PENTECOST

“The Feast Day of Pentecost is the culmination of the Easter, The Resurrection of our Lord, Celebration. The Risen Christ, having shown Himself to His disciples and having ascended, sends The Promised Gift of The Holy Spirit to the expectant Church. The coming of The Spirit gives the Church the power and the necessary gifts to carry the glad news of the resurrection from Jerusalem to Galilee and to the ends of the earth. The color of The Feast Day of Pentecost is bright red, symbolizing the fire of The Holy Spirit. The Church’s practice is to change to green paraments and vestments on the Monday after Pentecost; thus the Fiftieth Day of Eastertide, the Easter Feast of The Resurrection of our Lord, is concluded.

“The long season which follows is called the Season After Pentecost, and the Sundays are numbered “after Pentecost” rather than the older designation “after Trinity.” Since Pentecost is implied in the Easter event, the Sundays after Pentecost are related to Easter also and form a kind of Post-Easter Season. (Hence, the designation is “Sundays after” rather than “Sundays of” Pentecost.) The Sundays after Pentecost are often said to represent the time of the Church – time between the earthly ministry of Jesus, which is past, and the consummation which lies ahead (Advent is its sign). In the pilgrim state in which the Church lives and exercises its ministry, it is The Spirit of God Who leads and accompanies into all Truth.

“The First Sunday after Pentecost is The Feast Day of The Holy Trinity, which celebrates not so much a doctrine as The Mystery of God. The color for this Sunday is white, but beginning with the following Sunday, or more properly the following day, green is used for the “ordinary time” or “after Pentecost” season, a time of growth in The Spirit, as The Risen Christ is formed in His people.”

(The above was quoted from The Manual on the Liturgy, Lutheran Book of Worship, Pfatteicher and Messerli; Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1979, pages 26-27.)

The Feast Day of Pentecost is the third most important festival in the life of the Church, the first being Easter, The Feast Day of The Resurrection of our Lord, and the second being Christmas = Christ’s Mass: The Feast Day of The Nativity of our Lord.

May you truly know of God’s Spirit blowing through your life daily, keeping you on fire!

May the Peace of The LORD be with you always.

Sincerely, Pastor Jon Beake