On Sunday, May 31st, CatholicTV.com will offer an online broadcast of the Pentecost Sunday Mass from the Vatican. The Mass will take place in the Cappella Papale of the Vatican Basilica. His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI will preside at the Celebration of the Solemnity of Pentecost.
CatholicTV is a nationally-broadcasted television station headquartered near Boston.
The Mass will be broadcast online at CatholicTV.com on Sunday, May 31st at 1PM Eastern. It will be rebroadcast at 8PM. The Mass will also be broadcast simultaneously on CatholicTV where available. All online broadcasts are available in full-screen.
Pentecost Sunday, which marks the end of the Easter season in the Christian calendar, celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles as the climax of the Good News. On this day, all the benefits of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ rush into the Church through the gift of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described as "the Church’s birthday".
Pentecost is one of the most ancient feasts of the Church, celebrated early enough to be mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (20:16) and St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (16:8). It supplants the Jewish feast of Pentecost, which took place 50 days after the Passover and which celebrated the sealing of the Old Covenant on Mount Sinai.”
