Pentecost: The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit


On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, 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. (Acts 2:36)

In the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Christ's paschal mystery was brought to completion. The Holy Spirit prepares us with His grace in order to draw us to Christ. He manifests the risen Lord to us, opening our minds. He makes present the mystery of Christ. And, he reconciles us, bringing us into communion with God. St. Thomas Aquinas says that the Holy Spirit interiorly perfects our spirit, communicating to it a new dynamism so that it refrains from evil for love. With the Holy Spirit within us "it is quite natural for people who had been absorbed by the things of this world to become entirely otherworldly in outlook and for cowards to become people of great courage" (St. Cyril of Alexandria).

~Excerpted from the Magnificat, May 2012, Volume 14, 3.

"Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the Kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call God 'Father' and to share in Christ's grace, called children of light and given a share in eternal glory" (St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, 15,36).

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