Sunday, May 19, is Pentecost. Mass readings: Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34; 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13; John 20:19-23. Pentecost is a feast about fire, a transformative, refining, ...

1. What does “Pentecost” mean? The word Pentecost is Greek for “50th” (pentecoste) and is derived from the fact that it occurs on the 50th day after Easter Sunday. It is also called Whitsunday, or ...

Pentecost, meaning fifty in Greek, is an extraordinary memorial. The Greek name, little used today, for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, “the Feast of Weeks,” recalls the presence of God coming down in ...