Sermon by S. Leo the Great: Sermon 1 on Pentecost.

Sermon by S. Leo the Great: Sermon 1 on Pentecost. 

DEARLY beloved, all Catholics know in their hearts that Pentecost is to be esteemed as one of the most important festivals. There is no question but that we owe great reverence to that day which the Holy Spirit has sanctified by his most excellent and wondrous Gift.

FOR this is the tenth day since the Lord ascended high above all heavens to sit down at the right hand of God the Father, and it is the fiftieth  since his Resurrection, whereon  the Lord initiated and made manifest mighty mysteries, binding together the old and new covenants; thereby plainly revealing that grace was foreshadowed by the law, and that the law has been perfected by grace.

FOR as of old, when the Hebrews had been freed from the yoke of the Egyptians, upon the company of believers on the fiftieth day after his Resurrection, in order that the faithful Christian might truly perceive that the mysteries of the Old Testament provide the foundations of the Gospel, and that the second Covenant was established by the same Spirit which had instituted the first.

FROM this day, therefore, the preaching of the Gospel hath sounded forth like a trumpet; from this day the gentle rain of the gifts of the Spirit, the rivers of blessings, have watered all the dry and thirsty desert: for the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the waters, that he might renew the face of the earth; the new flames shone forth to chase away the old darkness with the brilliancy of fiery tongues and the clarity of the Word of God; flaming eloquence is conceived, from which proceeds understanding and the doing away of sins, through the Spirit's power of consuming and enlightening as by fire.