Trinity Sunday and The Beginning of The Sundays After Pentecost

It's Trinity Sunday - in both the traditional and the newfangled calendars. The connection ends there. In the traditional calendar, it's the beginning of the "Sundays after Pentecost." In the newfangled it'll be "Sundays in Ordinary Time."

We've discussed this before. We bring it up again as a reminder. Pentecost is a much bigger deal than our current crew seems to think. Well, perhaps they think it. But actions speak louder than words. And by taking away the Octave, effectively "demoting" Pentecost, their actions belie its importance.

So if you're not already "connected" with the Traditional Calendar, you may be unknowingly getting sucked into this (whether consciously or not) undermining of this great event in the history of our Holy Catholic Church.

By way of additional reminder, it was Pentecost when Jesus's disciples had their minds fully opened to exactly Who Our Lord is and what He wanted from them. Read the Acts of the Apostles. You'll see that they've been disabused of any residual belief that Jesus intended to become some sort of political ruler who would restore Israel as a political entity in the face of Roman occupation.

Indeed, He had already predicted the destruction of the Temple - something that occurred not long after His Ascension. The uprising of the Jews against Rome brought on this destruction.

So with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they were inflamed not to political or military revolt against Rome, but to the spreading of the Gospel. And in this spirit, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John took to recording what they considered the key events in the life of Jesus Christ, their Lord and Redeemer. 

The Gospels tells us Who Our Lord really is. They communicate His words and portray His actions. If we take the time to read, to listen, to meditate on the words of the Gospels, we can come to know - and, of course love - this Jesus Christ Who once walked amongst us, and Who remains amongst us now, in this Present Moment.

If we were properly catechized, we know that the Bible is the Word of God. We learned that the Holy Spirit inspired those who wrote the words we read today. This extends all the way back to Genesis, through the Old Testament. And with Pentecost, the Holy Spirit recharged His Divine Inspiration. In this, He renews the face of the earth as we pray in our "Pentecost Prayer":

"Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle in them the First of Thy Love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth." 

And, indeed, as we all know, those disciples were indeed renewed and did indeed renew the face of the earth. They did so at great risk, with many of them martyred as a reward for their efforts. And that same Divine Inspiration would remain and renew generations - centuries worth - of saints who would continue the work of the original disciples, again, at great risk, with many dying as martyrs to the Faith.

So let's duly celebrate this great day, Trinity Sunday. But let's also remind ourselves that we now enter into those "Sundays after Pentecost" that our Holy Church recognized for century after century for all the right reasons. It matters not that the newfangled calendar switched off "Sundays after Pentecost" and flipped over to "Sundays in Ordinary Time." These are still, one way or another Sundays after Pentecost. 

If our faith remains secure and our minds, hearts, and souls were renewed on Pentecost Sunday, we can continue to recall Pentecost Sunday after Sunday from now until the 1st Sunday of Advent, the beginning of our next Liturgical Year.

So Happy Trinity Sunday! And wishes for blessed Sunday's after Pentecost !