Whit Sunday. The Day Of Pentecost.

“THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST”.

Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY

Artist: René de Cramer.

"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".

Used with Permission.

This Article is taken from “The Liturgical Year”

by Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

Volume 9.

Paschal Time - Book III.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus,

Reple Tuorum corda fidelium,

Et Tui amoris in eis ignem accende.

Come, O Holy Spirit,

Fill the hearts of Thy Faithful,

And enkindle within them the fire of Thy love.

The great day, which consummates the work that God had undertaken for the human race, has at last shone upon the World.

The Days of Pentecost, as Saint Luke says, are accomplished. We have had seven weeks since The Pasch; and now comes the day that opens the mysterious number of fifty. This day is the Sunday already made holy by The Creation of Light, and by The Resurrection of Jesus: It is about to receive its final Consecration, and bring us The Fullness of God.

In the old and figurative Law, God foreshadowed the glory that was to belong, at a future period, to the fiftieth day. Israel had passed the waters of The Red Sea, thanks to the protecting power of His Paschal Lamb !

Seven weeks were spent in the desert, which was to lead to The Promised Land; and the very 'morrow of those seven weeks was the day whereon was made the alliance between God and His People.

The Pentecost (the fiftieth day) was honoured by the promulgation of The Ten Commandments of The Divine Law; and every following year, the Isrælites celebrated the great event by a Solemn Festival. But their Pentecost was figurative, like their Pasch: There was to be a second Pentecost, for all people, as there was to be a second Pasch, for the Redemption of the whole World.

The Pasch, with all its triumphant joys, belongs to The Son of God, The Conqueror of Death: Pentecost belongs to The Holy Ghost, for it is the day whereon He began His mission into this World, which, henceforward, was to be under His Law.