The feast of Pentecost Pontekoste (fiftieth) commemorates the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the disciples fifty days after Christ’s resurrection. The Book of Acts tells us that the descent of the Holy Spirit occurred during the Jewish ‘Feast of Weeks’ (Hag Shavout) which was held on the fiftieth day after Passover. It celebrated the seven-week-long harvesting of the wheat grain with the presentation of two loaves of unleavened bread (Lev. 23:17-20; Deit 16:9-10). This festival in Jerusalem attracted the large crowds described by Saint Luke in Acts. Along with Pascha (Easter), Pentecost is the foremost of the feasts giving the new law of the Spirit as prophesied by Ezekiel, “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.” Saint Paul goes on to teach that the Holy Spirit is the new Law written on hears of flesh rather than on tablets of stone (2 Cor.3:3). The Church began celebrating Pentecost as a major feast as least as early as the third century and it was customary to confer the Sacrament of Baptism. The alternative name for Pentecost, ‘Whitsunday’, comes from the white robes worn by the newly baptised on this day. The Apostolic Constitutions which date from at least the third century and the pilgrim Egeria writing late in the fourth century both describe how the Christian festival was kept in Jerusalem.
Evidently all Christendom is united in this festival. One of the most beautiful meditations on Pentecost in the Anglican tradition is Hariet Auber’s hymn Our blest Redeemer. In five short verses we are ever so gently led to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives. The invitation of the Holy Spirit (epiclesis) is the opening of morning and evening prayers in the Eastern tradition, “O Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, come and abide in us &c.” The invocation of the Holy Spirit is also the central prayer of the Divine Liturgy. The Roman Catholic tradition has the beautiful plainsong veni creator ‘Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire’ and Charles Wesley in the Methodist tradition left us with one of the most inspiring hymns,
O thou who camest from above
the fire celestial to impart,
kindle a flame of sacred love
on the mean altar of my heart!
Saint Luke relates that, “When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place…”. Sunday is the day of Pentecost and the place we all gather ‘with one accord’ to receive the Holy Spirit is Church.
Christopher Jobson
Feature Image: Descent_of_the_Holy_Spirit_Battistero_di_Padova.jpg, Wkicommons, PD.