The Church Year: May 27, 2012

Today is Pentecost Sunday The liturgical color is red.

Saints & Celebrations:

On May 27, in the Ordinary Form, we celebrate St. Augustine of Canterbury, bishop. It is an optional memorial.

In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Bede the Venerable, OSB, confessor and doctor of the Church, who died in A.D. 735. It is a Class III day.

Also in the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. John I, pope and martyr, who died in A.D. 526. This celebration is a commemoration.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Augustine of Canterbury, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. Bede, you can click here.

If you’d like to learn more about St. John I, you can click here.

For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.

Readings:

To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.

Or you can click play to listen to them:

Devotional Information:

According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:

Pentecost Sunday

156. Eastertide concludes with Pentecost Sunday, the fiftieth day, and its commemoration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles (cf. Acts 2, 1-4), the Church’s foundation, and the beginning of its mission to all nations and peoples. The protracted celebration of the vigil Mass has a particular importance in cathedrals and some parishes, since it reflects the intense persevering prayer of the Christian community in imitation of the Apostles united in prayer with Mother of Jesus.

The mystery of Pentecost exhorts us to prayer and commitment to mission and enlightens popular piety which is a “continued sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. He arouses faith, hope and charity, in the hearts [of the faithful] and those ecclesial virtues which make popular piety valuable. The same Spirit ennobles the numerous and varied ways of transmitting the Christian message according to the culture and customs of all times and places.”

The faithful are well used to invoking the Holy Spirit especially when initiating new undertakings or works or in times of particular difficulties. Often they use formulas taken from the celebration of Pentecost (Veni, Creator Spiritus; Veni, Sancte Spiritus) or short prayers of supplication (Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur). The third glorious mystery of the Rosary invites the faithful to meditate on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In Confirmation they are conscious of receiving the Spirit of wisdom and counsel to guide and assist them; the Spirit of strength and light to help them make important decisions and to sustain the trials of life. The faithful are also aware that through Baptism their bodies become temples of the Holy Spirit to be respected and honored, even in death, and they know that the body will be raised up on the last day through the power of the Holy Spirit.

While the Holy Spirit gives access to communion with God in prayer, he also prompts us towards service of our neighbour by encountering him, by reconciliation, by witness, by a desire for justice and peace, by renewal of outlook, by social progress and missionary commitment. In some Christian communities, Pentecost is celebrated as a “day of intercession for the missions.”