In Pentecosto he remembers and celebrated the descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the apostles gathered together in the Upper Cenacle. The Church, in this solemnity, sees its true act of birth of the missionary beginning, considering it together with Easter, the most solemn feast of the whole Christian calendar.
What are the Jewish origins of the party?
The Jews called her “Festival of harvest and the first fruits”; The 50th day was celebrated after the Jewish Easter and marked the beginning of the grain harvest; In biblical texts it is always an agricultural festival. It is also called “Feast of the Weeks”, for its recurrence of seven weeks after Easter; In the Greek “Pentecost” means 50th day. The term Pentecost, referring to the “party of the weeks”, is mentioned in Tobia 2.1 and 2 maccabees, 12, 31-32.
The original purpose of this anniversary was the Thanks to God for the fruits of the terra, to which was added later, the memory of the greatest gift made by God to the Jewish people, that is, the promulgation of the mosaic law on Mount Sinai. According to the Jewish ritual, the feast entailed the pilgrimage of all men to Jerusalem, total abstention from any work, a sacred meeting and particular sacrifices; And it was one of the three pilgrimage parties (Easter, huts, Pentecosts), which every Jewish devotee was invited to celebrate in Jerusalem.
In what passage of the Bible is the episode of the descent of the Holy Spirit tell?
To chapter 2 of Acts of the Apostles. The apostles together with Mary, the mother of Jesus, were gathered in Jerusalem in the Cenacle, probably of the house of the widow Maria, mother of the young Marco, the future evangelist, where they then took us to gather usually when they were in the city; And as per tradition, the Jews in large numbers had been afflicted in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost with the prescribed pilgrimage. “While the day of Pentecost was about to accomplish,” we read, “they all found themselves in the same place. Suddenly a rhombus came from heaven, as of wind that breaks down vigorous and filled the whole house where they were. Their languages of fire appeared, who divided and placed themselves on each of them; And they were all full of the Holy Spirit And they began to speak in other languages, as the spirit gave them to express themselves. They were then found in Jerusalem Jews observant, of every nation that is under the sky. Come that strawberry, the crowd gathered and remained stunned, because everyone heard them speak in their own language. They were amazed and, outside of themselves for the amazement, they said: “They speak that are not all Galilei? And how is it that we feel them to speak our native language? …».
What is and what does the Holy Spirit represent?
It is the third person of the Holy Trinity, the principle of sanctification of the faithful, of unification of the Church, of inspiration in the authors of Sacred Scripture. It is the one who assists the magisterium of the Church and all the faithful in the knowledge of the truth (it is also said “Paraclito”, that is “Comforter”).
The ancient testament does not contain a real indication on the Holy Spirit as a divine person. The “Spirit of God” appears to you as a divine force that produces cosmic natural life, prophetic gifts and other charisms, the moral ability to obey commandments.
In the New Testament, the spirit sometimes still appears as charismatic impersonal force. Together, however, the revelation of the “personality” and the “divinity” of the Holy Spirit takes place, especially in the Gospel of St. John, where Jesus claims to pray the Father to send Paracchito, who always remains with his disciples and tears them in the truth (John 14-16) and in Saint Paul, where the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is joint with that of the divine redemption. It is granted to all the baptized (1 Corinthians, 12, 13), the spirit is founded The equal dignity of all believers. But at the same time, as it gives different charisms and ministries, the only spirit, builds the Church with the contribution of a multiplicity of gifts.
What are the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
Traditional teaching, following a text by Isaiah, lists seven: Wisdom, intellect, advice, fortress, science, pity and fear of God. They are initially donated with the grace of baptism and confirmed by the sacrament of confirmation.
What is the symbol of the Holy Spirit?
Very few times it has been represented in human form; while in theAnnunciation and in Baptism of Jesus It is in the form of a dove, and in the transfiguration it is like a light cloud.
But in the New Testament, the divine Spirit is explicitly indicated, as languages of fire in the Pentecost and as a breath in the Gospel of John (20, 22); “Jesus said to them again: peace to you! As the Father sent me, I too send you. After saying this, he blew on them and said: you receive the Holy Spirit; to those who put the sins back, they will be put back and who you will not put them back, will remain not put back”. The Holy Spirit, repeatedly announced in the Gospels by Jesus, has been mainly assimilated to the fire that like water is a symbol of life and death.
Since when to be celebrated the Pentecost party?
Christians initially called Pentecost, the period of fifty days after Easter. Apparently, it was TertullianChristian apologist (155-220), the first to talk about it as a particular party in honor of the Holy Spirit. At the end of the fourth century, Pentecost was a solemn feast, during which baptism was conferred on those who had not been able to receive it during the Easter vigil. The apostolic constitutions testify to the octave of Pentecost for the East, while in the West it appears in the Carolingian age.
THE’Eighth liturgical It was kept until 1969; while the public holidays of Pentecost were instead reduced in 1094, to the first three days of the week; reduced to two from the reforms of the eighteenth century.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Pentecost Monday was also eliminated, which however is kept as a party in France and in Protestant countries.
On what occasions does the Holy Spirit invoke?
In the assignment of the sacraments, in particular in Baptism and in Confirmation and with solemn liturgy inSacred order; and more generally in every liturgical ceremony or particularly important occasion, such as the beginning of the Conclave To elect the Pope, where divine help is undertaken.
The invocation prayer is contained in the magnificent and suggestive hymn of Come creatorattributed to the Archbishop of Mainz Rabano Mauro and dating back to the 9th century. It is a hymn that combines prayer, meditation and invocation.
Here is the Latin text:
Veni, Creator Spiritus, / Mentes Torum Visit, / Imple Superna Gratia / Quae you create pectora.
Here Overis Paraclitus, / Donum of the highest, / Fons Vivus, Ignis, / Caritas et Spiritalis Unctio.
TU Semptiformis Munre, / Dextrae of the tu Digitus, / tu rite promissum patris / sermon dangans guttage. Lights Lumen Sensibus, / Infundde Amorem Cordibus, / Inferima Our Corporis / Virtute Firmans perpetti. Longius / pacemque dones protinus hostem replys; / Ductore Sic Te Praevio / Vitemus Omne Noxium.
For you Shamus from Patrem, / Noscamus Atque Filium, / Te Utriusque Spiritum / Credamus omni tempore. Amen.
