Easter

The sound of Alleluias fills the 50 days of Easter Sunday to Pentecost as we give thanks for the gift of our salvation. The Easter Triduum recalls the passion and resurrection of Christ in the sacred journey from Holy Thursday to Easter Vigil. "Dying he destroyed our death. Rising he restored our life."

Sunday Readings and Backgrounds

Previous Next

Pentecost Sunday

Reading I : Acts 2:1-11

All were filled with the Spirit!

For the people of Israel, Pentecost originally had been a festival celebrating the wheat harvest and later it was associated with the covenant at Sinai and the exodus event.
To remember this, Jews went to the temple in Jerusalem on the feast to offer sacrifices to God. That is why Jews from all parts of the world were gathered there in Jerusalem when the Spirit came upon the disciples.
In today’s story of the first Christian Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends on the disciples and the Church is born.

Reading II : 1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13

We are one Body in Christ.

In his first letter to the community in Corinth, Paul stressed that God’s gifts were given to serve and build the community.
Paul compared the Christian community to the human body.
A person becomes a member of this body in Baptism.

Gospel : John 20:19-23

Receive the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel of John the word Peace appears five times and three of them occur in the form of Jesus’ greeting, “Peace be with you”.
After his greeting in today’s passage, Jesus breathed new life on the frightened disciples, and they received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The disciples were entrusted with the mission of forgiving sins.