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Pentecost Sunday - Vigil Mass
May 24, 2026
1. Genesis 11:1-9 (At the Mass one of these fourreadings is used.)
The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words.
While the people were migrating in the east,
they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
They said to one another,
“Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.”
They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar.
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city
and a tower with its top in the sky,
and so make a name for ourselves;
otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.”
The Lord came down to see the city and the tower
that the people had built.
Then the Lord said: “If now, while they are one people,
all speaking the same language,
they have started to do this,
nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do.
Let us then go down there and confuse their language,
so that one will not understand what another says.”
Thus the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth,
and they stopped building the city.
That is why it was called Babel,
because there the Lord confused the speech of all the world.
It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth.
Moses went up the mountain to God.
Then the Lord called to him and said,
“Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob;
tell the Israelites:
You have seen for yourselves how I treated the Egyptians
and how I bore you up on eagle wings
and brought you here to myself.
Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant,
you shall be my special possession,
dearer to me than all other people,
though all the earth is mine.
You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.
That is what you must tell the Israelites.”
So Moses went and summoned the elders of the people.
When he set before them
all that the Lord had ordered him to tell them,
the people all answered together,
“Everything the Lord has said, we will do.”
On the morning of the third day
there were peals of thunder and lightning,
and a heavy cloud over the mountain,
and a very loud trumpet blast,
so that all the people in the camp trembled.
But Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God,
and they stationed themselves at the foot of the mountain.
Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke,
for the Lord came down upon it in fire.
The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace,
and the whole mountain trembled violently.
The trumpet blast grew louder and louder, while Moses was speaking,
and God answering him with thunder.
When the Lord came down to the top of Mount Sinai,
he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain.
The hand of the Lord came upon me,
and he led me out in the spirit of the Lord
and set me in the center of the plain,
which was now filled with bones.
He made me walk among the bones in every direction
so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain.
How dry they were!
He asked me:
Son of man, can these bones come to life?
I answered, “Lord God, you alone know that.”
Then he said to me:
Prophesy over these bones, and say to them:
Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
Thus says the Lord God to these bones:
See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life.
I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you,
cover you with skin, and put spirit in you
so that you may come to life and know that I am the Lord.
I, Ezekiel, prophesied as I had been told,
and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise;
it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone.
I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them,
and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them.
Then the Lord said to me:
Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man,
and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord God:
From the four winds come, O spirit,
and breathe into these slain that they may come to life.
I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them;
they came alive and stood upright, a vast army.
Then he said to me:
Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.
They have been saying,
“Our bones are dried up,
our hope is lost, and we are cut off.”
Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord God:
O my people, I will open your graves
and have you rise from them,
and bring you back to the land of Israel.
Then you shall know that I am the Lord,
when I open your graves and have you rise from them,
O my people!
I will put my spirit in you that you may live,
and I will settle you upon your land;
thus you shall know that I am the Lord.
I have promised, and I will do it, says the Lord.
Thus says the Lord:
I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.
Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
your young men shall see visions;
even upon the servants and the handmaids,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.
And I will work wonders in the heavens and on the earth,
blood, fire, and columns of smoke;
the sun will be turned to darkness,
and the moon to blood,
at the coming of the day of the Lord,
the great and terrible day.
Then everyone shall be rescued
who calls on the name of the Lord;
for on Mount Zion there shall be a remnant,
as the Lord has said,
and in Jerusalem survivors
whom the Lord shall call.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord, my God, you are great indeed!
You are clothed with majesty and glory,
robed in light as with a cloak.
How manifold are your works, O Lord!
In wisdom you have wrought them all --
the earth is full of your creatures;
bless the Lord, O my soul! Alleluia.
Creatures all look to you
to give them food in due time.
When you give it to them, they gather it;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
Brothers and sisters:
We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
and not only that, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
For in hope we were saved.
Now hope that sees is not hope.
For who hopes for what one sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.
In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God’s will.
On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.’” He was speaking about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. For the Spirit had not yet been given,e because Jesus had not yet been glorified. (Berean Standard Bible)
We are so familiar with the readings for Pentecost Sunday, I thought it might be interesting instead to look at the readings for the Vigil Mass of the evening before. They are chosen as background to the event and to say they are exciting would be an understatement. You might like to read through all these first since they open up a wide vista essential to understanding the Pentecost event.
(The readings for the Sunday can be found at https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052426-Day)
It is common to say that Pentecost is the birthday of the church, but I wonder if that is an appropriate comment for this day's celebration? The readings of the Vigil Mass sketch the framework of God's New Creation on a vast canvas.
1. The scene is set with the separation of peoples as a result of their vain, presumptuous attempt to build a tower that would reach to heaven. And then begins the healing...
2. Coming down on the mountain in a cloud God declares his intention to make the Israelites his own people, "a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." The people respond willingly, pledging to do "everything the Lord has said.”
3. But over time their willingness wears thin, until they are more like a heap of dried bones than God's people. The prophet is instructed to pray: "From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life."
4. Another prophet tells of "the coming of the day of the Lord, the great and terrible day. Then everyone shall be rescued who calls on the name of the Lord."
In the New Testament reading Paul expressly speaks of a new birthing, "all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies."
And in the Gospel passage, Jesus speaks of the Spirit coming forth like a fountain of water from within his body. John adds, to round out the scene, that the Spirit had not yet been given "because Jesus had not yet been glorified." That glorification came for Jesus in the total surrender of himself to the Father on the cross.
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In reading through these, perhaps more than once, maybe some phrase will catch your attention. You can stay with it, see where it leads... or move on. Allow the mind to take in the vast scope of the setting, designed to embrace the whole history of humankind. The outpouring of the Spirit is a revitalising of the family God has created for herself. Why do we find that hard to believe?
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Another exercise for Pentecost could be to look at the different symbols for the Spirit that are found throughout the bible. We are familiar with the dove but the primary one might be the wind. It features prominently in the experience the apostles had but also in the first lines of the bible - Genesis 1:1-2:
In the beginning God formed the heavens and the earth. And the earth was desolation and emptiness, and darkness over the face of the deep: and the spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. (SLT)
I still remember the day in Scripture class when the lecturer gave us a taste of the Hebrew poetry here. "Desolation and emptiness" in the original are "to-hoo wa-bo-hoo" - sounds to send shiver down the spine.
"And the Spirit hovered over the face of the deep," or perhaps brooded like a clucky hen. Or, if you take the original word ruah meaning breath or wind you might want to say "God blew softly to ruffle the surface of the waters."
Always to keep in mind is that the image speaks of gentle action, though undoubtedly purposeful and forceful. For us, the transformation being worked by the Spirit is not done with violence, by revolution, but gently by persistent enlivening.
The next image is recorded in the Tower of Babel story where the development of different languages is seen as a constraint to stop humankind becoming over-confident. In the renewed world at Pentecost the Spirit poured out as a healing remedy overcomes this language barrier. As education and communications improve we gradually become more understanding of one another. Currently we are in the middle of a great migration, forcing us to push through language barriers and reach out to others with understanding, no matter how uncomfortable this may be at first.
Fire and water are the most powerful images the Scriptures use when speaking of the Holy 'Spirit whom we cannot see. A fire that blazes without destroying the bush it burns in: that was the phenomenon that first caught the attention of Moses. Jesus, in Luke's gospel (12:49), said: "I have come to set the world on fire and how I wish it were already ablaze", a fire that would not destroy but cleanse, refine and give life new vigour. A fire of love blazing in every heart, expressed in care for our every sister and brother. Flames of that fire appeared above the head of each one present on that occasion when the Spirit came in a mighty wind. Why individual flames, unless to say that the communal event is real insofar as the individual is inflamed with that spirit. It is essential we each do our part.
Finally, water - the very stuff of life. Water springing from a rock, as happens where a seam in the rocks breaks the surface. Water, our most essential nourishment, for drinking, for watering plants for food, and for a thousand uses from washing our bodies to mixing concrete to make our houses. So the Spirit in baptism, at the very start of life in Christ, cleanses and invigorates.
In the gospel passage for the Vigil (above): On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘Streams of living water will flow from within him.'
Living a spiritual life involves awareness; perhaps that is all it is - a life lived in conscious awareness of the Spirit in us, in others, in the world. Awareness of the Spirit of Life streaming from the Human God to communicate Divine Life to each and every one. We too are channels of that flood of life pouring out. In every encounter, when we give something of ourselves we give the Spirit too.
COME, Holy Ghost,
send down those beams,
which sweetly flow in silent streams
from Thy bright throne above.
O come, Thou Father of the poor;
O come, Thou source of all our store,
come, fill our hearts with love.
O Thou, of comforters the best,
O Thou, the soul's delightful guest,
the pilgrim's sweet relief.
Rest art Thou in our toil, most sweet
refreshment in the noonday heat;
and solace in our grief.
O blessed Light of life Thou art;
fill with Thy light the inmost heart
of those who hope in Thee.
Without Thy Godhead nothing can,
have any price or worth in man,
nothing can harmless be.
Lord, wash our sinful stains away,
refresh from heaven our barren clay,
our wounds and bruises heal.
To Thy sweet yoke our stiff necks bow,
warm with Thy fire our hearts of snow,
our wandering feet recall.
Grant to Thy faithful, dearest Lord,
whose only hope is Thy sure word,
the sevenfold gifts of grace.
Grant us in life Thy grace that we,
in peace may die and ever be,
in joy before Thy face.
Amen. Alleluia.
Translation by John Austin (1613-1669).