Pentecost

[Paul Mackin]

Enjoyed Tom S's post, particularly the various functions of
the Holy Spirit.

Consulted my _A New Cathecism_  (Dutch)--no longer new but
imprimatur-ed by Cardinal Alfrink in  '62--to find that Pentecost
really IS 50 days after Easter, the 40 days Tom mentions applying
to the days of Lent (excluding Sundays), as well as the interval between the
Resurrection (Easter) and the Ascension (into Heaven), and maybe other time
periods as well. Apparently the whole period between Easter and
Pentacost (when green is featured as Tom mentions) is sometimes
referred to as Pentecost. (Just had a coughing fit--that old book is really
dusty--it had been sitting next to _The New Left Reader_--Oh how MY
fortunes have changed)

Also the Liturgical Year seems to START on Pentecost, not Easter as I
vaguely had remembered. The book doesn't actually say this, but in
reading between the lines Pentecost seems to sort of be the Birthday
of the Church.

Wonder if the liturgical color scheme carries over in any way
to GR.

			P.

----------
> From: Tom Stanton <tstanton at nationalgeographic.com>
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Pentecost
> Date: Thursday, January 30, 1997 2:06 AM
> 
> Paul Mackin wrote:
> > That 50 days into the liturgical year as reaching the majority needed
> > to grasp power (suggested by Heikki) hadn't occurred to me.
> 
> Maybe that old Roman Catholic backround of mine is rusty, but
> isn't it 40 days/nights for most stuff? I recall Pentacost &
> green garments lasting a long time, more than 50 days (7+ weeks).
> If memory serves, you get advent (24 days in purple), Christmas
> & the Epithany (30 days in white), Lent (40 day in black),
> Easter (40 days in white) and Pentacost (green) making up most 
> of the rest. I know I'm missing a liturgical season or two in here
> somewhere...
> 
> > Don't know much of Joachim's Trinitarian theory of history but do
> > remember that in the time of the Holy Spirit the tired old forms
> > dating from the Father and the Son can be expected to be  replaced
> > by vital new ones. In other words, the Counterforce.
> 
> In the bad old Latin mass days the Holy Spirit was a divine 
> messenger who had the work horse role of impregnating divine
> virgins, topping off apostles with tongues of fire, et. al., but
> after the Ecumetical(sp?) Council Das Boird became a kind of channeler
> that eventually spawned the Pentacostal Christians who spoke in tongues
> and were possessed of the spirit as were the apostles (knew a few in
> an another time). Still a serious Catholic sub cult in some places.
> 
> > Not to carry this too far, I wonder if "American Pie" (apple most
> > likely) doesn't have previously unexplored meaning.
> > The three men I admire most,
> > The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
> > Just caught the last train for the coast,
> > The day the music died.
> 
> Well...I don't think Don McLean was going Pentacostal here...
> just a great line.