From the Pastor’s Desk:

This weekend in the Roman Catholic Church we celebrate one of the greatest feast days in our Liturgical calendar. Easter is at the top of the list followed by Christmas and right there is Pentecost Sunday. It comes 50 days after Easter and less than two weeks after the Ascension of Christ into the heavens. Pentecost celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. For that reason, it is often called “the birthday of the Church.”

Pentecost Sunday is one of the most ancient feasts of the Church, celebrated early enough to be mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 20 and Saint Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 20. It supplants the Jewish feast of Pentecost, which took place 50 days after the Passover and which celebrated the sealing of the Old Covenant on Mount Sinai.

Pentecost is the 50th day after Easter (if we count both Easter and Pentecost). That means that it is a moveable feast—a feast whose date changes every year, based on the date of Easter in that year. The earliest possible date for Pentecost Sunday is May 10; the latest is June 13.

After Christ's Ascension into Heaven, the Apostles knew that He had promised to send His Spirit, but they didn't know exactly what that would mean. Between Ascension and Pentecost, the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary spent 9 days in prayer, waiting for the fulfillment of Christ’s promise to send His Spirit. This was the origin of the novena (nine-day prayer) that became one of the most popular forms of Christian intercessory prayer asking God for something.

On Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles, they were granted the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those gifts helped them to fulfill their mission to preach the Gospel to all nations. On that first Pentecost over 3,000 people were converted and baptized. For us, too, those gifts, granted when we are infused with sanctifying grace the life of God in our souls, help us to live a Christian life. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are: WISDOM, UNDERSTANDING, COUNSEL, FORTITUDE, KNOWLEDGE, PIETY AND FEAR OF THE LORD.