THE FEAST OF PENTECOST

1. WHAT IS PENTECOST?
2. WHAT ARE THE 7 GIFTS OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT?
3. WHICH GIFT WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE
MORE OF IN YOUR LIFE? WHY?
BEFORE WE BEGIN
 Some symbols for the Holy Spirit are:
 FIRE

 WATER

 WIND

 What do these have in common? (Think of wildfires,

oceans, and strong winds…)
 ELEMENTS
 UNPREDICTABLE
 UNCONTROLLABLE
 ALL-CONSUMING– THEY CAN GO EVERYWHERE
FAST!
WHAT IS PENTECOST?
 50th day after Easter
 The “birthday” of the Church
 Acts of the Apostles chapter 2:
 Story of the original Pentecost
 Jews from all over were gathered in Jerusalem to
celebrate the Jewish feast.
 On that Sunday, ten days after the Ascension of Our
Lord, the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary were
gathered in the Upper Room, where they had seen
Christ after His Resurrection:
 Christ had promised His Apostles that He would sent
His Holy Spirit, and, on Pentecost, they were granted
the gifts of the Spirit.
 The Apostles began to preach the Gospel in all of the
languages that the Jews who were gathered there
spoke, and about 3,000 people were converted and
baptized that day.
ACTS 2:1-11
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven
staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
“Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE
CHURCH!
 On the Feast of Pentecost, special things
happen!;
 The Holy Spirit comes down
 Christ's mission is completed
 The New Covenant is inaugurated
 St. Peter (the first pope) was already the leader and
spokesman for the Apostles on Pentecost Sunday
1 COR 12:3B-7, 12-13
Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy
Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the
same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one
body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT

 WISDOM
 UNDERSTANDING

 COUNSEL

 FORTITUDE

 KNOWLEDGE

 PIETY

 FEAR OF THE LORD

WISDOM
 Wisdom is the first and highest gift of the Holy
Spirit
 It is the perfection of faith

 Through wisdom, we come to value what we

believe through faith
 The truths of Christian belief are more important
than the things of this world
 Wisdom helps us to love Creation for the sake of
God, rather than just loving Creation for its own
sake
 Creation is a gift from God
 At the same time, we must care for Creation
UNDERSTANDING
 Understanding allows us to grasp, at least in a
limited way, the very essence of the truths of the
Catholic Faith
 Through understanding, we become certain about
our beliefs
COUNSEL
 Counsel is the perfection of the cardinal virtue of
prudence
 Prudence can be practiced by anyone, but counsel
is supernatural
 Through this gift, we are able to judge how best
to act almost by intuition—the gut feeling inside
of us that guides us in life
 Because of the gift of counsel, we don’t need to be
afraid of standing up for the truths of the Faith,
because the Holy Spirit will guide us in defending
those truths
FORTITUDE
 Fortitude is both a gift of the Holy Spirit and a
cardinal virtue
 Fortitude gives us the strength to follow through
on the actions suggested by the gift of counsel
 Fortitude is sometimes called courage, but it goes
beyond “normal” courage
 Fortitude is the virtue of the martyrs that allows
them to suffer death rather than to give up our
Christian Faith
KNOWLEDGE

 Knowledge is NOT the same as Wisdom and

Understanding
 Like wisdom, knowledge is the perfection of faith

 BUT although wisdom gives us the desire to judge

all things according to the truths of the Catholic
Faith, knowledge is the actual ability to do so
Like counsel, it is aimed at our actions in this life
 In a small way, knowledge helps us to see the
situations and road signs of our life the way that
God sees them
 Through this gift of the Holy Spirit, we can
determine God's purpose for our lives
PIETY
 Piety is the perfection of the virtue of religion
 Religion means a “binding together” of people in
faith
 “Religion” refers to the willingness to worship
and to serve God
 Piety gives us a desire to worship God and to
serve God out of love
FEAR OF THE LORD
 No other gift of the Holy Spirit is so
misunderstood
 Fear of the Lord confirms the theological virtue of
hope
 It doesn’t mean that you’re “afraid” God is going
to do something bad
 This gift of the Holy Spirit gives us the desire not
to offend God
 It makes us certain that God will supply us the
grace that we need in order to keep from
offending Him
 Our desire not to offend God is out of love
JN 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples
were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his
hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them
and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
 Do the words Jesus says in this passage sound
familiar?
 The priest says them in Mass!

 After Jesus dies, He sends the Holy Spirit, the

Third Person of the Trinity, to remind the
disciples of what Jesus has taught them AND to
teach them new things
 The Holy Spirit is with us today, guiding us in
many ways!
 Jesus “breathes” on them the Holy Spirit
 Wind is a symbol for the Spirit
 God also breathes life into the first human in Genesis
AND NOW… PENTECOST IN 2
MINUTES!