A Weekly Bible Study - Acts 2:1-11

Pentecost Sunday
 From its first words, our reading from Acts brings us to a very festive celebration for first-century Jews like the disciples of Christ. Acts tells us they gathered together on that day to celebrate the harvest feast of Jewish Pentecost, a feast for giving up to God the first fruits of the spring harvest and for remembering the birth of Israel as a people at Mt. Sinai, when God revealed the Torah to Moses.

What an appropriate occasion for the birth of our Church!  Did the disciples ever imagine what would happen next? Would you yourself have believed it?

A driving wind and fire filled the room! A terrifying sight, don’t you think? The sound of a great rush of wind heralded a new birth for God’s people; a new creation descends upon Jerusalem.

The fire comes to rest on each of those gathered.  Earlier Luke tells us that the group, numbering about 120, included the apostles, Jesus’ mother, other women and his brothers.


The Spirit has filled this community of believers “enabling them to proclaim” the Good News in their own language and driving them (us!) to fulfill Jesus’ commission to be his “witnesses ,,, to the ends of the earth.”

Joining hearts and spirits, this gathering called “church” can now proclaim with one voice:  Come Holy Spirit!


The author, Ms. Barbara Gawle, leads Bible studies at her parish, Incarnation Church of Wethersfield, CT. She is a CBS graduate and the 2012 recipient of the Biblical School's highest award, The Lawrence Boadt Memorial Medal.