Every year, fifty days after Easter, the Church celebrates Pentecost: the day when, according to the Acts of the Apostles, "a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind" and "tongues as of fire" rested on the disciples: "they were all filled with the Holy Spirit"[1]. Together with Christmas and Easter, Pentecost ranks among the greatest solemnities of the Christian year: with Christmas, Epiphany and the Ascension, it holds the second place in the table of precedence of liturgical days, after the Easter Triduum, the summit of the liturgical year[2]. But a common question remains: why is this feast so important?
The answer can be stated in one sentence: Pentecost is not an appendix added to Easter; it is Easter's fulfillment. The Catechism expresses it precisely: "On the day of Pentecost ... Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit"[3]. Everything Christ accomplished — his incarnation, death, resurrection and ascension — was ordered toward pouring out the Spirit on mankind and bringing human beings into the very life of God. Without Pentecost, Redemption would remain exterior to us; with Pentecost, it becomes interior, written in the heart of every believer.
This article answers another question, more decisive than the details of the narrative (see Pentecost and the birth of the Church): what does Pentecost change — for salvation history, for the Church and for the life of each Christian today?
Pentecost fully reveals the Trinity, opens the Kingdom, transforms fearful men into witnesses, reverses Babel by gathering the peoples, inaugurates a new creation, and continues in every baptized person through confirmation and the seven gifts of the Spirit. Far from being only a memory, it is an event that does not cease.
Why is Pentecost so great a feast?
Christmas celebrates the coming of the Son in the flesh; Easter, his victory over death; Pentecost, the gift of the Spirit who applies that victory to mankind. These feasts are not disconnected episodes but the moments of a single movement: God gives himself, God saves, God dwells within. Pentecost is the goal of that movement, the reason for which the rest was accomplished.
The fulfillment of the Paschal mystery
In the liturgy, Easter is not merely one day but a fifty-day season, and Pentecost is its final day. The Church does not count these weeks as a simple waiting period: she lives them, according to the Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year, as "one single feast day", or better "one great Sunday"[4]: one great Easter that culminates in the outpouring of the Spirit. This is why the Catechism speaks of Pentecost as the moment when "Christ's Passover is fulfilled"[5]: the risen Lord, ascended to the Father, "pours out the Spirit in abundance" from his fullness[6].
Saint Peter gives the key to this interpretation on the day itself. Before the astonished crowd, he quotes the prophet Joel: "In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh"[7]. Pentecost is therefore not an isolated prodigy: it is the fulfillment of a promise running through the whole Old Testament, the sign that the "last days" — the time of the Church — have begun[8].
Fifty days: the seal of Easter
The very name of the feast is a number: pentēkostē, "fiftieth." Acts emphasizes this from the start: "When the day of Pentecost came, at the end of the fifty days, they were all gathered together in one place"[9]. This fifty is not arbitrary. It prolongs the Jewish feast of Shavuot, celebrated seven weeks after Passover: first a harvest festival[10], it had become, in Jewish tradition, the feast commemorating the gift of the Law at Sinai — where the people had arrived "in the third month" after leaving Egypt (Ex 19:1)[11]. The parallel is deliberate: at Sinai, God gave his Law on tablets of stone; at Pentecost, he writes it in hearts by his Spirit.
Between Easter and Pentecost comes the Ascension, on the fortieth day: Christ withdraws from the sight of his disciples in order, as he says, to send them the Advocate. The nine days that follow — from the Ascension (fortieth day) to Pentecost (fiftieth day) —, spent in prayer in the Upper Room with Mary[12], form what tradition likes to call the first novena in history — the trusting expectation of the promised gift, the model of the annual novena before Pentecost prescribed by Leo XIII for the whole Church[13]. Pentecost seals that time: it is the point of arrival, the fiftieth day when the Paschal fullness is finally poured out on the Church.
"It is to your advantage that I go away"
One word of Christ, spoken on the evening of the Last Supper, explains why Pentecost was necessary. To the Apostles saddened by his departure, Jesus says:
"It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you." — Gospel according to Saint John, 16:7[14]
This is one of the most surprising sentences in the Gospel: how could Christ's departure be an advantage? The answer is that the visible presence of Jesus, limited to one place and time, had to give way to an interior and universal presence: that of the Spirit, who can dwell in all hearts at once. Jesus had promised it: "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever"[15], the Holy Spirit who "will teach you everything"[16]. Pentecost is the fulfillment of that promise — and the reason why the Ascension is not a loss but a gain.
What does the gift of the Holy Spirit really change?
The gift of the Spirit does not merely add one grace among others: it transforms those who receive him. The clearest proof is the contrast, only a few weeks apart, between the terrified Apostles of Good Friday and the fearless Apostles of Pentecost.
From locked-in fear to bold witness
Before Pentecost, the disciples remain where "the doors of the place where the disciples were, were locked for fear of the Jews" (Jn 20:19, AELF). Peter, only days earlier, had denied his Master before a servant girl. After Pentecost, this same Peter stands before the crowd in Jerusalem and openly proclaims the crucified and risen Christ — at the risk of his life. The result is immediate: "Those who welcomed his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added"[17].
This reversal has no merely human explanation. Men whom nothing had prepared to face the authorities become, in an instant, witnesses able to preach, heal and finally die for their faith. This is the proper effect of the Spirit, the "power" from on high: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8, JB). Pentecost makes the disciples what they were not: apostles, that is, those who are sent.
But why a Pentecost, if the Spirit had already been given? The same Gospel reports that, already on Easter evening, the Risen Lord had breathed on his disciples: "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22)[18]. For at Pentecost the Spirit is "manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person"[19]: given in the secrecy of the Upper Room on Easter evening, he is manifested publicly at Pentecost, where the Church "was manifested publicly before the multitude"[20].
The Trinity fully revealed, the Kingdom opened
Pentecost also has a significance that is often underestimated: it is the day of the full revelation of God. The Spirit had been given already on Easter evening[21], but until he was manifested "as a divine Person"[22], the Trinity had not been unveiled in its fullness — and the Church had not yet "been manifested publicly before the multitude"[23]. The Catechism states it directly:
"On that day, the Holy Trinity is fully revealed. Since that day, the Kingdom announced by Christ has been open to those who believe in him." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 732[24]
Two things therefore happen at Pentecost. First, humanity finally knows God as he is: Father, Son and Spirit. Second, access to God is opened: by the Spirit, believers "already share in the communion of the Holy Trinity"[25]. What sin had closed, Pentecost reopens. The Spirit brings the world into the "time of the Church", the "Kingdom already inherited though not yet consummated"[26] in which we live.
The New Law written in hearts
At Sinai, the Law was written on stone, external to man and unable by itself to make him good. Scripture had announced something different: "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts"[27]. Pentecost fulfills this prophecy. The New Law of Christians is no longer first of all a code but a presence: the Spirit himself dwelling in the soul. The Catechism, echoing almost word for word Saint Thomas Aquinas's great thesis, puts it this way:
"The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ. It works through charity." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1966[28]
Saint Thomas had stated the principle with decisive clarity: what is principal in the evangelical law is not its written precepts, but "the grace of the Holy Spirit, given through faith in Christ"[29]. In other words, what makes a Christian is not first a morality to follow, but a life received. This is what Pentecost inaugurates: obedience springing from within, "the interior law of charity"[30], because "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us"[31].
Why is Pentecost called the reversal of Babel?
One of the deepest meanings of Pentecost is that it repairs a drama of the origins: the scattering of Babel. The liturgy and the Fathers of the Church saw in the gift of tongues the exact opposite of the confusion of tongues recounted in Genesis.
Babel: pride that scatters
In Genesis 11, "the whole earth had one language" and men undertake to build a tower "with its top penetrating the heavens" in order to make "a name" for themselves (Gen 11:1-9, JB)[32]. This is the project of pride: reaching heaven without God, by human power alone. The punishment corresponds to the excess: "let us confuse their language", says God, and men, no longer understanding one another, scatter over the whole earth. Babel is the symbol of humanity divided by its refusal of God — each person enclosed in his language, interests and ambition.
Pentecost: charity that gathers
At Pentecost, the movement is reversed. Men from every nation — "Parthians, Medes, Elamites..."[33] — hear the Apostles "speaking about God's deeds of power" in their own languages[34]. The diversity of languages, which at Babel separated, becomes here the means of a restored understanding. Saint Augustine fixed this contrast, first in his commentary on the Psalms:
"Through proud men, divided were the tongues; through humble Apostles, united were the tongues." — Saint Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, Psalm 54, 11[35]
He returns to it on Pentecost day: it is the pious humility of the faithful that brings back the diversity of languages to the unity of the Church:
"As the impious pride of men had built a high tower against the Lord, and the human race had justly been divided by tongues, so the pious humility of the faithful has brought back the diversity of their tongues to the unity of the Church; so that what discord had scattered, charity might gather, and the scattered members of the human race, as of one body, might be attached to their one Head, Christ, and then, thus reunited, fused together into the unity of the holy body by the fire of love." — Saint Augustine, Sermon 271 for Pentecost[36]
The point is essential: Pentecost does not abolish languages; it unites them. Christian unity is not the uniformity of an empire or a return to a single language: it is the communion of diverse peoples in one faith and one charity. What discord had scattered, the Spirit gathers into the one Body of Christ[37].
The following table summarizes the reversal worked by Pentecost:
| Dimension | Babel (Genesis 11) | Pentecost (Acts 2) |
|---|---|---|
| Spiritual principle | Pride that wants to climb to heaven without God | Charity received from God that descends from heaven |
| Effect on languages | Confusion: men no longer understand one another | Gift: each hears in his own language |
| Effect on mankind | Scattering over the whole earth | Gathering into one Church |
| Result | Division of humanity | Communion of peoples |
A Church catholic by vocation
This is why the Church has been catholic since Pentecost (CCC 830)[38] — catholic, that is, universal. Pentecost gives her a vocation: to proclaim the Gospel to "every nation under heaven"[39] represented that day in Jerusalem. The Church's mission is not a program added later: it is born from Pentecost itself. "The Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament"[40], the Catechism says. The one Spirit, "who dwells in all", "brings them all back to spiritual unity"[41].
How does Pentecost give birth to a new world?
Pentecost is not only a repair; it is a beginning. The Fathers saw in it nothing less than the firstfruits of a new creation, in which the Spirit does for the soul what the breath of God did, at the dawn of the world, for the first creature.
The firstfruits of the Spirit and the new creation
The Catechism calls the Spirit received the "pledge" or the "firstfruits" of our inheritance (cf. Rom 8:23; 2 Cor 1:21-22)[42]. A firstfruit is the first fruit that announces and guarantees the whole harvest. The gift of the Spirit at Pentecost is therefore the pledge of glory to come: already now it introduces into the believer "the very life of the Holy Trinity"[43]. It is the principle of a new life: not a mere improvement of the old, but a birth from above.
This Spirit enables man to bear fruit — something he could not do by his own strength:
"It is by this power of the Spirit that God's children can bear much fruit ... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 736[44]
Saint Basil summarizes the effect of this gift: "Through communion with himself, the Holy Spirit makes men spiritual, restores them to Paradise, leads them back to the Kingdom of heaven and to adoption as sons, and gives the confidence to call God Father."[45] Pentecost does not merely restore what Adam had lost — an original holiness that was already a "participation in divine life"[46]: with Saint Leo the Great, the Church confesses that the grace of Christ has won us "better" goods than those that the devil's envy caused us to lose[47].
The Holy Spirit, soul of the Church
If Pentecost gives birth to a new world, it is because it gives the Church her vital principle. Saint Augustine compared the role of the Spirit in the Church to that of the soul in the body:
"What the soul is to the body of man, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church." — Saint Augustine, Sermon 267 for Pentecost[48]
The image is exact: a body without a soul is a corpse. The Church, without the Spirit, would be only a human institution, one organization among others. It is the Spirit received at Pentecost that makes her living, that "builds", "animates" and "sanctifies" her[49], uniting her diverse members into one Body. Saint Cyril of Alexandria says the same: "This one and undivided Spirit of himself brings back to unity those who are distinct from one another … and makes all appear as one thing in himself."[50] That is why Pentecost is rightly called the birth of the Church.
Why is Pentecost important for my Christian life today?
Pentecost is not an event reserved for the Apostles nor confined to the past. Through the sacraments, the same Spirit who descended in the Upper Room is given to every Christian. The feast therefore concerns my life directly — in baptism, in confirmation, and in daily conduct.
Confirmation: a personal Pentecost
The sacrament of confirmation is precisely the continuation of Pentecost in the life of the baptized. Already in Acts, the Apostles communicate the Spirit to new believers by the laying on of hands[51].
The Catechism, citing Pope Paul VI, presents confirmation as the sacrament that "in a certain way perpetuates the grace of Pentecost in the Church"[52]. Its effect is unambiguous:
"It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1302[53]
Confirmation does not merely increase an interior grace: it gives "a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ"[54]. In other words, what Pentecost did for Peter — moving him from fear to witness — confirmation does for every Christian. It is, in the proper sense, my personal Pentecost.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
With the Spirit come his gifts, those "permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the promptings of the Holy Spirit"[55]. Tradition, following the prophet Isaiah (Is 11:1-2), counts seven:
"The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord." — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1831[56]
These gifts are not spiritual ornaments: they "complete and perfect the virtues"[57] of the Christian. Where human virtues advance by effort and reason, the gifts make the soul docile to a higher motion, that of the Spirit himself. Through them, Christian life ceases to be mere moral voluntarism and becomes a life led by the Spirit — exactly the mode of life inaugurated by Pentecost. The liturgy of the feast implores them: the sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus asks the Spirit: "To all those who have faith and trust in you, give your seven sacred gifts"[58].
Living according to the Spirit: the fruits
If the gifts dispose the soul, the fruits are its visible maturity. Saint Paul lists them in Galatians, and the Catechism receives them as "perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory"[59]:
"The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, longanimity, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, continence, chastity." — Epistle to the Galatians, 5:22-23, according to the Vulgate, as cited in the Catechism § 1832[60]
Saint Paul's Greek text lists nine; the Latin Vulgate, followed here by the Catechism, distinguishes twelve. This is the most concrete importance of Pentecost: it is measured not by the emotion of a day but by a transformed life. The Christian who allows himself to be led by the Spirit becomes capable of loving, forgiving and persevering in trial — not by his own strength, but because "a spirit of adoption" dwells in him and makes him cry, "Abba! Father!"[61]. This is the proof of sonship itself: "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts"[62].
Why does the Church still await a "new Pentecost"?
The Pentecost of Jerusalem did not exhaust the gift of the Spirit. The Church sees it not as a closed event but as a permanent source, and she never ceases to implore its renewal.
A Pentecost that does not cease
The Catechism insists on the continuity of the gift: by the coming of the Spirit, "and this never ceases," the world enters the time of the Church[63]. Every baptism, every confirmation, every Eucharist, every ordination extends the gesture of the Upper Room: "Through the Church's sacraments, Christ communicates his Holy and sanctifying Spirit to the members of his Body"[64]. Pentecost is therefore not behind us as an anniversary: it is around us and within us, wherever the Spirit acts.
"Renew your wonders in our time"
This is the hope in which the Church prays. When he convoked the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII addressed to God the famous petition:
"Renew your wonders in our time as by a new Pentecost." — John XXIII, apostolic constitution Humanae Salutis, December 25, 1961[65]
This prayer expresses the Church's constant desire: that the Spirit once received be given anew, with renewed strength, to evangelize each age. It joins the sequence sung at Pentecost Mass, which asks the Spirit to come, purify, heal and set ablaze:
"Come, Holy Spirit, into our hearts, and send from heaven above a ray of your light … Wash what is defiled, water what is parched, heal what is wounded." — Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus, Pentecost liturgy[66]
To live Pentecost, then, is not to commemorate a past event: it is to stand, like the Apostles in the Upper Room with Mary, in confident expectation of a Spirit who always wants to come. This prayer also opens a horizon: a new outpouring of the Spirit preparing the era of peace in which his Reign will be lived universally (see The Reign of the Spirit: life in the Divine Will lived universally) — without fixing either date or manner: the end of time is not the end of the world.
What to remember
Pentecost is important because it completes what Christmas and Easter had begun: after giving himself in the flesh and conquering death, God finally comes to dwell in the heart of man. It fulfills Easter in the outpouring of the Spirit[67], fully reveals the Trinity and opens the Kingdom[68].
Its importance unfolds on several levels. For salvation history, it inaugurates the last days and the New Law, "the grace of the Holy Spirit" written in hearts[69]. For the Church, it is her birth — and the Spirit she gives is her soul[70] —, the reversal of Babel by charity[71], the beginning of her universal mission. For each Christian, it continues in confirmation[72], in the seven gifts[73] and in the fruits of the Spirit[74] that transform life.
Finally, Pentecost is not a memory but a source that does not cease[75]. This is why the Church prays without ceasing for "a new Pentecost"[76]: not because another Spirit is needed, but because the same Spirit wants, in every age and every heart, to renew his wonders.
Further reading
- Pentecost and the birth of the Church — the detailed narrative of Acts, the etymology of the feast and Mary's role in the Upper Room.
- The Holy Spirit, charisms and spiritual gifts — the Spirit's action in the life of the Church, his gifts and charisms.
- How to explain the Trinity simply? — the Trinitarian mystery fully revealed at Pentecost.
- Why do Catholics have seven sacraments? — confirmation and the sacraments as permanent channels of the Spirit.
- Why is the resurrection of Jesus essential? — the Paschal summit that Pentecost comes to fulfill.
Notes and References
Acts of the Apostles, 2:1-11 (AELF liturgical translation in the French source article, cited verbatim): "When the day of Pentecost had come ... suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind ... divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them ... All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit." The Greek says literally "the day of Pentecost being fulfilled" (en tô symplêrousthai tên hêmeran tês pentêkostês): "at the end of the fifty days" is the AELF rendering, not a gloss of the article. The list of peoples (Parthians, Medes, Elamites...) appears in Acts 2:9-11.
1 9 33 39Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year, no. 18: the Easter Triduum of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord "is the high point of the entire liturgical year" (official English text: "the high point of the entire liturgical year"). Table of precedence of liturgical days: Pentecost ranks second, with the Nativity of the Lord, Epiphany and the Ascension.
2Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 731: "On the day of Pentecost (at the end of the seven weeks of Easter), Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord, pours out the Spirit in abundance" (cf. Acts 2:33-36). Text checked word for word against the official French edition (vatican.va, IntraText).
3 5 6 19 22 67Universal Norms on the Liturgical Year, no. 22: the fifty days of Eastertide are celebrated "as one feast day", or better "one great Sunday" (official English text: "as one feast day, indeed as one 'great Sunday'").
4Acts of the Apostles, 2:17 (AELF), citing Joel, 3:1-2: "In the last days, God declares, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." Peter interprets Pentecost as the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy.
7Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 732: "On that day, the Holy Trinity is fully revealed. Since that day, the Kingdom announced by Christ has been open to those who believe in him ... By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the 'last days,' the time of the Church, the Kingdom already inherited though not yet consummated."
8 24 25 26 63 68 75Shavuot, first a harvest festival: Ex 23:16; Ex 34:22; Lev 23:15-17; Dt 16:9-10.
10Benedict XVI, Pentecost homily, May 15, 2005: "For Israel, Pentecost – from a harvest festival – had become the feast commemorating the establishment of the covenant at Sinai" (the article's English rendering; English text: "For Israel, Pentecost – celebration of the harvest – had become the celebration marking the conclusion of the Covenant on Mt Sinai").
11Acts of the Apostles, 1:3 (AELF): the Risen Lord presents himself alive "for forty days"; 1:13-14 (AELF): gone up to the Upper Room, "all with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with … Mary the mother of Jesus".
12Leo XIII, encyclical Divinum illud munus on the Holy Spirit, May 9, 1897, no. 13: decree of an annual novena before Pentecost in all parish churches — without the "first novena" formula.
13Gospel according to Saint John, 16:7 (AELF): "It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."
14Gospel according to Saint John, 14:16 (AELF): "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever." The Greek term Paraclete (Παράκλητος) means advocate, defender, consoler.
15Gospel according to Saint John, 14:26 (AELF): "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you."
16Acts of the Apostles, 2:41 (AELF): "Those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added." Cf. also Acts 2:38: "You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
17Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 730: on Easter evening, the Risen Lord gives the Holy Spirit by "breathing" on his disciples (Jn 20:22: "Receive the Holy Spirit").
18 21Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 767: at Pentecost, "the Church was manifested publicly before the multitude" and began the spread of the Gospel among the nations.
20 23Letter to the Hebrews, 8:10 (Jerusalem Bible): "I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts" — text cited in the Catechism § 1965 ("Heb 8:8-10; cf. Jer 31:31-34"). Jeremiah 31:33 reads: "I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts" (AELF liturgical translation).
27Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1966: "The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ. It works through charity; it uses the Sermon on the Mount to teach us what must be done and makes use of the sacraments to give us the grace to do it."
28 69Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Ia-IIae, q. 106, a. 1: "What is principal in the law of the New Testament, and in which its whole power consists, is the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is given through faith in Christ" (id quod est potissimum in lege novi testamenti ... est gratia Spiritus Sancti, quae datur per fidem Christi). Reference edition: trans. J. Tonneau, La loi nouvelle (Ia-IIae, q. 106-108), Éditions du Cerf, 1981. This is the thesis taken up textually by the Catechism, § 1966.
29Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1965: "The New Law or the Law of the Gospel ... is also the work of the Holy Spirit and through him it becomes the interior law of charity" (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:8-10).
30Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 733: "'God is Love' (1 Jn 4:8,16) and love is his first gift, containing all others. 'God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us' (Rom 5:5)."
31Book of Genesis, 11:1-9 (Jerusalem Bible): "the whole earth had one language"; men build "a tower with its top penetrating the heavens" in order to make "a name" for themselves; God says: "let us confuse their language", and scatters them. Patristic tradition reads Pentecost as the inversion of Babel.
32Acts of the Apostles, 2:11 (AELF): "In our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power."
34Saint Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, Psalm 54, 11. Latin text: "Per superbos homines divisae sunt linguae, per humiles Apostolos congregatae sunt linguae" — "Through proud men, divided were the tongues; through humble Apostles, united were the tongues" (the article's English rendering from the Latin; cf. NPNF English translation: "Through proud men, divided were the tongues; through humble Apostles, united were the tongues").
35Saint Augustine, Sermon 271 (for Pentecost), Patrologia Latina vol. 38, col. 1245-1246. It is the pious humility of the faithful (humilis fidelium pietas — the faithful, not the Apostles) that brings back the diversity of languages to the unity of the Church, so that the scattered members may be reunited and "fused into the unity of the holy body by the fire of love" (dilectionis igne conflarentur); cf. Edmund Hill's English translation, Works of Saint Augustine, Sermons III/7 (New City Press). The body of the article gives a faithful English rendering.
36 37 71Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 830: "Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church" (Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Smyrn. 8, 2); the Church "was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of Pentecost".
38Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 738: "The Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament." The paragraph cites Saint Cyril of Alexandria, In Johannem 12 (PG 74, 560-561), on the unity worked by the one Spirit.
40 41Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 735: the Spirit gives the "pledge" or "firstfruits" of our inheritance (cf. Rom 8:23; 2 Cor 1:21-22): "the very life of the Holy Trinity, which is to love as 'God has loved us.'"
42 43Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 736, citing Galatians 5:22-23: "By this power of the Spirit, God's children can bear much fruit ... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."
44Saint Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit (De Spiritu Sancto), 15, 36 (PG 32, 132), cited in the Catechism § 736. Sources Chrétiennes no. 17 bis, Éditions du Cerf.
45Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 375: the original holiness of Adam and Eve was already a "participation in divine life".
46Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 412, citing Saint Leo the Great, serm. 73, 4: the grace of Christ has won us "better" goods than those that the devil's envy caused us to lose.
47Saint Augustine, Sermon 267 (for Pentecost), 4, Patrologia Latina vol. 38, col. 1231. Latin text: "Quod est anima corpori hominis, hoc est Spiritus Sanctus corpori Christi, quod est Ecclesia." — "What the soul is to the body of man, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church."
48 70Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 747: "The Holy Spirit, whom Christ the head pours out on his members, builds, animates, and sanctifies the Church."
49Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John (In Johannem), book 12 (PG 74, 560-561), cited in the Catechism § 738: the one Spirit "brings back to unity those who are distinct from one another ... and makes all appear as one thing in himself."
50Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1288, citing Paul VI, apostolic constitution Divinae Consortium Naturae (August 15, 1971): by laying on hands, the Apostles communicated the gift of the Spirit, a gesture recognized as the origin of confirmation, which "in a certain way perpetuates the grace of Pentecost in the Church" (cf. Acts 8:15-17; 19:5-6; Heb 6:2).
51 52Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1302: "It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost."
53 72Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1303: confirmation "gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ." The paragraph cites Saint Ambrose, De mysteriis 7, 42 (PL 16, 402-403), on the spiritual seal and the seven gifts.
54Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 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."
55Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 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 (cf. Is 11:1-2). They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them."
56 57 73Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus ("Come, Holy Spirit"), liturgical chant of Pentecost Mass, traditionally attributed to Stephen Langton (13th century). French official liturgical translation in the source article: "Viens, Esprit Saint, en nos cœurs ... À tous ceux qui ont la foi et qui en toi se confient, donne tes sept dons sacrés." Text on the website of the Catholic Church in France (eglise.catholique.fr).
58 66Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1832: "The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory." Tradition lists twelve according to Galatians 5:22-23 (Vulgate): "charity, joy, peace, patience, longanimity, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, continence, chastity."
59 60 74Epistle to the Romans, 8:14-15 (AELF): "All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery ... but you have received a spirit of adoption; in him we cry, 'Abba! Father!'"
61Epistle to the Galatians, 4:6 (AELF): "And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'" Cf. Catechism § 742.
62Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 739: "Because the Holy Spirit is the anointing of Christ, it is Christ who, as the head of the Body, pours out the Spirit among his members to nourish, heal, and organize them ... give them life, send them to bear witness. Through the Church's sacraments, Christ communicates his Holy and sanctifying Spirit to the members of his Body."
64John XXIII, apostolic constitution Humanae Salutis (convoking the Second Vatican Council), December 25, 1961, final prayer. Latin text: "Renova aetate hac nostra per novam veluti Pentecostem mirabilia tua." — "Renew your wonders in our time as by a new Pentecost." Published in Acta Apostolicae Sedis 54 (1962), p. 5-13 (prayer p. 13).
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