When I was a young altar server at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Toronto (OLPH– Old Ladies playing hockey) I remember how pitiful the Easter Vigil had become. (This was in the 1950’s)

  It was held not after dark, as now, but Saturday  morning. Very few people attended. Besides myself and the presiding priest there were only a handful of participants.

Now post the Vatican II Liturgical reforms The Easter Vigil is the high point of the Church year.  Today, Around the world catechumens  rivaling in numbers  the vision of Revelation  7 from every “tribe and tongue and people and nation are welcomed to the church, given new life by water and the Spirit, and then sent forth to proclaim the Kingdom and heal. 

But how is it that few of us know about, or consider celebrating the vigil of Pentecost?

Let me tell you a story about a struggling city parish in the United States who decided to  make a week long vigil between Ascension Sunday and Pentecost. Their story might inspire and motivate us to change our ways. This parish was slated for closure. Even their pastor thought they should close.  However a few of the parishioners went to see the  Bishop about getting a reprieve and to find out the conditions for staying open.  He challenged them to a:increase their numbers, b: demonstrate a variety of ministries, and c: pay their bills.

Like the fearful band of  apostles,  the other disciples– including many women,  Mary the  mother of Jesus and probably his Aunt  who St. John mentions attended the crucifixion  (John 19: 25), this  small parish remnant came together each night to pray and ponder the  Pentecost story.

Did they uncover it’s origins as a harvest feast that evolved into a  celebration of the Sinai covenant 50 days after Passover?  Did they ponder the miracle of the languages overcoming the Tower of Babel story where human language was confused when humanity refused to fan out and settle the earth? Did they think about the parallel between the overshadowing of Mary by the Spirit bringing about the incarnation, and the  overshadowing of the disciples bringing about the birth of the Church, the body of  Christ?

I was not there and so can’t say what exactly went on. This I know. They  followed the Lord’s injunction to remain in the city and await theempowerment of the Spirit. The Spirit did not disappoint. 

Ten years later this is a thriving parish once again.

What if next year we did the same and made the week between Ascension and Pentecost a  time of prayer ending with a celebration of the Vigil Mass?  But why wait that long!

What if we paid more attention to the double epiclesis, the calling down of the Spirit in every Eucharist.  First to “make holy our gifts of bread and wine … so that they may become for us the Bodyand Blood of Christ", and secondly that  “we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit.”  In fact, since Vatican II the Holy Spirit is invoked in every sacrament with the laying on of hands—inmarriage we leave that to the couple themselves!! 

So we don’t have to wait for next year, or the Next Pentecost. As the Acts of the Apostles reveals,  the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus,  the Spirit of God the Father, is ready to Fall upon gentile and Jew, male and female, slave and free anywhere, any time,–even before the sacraments are offered. For example, check out the Cornelius story that many Biblical scholars call the Gentile Pentecost in Acts, chapter 10:44 where Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit before Baptism was offered them!   Always be ready, then, for the Spirit's surprises.