Pentecost 2023

Pentecost (“Whitsunday”) is the third great feast of Christianity after Christmas and Easter. It commemorates the Holy Spirit coming into the world on “tongues of fire.” From the second chapter of Acts:

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

The liturgical color is red, symbolic of the spiritual fire that swept through that long-ago assembly.

It was the new rector's first Pentecost, and the calendar wasn't helping. Pentecost Sunday 2023 fell in the middle of the Memorial Day weekend, and attendance was sparse.

The lack of numbers did not seem to dampen the enthusiasm of those who were present. Perhaps they took comfort from Matthew 18:

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.