Whitsun & The Octave of Pentecost

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As a relative newcomer to the Ordinariate experience, each Mass is yet another opportunity to become enamoured in the beauty of Divine Worship. Ordinariate Masses make explicit the noble Anglican Patrimony now wed to the Catholic Church.

We are now in the Octave of Pentecost, a relatively new experience for yours truly. The inclusion of this Octave, which is missing from the Ordinary Form, makes complete sense. Pentecost is or should be as well celebrated as Christmas, which has its own octave.


Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman called the breviary offices of Pentecost and its octave perhaps the “grandest” of the liturgical year.

“The Pentecost octave is extremely ancient — developed in the first millennium — and was always seen as ranking beside Christmas and Easter as one of the three great octaves of the liturgical year,” said Peter Kwasniewski, associate professor of theology at Wyoming Catholic College.  

Pentecost used to be particularly well known for being one of the times in the liturgical year for Christian Initiation, based on Acts 2:38-41, and the octave was significant as the neonati appropriately wore white robes (hence the alternative name for Pentecost of ‘White Sunday’, or Whitsun) until the following Saturday.


So, what's an octave? Eight of something. Eight of what? Eight days.

In the Ordinary Form, the number of solemnities accompanied by octaves has been reduced to two: Christmas and Easter. It is easy to understand why Christmas and Easter have octaves. The manifestation of the Word of God and the Resurrection of the same Lord Jesus Christ merit an extended and intensified period of joy that concentrates the attention on the mystery of man's redemption, and which concentrates man's attention on God Who saves us.

The Ordinariate has retained the Octave of Pentecost. Why shouldn't the Holy Spirit be accorded in the entire Church a similar period of jubilation as Christmas and Easter? The Son has returned to the Father. He, the Holy Spirit, makes Christ present among us, in the Holy Eucharist, in and through the word of God (Holy Scripture), in the person of the priest, and in the assembly gathered in Jesus' Name.

Whitsun Week follows the Day of Pentecost, i.e., Whitsunday. Ordinariate and Extraordinary Form Catholics encounter a tremendous treasury of grace by observing Whitsun Week, a.k.a. the Octave of Pentecost. May the observance of the Octave of Pentecost be restored to the Ordinary Form.

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