The Day of Pentecost is the occasion on which pious Jews from all over the new Christian world gathered to celebrate "The Feast of Weeks," probably just months after the crucifixion of Jesus. That Feast was a Jewish festival (all of the first Christians were also Jews) at which first fruits were offered to God. On this day, a miracle occurred: tongues of flame lighted on each person...AND each person spoke their own native tongue but, miraculously, everybody understood everybody else!

The difference it all makes in my life is that on this same day the promised gift of the Holy Spirit was given to the Church (the small Christian faith). I believe that it is that force, the Holy Spirit, that has powered the Church all these two thousand years, kept it going, fed us, strengthened us, supernaturally. Many, in fact, think of Pentecost as the "birth day" of the Church, because it was on that day that we received the gift that has made it all possible.

—The Rev. William A. Kolb