Pentecost (AD1732), by Jean Restout (+AD1768)
Today is Pentecost Sunday -- the novena from the Ascension is now complete, and we are Fifty Days from Easter Sunday!
We read in Sacred Scripture, Acts Chapter 2, about this day:
And when the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in one place: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak.
This Feast, also known as Whitsunday, is rich with meaning and custom, and some more details may be found here:
Fisheaters: Pentecost
For more information: Old Catholic Encyclopedia: Pentecost
On this day, a plenary indulgence can be received for the recitation of the Veni, Creator Spiritus in either a church or oratory:
| VENI, Creator Spiritus, mentes tuorum visita, imple superna gratia quae tu creasti pectora. | COME, Holy Spirit, Creator blest, and in our souls take up Thy rest; come with Thy grace and heavenly aid to fill the hearts which Thou hast made. |
| Qui diceris Paraclitus, altissimi donum Dei, fons vivus, ignis, caritas, et spiritalis unctio. | O comforter, to Thee we cry, O heavenly gift of God Most High, O fount of life and fire of love, and sweet anointing from above. |
| Tu, septiformis munere, digitus paternae dexterae, Tu rite promissum Patris, sermone ditans guttura. | Thou in Thy sevenfold gifts are known; Thou, finger of God's hand we own; Thou, promise of the Father, Thou Who dost the tongue with power imbue. |
| Accende lumen sensibus: infunde amorem cordibus: infirma nostri corporis virtute firmans perpeti. | Kindle our sense from above, and make our hearts o'erflow with love; with patience firm and virtue high the weakness of our flesh supply. |
| Hostem repellas longius, pacemque dones protinus: ductore sic te praevio vitemus omne noxium. | Far from us drive the foe we dread, and grant us Thy peace instead; so shall we not, with Thee for guide, turn from the path of life aside. |
| Per te sciamus da Patrem, noscamus atque Filium; Teque utriusque Spiritum credamus omni tempore. | Oh, may Thy grace on us bestow the Father and the Son to know; and Thee, through endless times confessed, of both the eternal Spirit blest. |
| Deo Patri sit gloria, et Filio, qui a mortuis surrexit, ac Paraclito, in saeculorum saecula. Amen. | Now to the Father and the Son, Who rose from death, be glory given, with Thou, O Holy Comforter, henceforth by all in earth and heaven. Amen. |
Nota bene: "§ 1. Plenaria indulgentia conceditur christifideli qui, in ecclesia vel oratorio, devote interfuerit sollemni cantui vel recitationi:
1° hymni Veni, Creator, vel prima anni die ad divinam opem pro totius anni decursu implorandam; vel in sollemnitate Pentecostes;"
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Here is a beautiful setting of the same hymn by the great Palestrina:
Today you might also enjoy the chant of the Sequence of Pentecost, Veni Sancte Spiritus:
The original location of this event -- the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Our Lady -- is the Cenacle on Mount Zion. It sits just outside the walls of Jerusalem to the south, and was the same location as the Last Supper.
Today, in Rome, flower petals are showered down from the dome of the Pantheon: Climbing the Pantheon's Dome on Pentecost - EWTN Vaticano
Traditionally this great feast is observed with an Octave, and this article presents some wonderful details and history on that: Pentecost Octave: Where art thou?
Today is a marvellous day to consider the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and a link to the question of St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae on these great Gifts: STh, I-II, question 68
The Gifts are remarkable and deserve to be better know! The Catechism notes that,
"1830 The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
1831 The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations."
Catechism of the Catholic Church: Virtues and Gifts
St. Thomas Aquinas, for his part, teaches in the Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 68, a. 1:
"Now it is manifest that human virtues perfect man according as it is natural for him to be moved by his reason in his interior and exterior actions. Consequently man needs yet higher perfections, whereby to be disposed to be moved by God. These perfections are called gifts, not only because they are infused by God, but also because by them man is disposed to become amenable to the Divine inspiration...for those who are moved by Divine instinct, there is no need to take counsel according to human reason, but only to follow their inner promptings, since they are moved by a principle higher than human reason. This then is what some say, viz. that the gifts perfect man for acts which are higher than acts of virtue."
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 68, a. 1.
Pope St. John Paul II said of the gifts: "In order to be authentically formative, study needs to be constantly accompanied by prayer, meditation, and the invocation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord. Saint Thomas Aquinas explains how, with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, a person's whole spiritual being becomes responsive to God's light, not only the light of knowledge but also the inspiration of love. I have prayed for the gifts of the Holy Spirit since my youth and I continue to do so." -- Gift and Mystery, pgs. 92-93."
Finally, St. Augustine of Hippo, in his On the Sermon on the Mount, notes the correspondence between the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Beatitudes:
"Hence also the sevenfold operation of the Holy Ghost, of which Isaiah speaks, seems to me to correspond to these stages and sentences [of the Beatitudes]. But there is a difference of order: for there the enumeration begins with the more excellent, but here with the inferior. For there it begins with wisdom, and closes with the fear of God: but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And therefore, if we reckon as it were in a gradually ascending series, there the fear of God is first, piety second, knowledge third, fortitude fourth, counsel fifth, understanding sixth, wisdom seventh.
The fear of God corresponds to the humble, of whom it is here said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, i.e. those not puffed up, not proud: to whom the apostle says, Be not high-minded, but fear; i.e. be not lifted up.
Piety corresponds to the meek: for he who inquires piously honours Holy Scripture, and does not censure what he does not yet understand, and on this account does not offer resistance; and this is to be meek: whence it is here said, Blessed are the meek.
Knowledge corresponds to those that mourn who already have found out in the Scriptures by what evils they are held chained which they ignorantly have coveted as though they were good and useful.
Fortitude corresponds to those hungering and thirsting: for they labour in earnestly desiring joy from things that are truly good, and in eagerly seeking to turn away their love from earthly and corporeal things: and of them it is here said, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Counsel corresponds to the merciful: for this is the one remedy for escaping from so great evils, that we forgive, as we wish to be ourselves forgiven; and that we assist others so far as we are able, as we ourselves desire to be assisted where we are not able: and of them it is here said, Blessed are the merciful. Understanding corresponds to the pure in heart, the eye being as it were purged, by which that may be beheld which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and what has not entered into the heart of man: and of them it is here said, Blessed are the pure in heart. Wisdom corresponds to the peacemakers, in whom all things are now brought into order, and no passion is in a state of rebellion against reason, but all things together obey the spirit of man, while he himself also obeys God: and of them it is here said, Blessed are the peacemakers."
St. Augustine of Hippo, On the Sermon on the Mount, Book I, chapter 4.11.
Of course, unless you live in the state of grace, you are not able to receive these precious Gifts of the Holy Spirit -- and how can you then see the world as it is?
Today also happens to be the patronal feast of the school of this blogger:
Holy Spirit Preparatory School, Atlanta, Georgia
Veni Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit!
Happy Pentecost!
Live Well!
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