Pentecost

The Day of Pentecost, also known as 'Whitsunday'

Who is the Holy Spirit? Today we celebrate the great feast of The Day of Pentecost, which is also known as Whitsunday (which comes from White Sunday because of its some-time connection with baptism and the white robes worn for baptism). It ranks as second only to Easter in importance in the Church cycle of celebrations precisely because it marks the all important giving of the Holy Spirit to the followers of Jesus. The Holy Spirit has been referred to as "the forgotten person of the Trinity." So, who is the Holy Spirit? And that's the right question - WHO is the Holy Spirit because he, as Jesus referred to him, is a person. The Holy Spirit is not an "it" though many use that term unknowingly. While there are many other things the Holy Spirit does, his main task is to make Jesus real in our lives and in the Church, and to communicate to us the fulness of who is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is the person of God the Holy Spirit, and as a member of the Trinity, he is equal with God the Son and with God the Father.

Here are a few references from Scripture about the Holy Spirit:

• Mark 1:8 - John the Baptist said that Jesus will "baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
• John 14:26 - "But the Advocate, the HolySpirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you."
• John 16:13 - "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come."
• Acts 1:8 - "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
• Romans 5:5 - "and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
• Romans 8:26 - "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."
• Ephesians 5:18b - "be filled with the Spirit."
• Titus 3:5 - "he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."
• 2 Timothy 1:14 - "Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us."