Mass – Sunday 31st May at 9.30

Celebrate Pentecost Sunday virtually at 9.30 via  the parish YouTube channel.

Order of the Mass for Pentecost Sunday 31st May 2020

 

 

 

The name “Pentecost” comes from the Greek word meaning “fiftieth.”

Like Easter, it is tied to a Jewish feast. 49 days (7 weeks, or “a week of weeks”) after the second day of Passover, the Jews celebrated the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot).
Passover celebrates the freeing of the Jews from slavery; Shavuot celebrates their becoming God’s holy people by the gift and acceptance of the Law; and the counting of the days to Shavuot symbolises their yearning for the Law.
From a strictly practical point of view, Shavuot was a very good time for the Holy Spirit to come down and inspire the Apostles to preach to all nations because, being a pilgrimage festival, it was an occasion when Jerusalem was filled with pilgrims from many countries.
Symbolically, the parallel with the Jews is exact. We are freed from the slavery of death and sin by Easter; with the Apostles, we spend some time as toddlers under the tutelage of the risen Jesus; and when he has left, the Spirit comes down on us and we become a Church.

The Liturgical colour is Red – the colour of fire and of blood -used to celebrate the fire of the Holy Spirit (for instance, at Pentecost) and the blood of the martyrs.