Pentecost and Season after Pentecost (Ordinary Time), Year A (2017, 2020, 2023, etc.)
The word Pentecost comes from the Greek meaning fiftieth day. This was the Greek name for the Hebrew Feast of Weeks, which took place fifty days after Passover. The Hebrew festival commemorated the calling of the Hebrew people into covenant with God at Mount Sinai. The new Christians kept this name because this was the same day the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles. The church saw this as the beginning of a new covenant relationship between the followers of Jesus and God. This new relationship is summarized by the prophet Jeremiah, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
Pentecost and Season after Pentecost (Ordinary Time), Year B (2018, 2021, 2024, etc.)
We begin the season with two Feast days: Pentecost, followed by Trinity Sunday. Then we move on to the long season known as Ordinary Time, which runs through Christ the King Sunday. As we take this journey, nourished by the scriptures appointed for the season and empowered by our baptisms, we are invited to be on the lookout for all the blessings found in the ordinary – to see God at work here and now. And we are compelled to share our blessings with others.
Pentecost and Season after Pentecost (Ordinary Time), Year C (2016, 2019, 2022, etc.)
We remain Easter people, now with the wind of the Holy Spirit in our sails. Our task for the months ahead in this season of Ordinary Time, which extends to the end of November, is to look at what Jesus so tenaciously taught his disciples and see what is in these teachings for us as we carry out the work we have been given to do. Jesus promised his disciples a helper, an Advocate, who would stand with them making the work possible. This same helper, the Holy Spirit, hovers over us still eager to quench the fire of fear and replace it with the powerful energy of love.