Pentecost Sunday – Year C

Acts 2: 1-11; Psalm 103; Rm. 8:8-17; Jn 14: 15-16; 23b-26

Read: “When Pentecost Day came around, they had all met in one room. They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.”

Reflect: In this feast of Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the gift to us of the Resurrection; the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus kept his promise that never will his disciples be left alone. This gift was given to the disciples in the context of the Jewish Pentecost feast. In that feast the Jews used to commemorate when they were in the desert after being released from bondage under the Egyptians, and they arrived near mount Sinai where they were given the ten commandments.

When St. Luke says in the Acts of the Apostles that the Spirit descended on the disciples on Pentecost Sunday, he wanted to show how this Spirit changed the old law into the new Christian law. On that day the Lord decided to change the hearts of mankind so that, with a new heart, they would no longer have the need for an external law. Man could start loving with the love of God himself with which his heart is filled. Everyone who allows himself to be guided by the Gospels and by the Holy Spirit learns one language which everybody understands; the law of love.

Pray: Holy Spirit, come within us, give us a ray of light, breath this in our soul from heaven … O blessed light of holiness, I pray that the hearts of all faithful are filled with you. Without your light that leads us we will remain without hope, nothing will be serene in what we do.

Act: Every day of this week pray that the Holy Spirit fills you anew and helps you live in a way that pleases Jesus. Only he, with the help of the Holy Spirit, can we love and serve Jesus in a way that he wishes.