Our Easter celebration comes to a resounding conclusion today, the fiftieth day of Easter. Although Pentecost is part of and completes the Easter celebration, its focus is much more on the community that endured form Easter Day to this day, the Church. Its red vesture, the color of the Holy Spirit, recalls among other things the Spirit’s flame that burns in the hearts of the baptized, as well as the color of spring’s first fruits and flowers. Throughout the year, Pentecost is the third of the Glorious Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, as well as being one of the Stations of the Resurrection, or Via Lucis.

Pentecost is as much about the Spirit in the life of the Church as it is about some historical moment. The Collect asks that the Father send the Spirit now, that the Church may fulfill its mission to “fill now once more the hearts of believers.” The first Entrance Antiphon and the Responsorial Psalm extend God’s gift of the Spirit to the whole world and to all creation. The liturgy also proclaims the Spirit’s gifts of peace, truth and love.

Pentecost has been an opportunity for Christians everywhere to honour the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives and celebrate the birth of the Church in an ecumenical context. Indeed, the Holy Spirit has been sent to us, to guide us and comfort us this day and every day.