Whitsunday: Feast of Pentecost
Whitsunday: Feast of Pentecost
Sunday, June 8
8 am | Holy Eucharist Rite I
*Nursery Care is available from 9am to noon
10:30 am | Solemn High Mass Rite II with Procession & Station at the Font
We are honored to welcome guest celebrant & preacher, the Rev'd Kelley Hudlow, Instructor of Preaching, Bexley Seabury Seminary.
Pentecost, or Whitsunday, is the remembrance of Jesus’ promise: “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you” (John 14:18). Pentecost is the second great festival of the Christian year, celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit. “Whitsunday” was probably originally “White Sunday,” for the white robes worn by baptismal candidates. Pentecost served as an alternative to the Great Vigil of Easter for baptisms. From as early as the 4th century, the Church observed this day as the culmination of the fifty days of Eastertide.
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Come, Creator Spirit,
Visit your souls,
Fill with heavenly grace
The hearts you have created.
You who are called Helper,
Gift of God most high,
Fount of life, fire, charity,
And spiritual unction.
You, seven-fold gift,
Finger of God’s right hand,
You were duly promised by the Father,
Enriching throats with speech.
Kindle light in our minds,
Infuse love in our hearts;
The weaknesses of our bodies
Strengthen with perpetual power.
Repel the enemy far away,
And peace bestow on us continually:
So with you, the leader, preceding us,
We may shun all evil.
Grant us, through you, may we know the Father,
And know also the Son,
And you are the Spirit of both;
May we trust at all times.
This hymn to the Holy Spirit is one of the most celebrated in Latin hymnody, surviving for over a thousand years with both text and melody intact. It's attributed to Rabanus Maurus (ca. 780–856), a prominent cleric of the Carolingian era who studied under Alcuin of Tours and later became Abbot of Fulda and Archbishop of Mainz. He was part of the remarkable circle of scholar-clerics who flourished under Charlemagne and his successors.
The Rev’d Peter Alan Helman, Rector
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
1024 12th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35205
Office: (205) 251-7898
St. Andrew’s is a parish in the Diocese of Alabama, and our mission is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ both at the altar and in the street.