using the Gloria, Gospel acclamation and hymns sung during the season. Using musical settings that incorporate different languages is particularly appropriate on this day. It is not necessary to squeeze every Holy Spirit song in the parish repertoire into the celebration of Pentecost! We should never suggest that the Holy Spirit has been absent from the Church for seven weeks and is only now returning. The first readings from Acts heard every Sunday of the Easter season describe a Church alive with the power of the Holy Spirit. A final link with the Easter Vigil is the reappearance at Pentecost of the dismissal with double Alleluia that closes Mass and appears again in the final verse and response of Evening Prayer. 

Initiation

The Spirit continues to build the Body of Christ, of which we become members by Baptism and Eucharist (1 Cor 12). On Pentecost Sunday many children will complete their initiation into the Church through the sacraments of Confirmation and Eucharist. Celebrating infant baptism, confirmation and first communion during the Easter season unfolds the wonders of Easter and gives witness to our belief that Jesus is risen and present among us. If confirmation and first communion are not being celebrated at Pentecost, a parish could schedule infant baptism during Mass to highlight the baptismal aspect of the feast. Neophytes and those newly received into the Church might be invited to wear their baptismal garments or special outfits, join the entrance procession and sit together during Mass. They could be referred to in the homily and prayed for by name in the General Intercessions. 

Pentecost Sequence

Pentecost Sunday is one of the two celebrations during the year that has an obligatory sequence, the other being Easter Sunday (though it is not used at the Vigil). The sequence is a long hymn text which appears after the second reading and before the Gospel acclamation. Originally these musical components extended the final 'a' of the Alleluia. They served to embellish and prolong the Gospel procession on high feast days.

Sequences now occur rarely in the liturgy. Their purpose is to provide a. sharper focus for important celebrations by uniting those present in reflection on the feast or mystery being celebrated. It is a challenge to liturgy planners to ensure that the sequence is a joyful expression of the festival rather that a long, 'dead' time. Perhaps the whole assembly might be invited to join in one of the many sung settings of Veni, Sancte Spiritus (‘Come, Holy Spirit') at Masses on Pentecost Sunday. Sequences also provide suitable background for some form of liturgical movement, so another ritual possibility is to sing or recite the sequence during the Gospel procession as the book is carried through the assembly in solemn fashion accompanied by candles and incense, culminating in the joyful acclamation: Come Holy Spirit - fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Alleluia! 

Imagery

The symbol of a dove, commonly found on Pentecost vestments and decorations, often does not adequately capture the sense of mission and ministry enabled by the Spirit. Of the 331 direct references to the Spirit in the Bible, only three liken the Spirit to a dove. More common descriptions are of fire and wind. The Spirit 'seizes', is 'poured out', 'lifts up'. These dynamic references reflect the sense of excitement and zeal for mission of the early disciples. Those parts of Australia that have experienced cyclones and destructive storms in recent months will be only too aware of the impact of wind. Perhaps fluttering banners or kites and strategically placed wind chimes will evoke this sense of movement and power more effectively than pictures of doves.

In an article in Liturgy News (March 1996), Morgan Batt described the unifying and celebratory effect created when parishioners responded positively to his suggestion that they wear red, the liturgical colour of the day, to recall the fire of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

If the image of tongues of fire is used, it needs to be genuine. The flickering light of a crackling fire or large candle captures the eye and imagination in a way that reproductions on banners and chasubles Cal1fiot do. Having a large fire outside the church for people to gather around before the Pentecost Vigil Mass provides a strong visual link with the Easter Vigil:

Light immortal, light divine,

visit thou these hearts of thine,

and our inmost being fill.

This article was originally published in Liturgy News ​Vol 38(1) March 2008. Reprinted with permission.

Image Attribution - Pentecost, Duccio di Buoninsegna, The Yorck Project