The Day of Pentecost ends the Easter Season – it is the culmination of the Great Fifty Days of the Easter season.
Here is a reflection on the collect/opening prayer for the Day of Pentecost.
Here are suggestions that may be incorporated into a Day of Pentecost service.
Although the next time some Christians will hear reference to Ordinary Time may very well be June 13 which begins the 11th week in Ordinary (ie. “counting” – from “ordinal”) Time, Monday May 24 in fact is Monday in the 8th Ordinary Week. The 6th Ordinary Week began February 14, and the 7th Ordinary Week is not used this year (some years skip a week – why? is another blog post). IMO suggestions to use the collect for the Day of Pentecost on the days following should be ignored as it completely undermines the renewal of the Easter Season as fifty days concluding with the feast of the Day of Pentecost.
If you need a collect during this week, use the one appointed for the 8th Ordinary Week.
If you appreciate the badges I have produced for your blogsite or website, you can find HTML for three different options here.
The image above is by Duccio di Buoninsegna (b. ca. 1255, Siena, d. 1319, Siena). That website states
In the Pentecost Duccio goes back to traditional iconographic schemes and includes the Virgin, of whom no mention is made in the Acts of the Apostles, the source of the episode.
I think this goes too far. Acts 1:13-14 has, ” When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.” (my emphasis). Acts 2:1 then continues, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
In with the comments, please also remember to feel free to add links and suggestions for hymns, prayers, etc. for the Day of Pentecost.
This will be the last official class for my young students; I have explained to them that we extinguishe the Paschal Chandelier because now we carry the flame of Christ to the world. Each kid will wear a red shirt for Pentecost (one is making a flame hat for himself!) And the will sing the alleluia before the Gospel! This may not seem like much but if u knew our little church, you would know this is a big deal!!! Alleluia! !!
Oh, THOSE kinds of suggestions. I was going to recommend *everyone* wear red taffeta ballroom gowns for Pentecost.
Just want to say thanks for the Penecost service suggestion. I used the lighting of small candles from the Pascal candle straight after communion the children gathered gave the candles out then I used a lit one from the pascal candle to light the candles on the end of the rows and then they lit each others candels around the congregation. I then prayed for them and used the post communion prayers from Carol Hughes Book doing Liturgy in Season. It was amazing and I received lots of positive comments afterwards. Thanks for the ideas you do a great job.