Happy Πεντηκοστή!

 This Sunday we celebrate the birth of the Church as told in Acts 2:1-11,

When the day of Pentecost* had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’

*The term Pentecost comes from the Greek Πεντηκοστή (Pentēkostē) meaning "fiftieth". The first Pentecost came around the time of the Jewish festival Shavuot which is celebrated seven weeks after Passover. We celebrate Πεντηκοστή seven weeks after Easter. I guess 49 days is close enough to 50.

Without the Holy Spirit there would be no Church.

The transformation of the followers of Jesus into Apostles is shown in the rest of Acts by their acts. 

They left their hiding places and went out into the world spreading the Good News even when it meant ridicule, arrest, and even death.

Nobody at the time would have done that unless they had personally seen the risen Lord and were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Lord, give us the spirit to share the Good News to an increasingly hostile world.