Pentecost
The day the Church was sent out
Pentecost 2027 — Key Dates
What Is Pentecost?
Pentecost falls fifty days after Easter and closes the Easter season. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and Mary gathered in Jerusalem, described in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles: a sound like a rushing wind, what appeared as tongues of fire resting on each of them, and the ability to be understood by people from every nation present in the city. The name comes from the Greek for fiftieth, and the day was already a Jewish feast, Shavuot, fifty days after Passover. That timing is not coincidence. The Church reads Pentecost as the completion of what Easter began: the Resurrection is the victory, and Pentecost is the moment that victory is handed on and the Church begins to move. It is often called the birthday of the Church, and the image holds up. Before that morning the apostles were a frightened group behind a locked door. After it they were outside, speaking publicly to a crowd, and three thousand people were baptised that day. Nothing about their circumstances had improved. Only they had changed. The liturgical colour is red, for the fire and for the martyrdom that would follow. The Paschal candle, lit since the Vigil, is removed from the sanctuary at the end of the season, because the light it stood for is no longer in one place at the front of the church. It has been distributed.
Observance & Rules
Pentecost Sunday carries the ordinary Sunday obligation. In some places a Vigil Mass on the Saturday evening is celebrated with its own extended readings, in a form deliberately echoing the Easter Vigil. Pentecost closes the Easter season. Ordinary Time resumes on the Monday following, and the Paschal candle is moved to the baptistery, where it is used at baptisms and funerals through the year. The Ascension falls forty days after Easter, on Thursday 6 May in 2027, though in many countries including much of the United States it is transferred to the following Sunday. Where it is transferred, the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost still form the original novena: the apostles waiting in prayer between the two events.
Practical Guide
Pray the novena to the Holy Spirit in the nine days before Pentecost. It is the oldest novena there is, and it is simply doing what the apostles did in the same gap: waiting and asking. Nine days, a few minutes each. Ask for something specific. Pentecost prayer collapses easily into vague requests for guidance. The seven gifts have names for a reason, and naming the one you actually lack is a more honest prayer than asking generally to be improved. Wear or use red if your family marks feasts at home. Children register colour long before they register theology, and Pentecost is the one Sunday of the year that is unmistakably red. And take the sending seriously, because that is what the feast is about. Pentecost is not a celebration of a warm interior feeling. The apostles went outside and spoke to strangers. Whatever the equivalent is in your life, the feast is asking about it.
Prayers for Pentecost
Scripture for This Season
Bible Verses About Faith
Scripture on believing what we cannot see, and the faith that moves mountains.
Bible Verses for Strength and Courage
Scripture for the moments that ask more of you than you think you have.
Bible Verses About Hope
Scripture for holding on when the future feels dark, the hope that does not disappoint.
Frequently Asked Questions
Upcoming · Aug 8
St. Dominic