Pope Benedict XVI once said that the Holy Spirit was, in some ways, the neglected Person of the Most Blessed Trinity. His work is almost always invisible – moving the heart and conforming the sons of God to the image of the Son. Yet some of this neglect is not merely an accident of the Holy Spirit’s hidden activity. It is partly a failure of memory.
There was once a time when He was not so quiet: an occasion when His whisper became the roaring whirlwind, and, like the pillar in Exodus, His glory shone in flickering fire. Once, the Church remembered that day of wonder with lingering reverence – the day the hidden life of the Church burst forth before the nations. It is little wonder that the Holy Spirit should be neglected when so little attention is given to the great work of Pentecost. Pentecost was once crowned with an octave like the great feasts of the year – Christmas and Easter – but now it is all but forgotten.
