The Feast of Pentecost
Pentecost is one of the most important feasts on the Christian calendar. It is celebrated 50 days after Easter. Historically and symbolically related to the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot or the day, fifty days after the Exodus, on which God gave the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. For Christians, Pentecost also commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus as described in the Acts of the Apostles, in the New Testament. In the story, the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles as tongues of fire, giving them the power to become witnesses for Jesus Christ. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described as "the Church's birthday".
The Church teaches that the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Trinity. As such she is personal and also fully God, co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Son. She is different from the Father and the Son in that she proceeds from the Father (or from the Father and the Son) as described in the Nicene Creed.
In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is depicted through metaphor and symbol.
Water – signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism. "By one Spirit [believers] were all baptized", so they are "made to drink of one Spirit". (1 Corinthians 12:13) Thus the Spirit is also personally the living water welling up from Christ crucified. (John 19:34; 1 John 5:8)
Anointing - The anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit. The coming of the Spirit is referred to as his "anointing". (Cf. 1 John 2:20,27; 2 Corinthians 1:21) In our Church, anointing is practiced in Confirmation.
Cloud and light – In the Gospel of Luke, the Holy Spirit comes upon the Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might conceive and give birth to Jesus. In the story of the Transfiguration, the Spirit became a cloud that came and overshadows Jesus, Moses and Elijah and proclaimed in "a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!'" (Luke 9:34-35)
A dove – When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him. (Matthew 3:16)
Wind – The Spirit is likened to the "wind that blows where it will" (John 3:8), and described as "a sound from heaven like the rush of a might wind" (Acts 2:2-4).
Fire - symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit's actions. It is the source of transformation for the people of Israel as they traveled out of Egypt, following God's pillar of fire, and for the Apostles as tongues "as of fire", rested on the disciples on the morning of Pentecost.
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To celebrate Pentecost, Susan Osbaldiston performed with a flaming hula-hoop. Check out the pictures!
http://www.ecsssj.org/downloads/pentecost2009
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