Hey kids, did you know that today is a birthday? Yes, today is a very important birthday, one that we sometimes forget about. But in order to understand why today is a birthday, I need to tell you a story. 

This story is kind of incredible because some things happen in this story that don’t make any sense, but it really happened! This is a story where…

• There’s a noise like a really, really strong wind… you know how it sounds when it’s really windy outside? It was loud, but the weird thing is, there was no wind, just the sound of the wind.
• This is also a story where there is fire that floats in the air, but it doesn’t burn anyone.
• And in this story people can suddenly speak different languages they could never speak before.

So, here’s the story. Around 2,000 years ago after Jesus went up to heaven, the apostles, Peter, James, John, and the others, were in a house together and suddenly a really loud noise came from the sky and filled the house they were in. The sound was just like a very strong wind… but there was no wind outside or inside of the house! Only the sound of the wind. The apostles knew that something important was happening. 

Next, in the room they were all in, small balls or tongues of fire were floating in the air. Can you imagine what that must have looked like? The small fires came to rest on the heads of each of the apostles and you know what? None of them got burned by the fire! How can that be, fire that doesn’t burn you! Now they knew that something really important was happening.

And do you know what happened next? All of a sudden, each of the apostles could speak new languages that they never could speak before. I wish I could speak new languages – that would be cool.

So, why did all of this happen? Well, Jesus was fulfilling his promise to the disciples that he made right before he went up to heaven. He promised them that he was going to send the Holy Spirit to them so that they would first, understand fully everything that he had taught them over their three years together. You see, Jesus taught them a lot in those three years, so it was hard to remember everything. Jesus knew that so he promised to help them remember. And Jesus also told them that he would give them the ability to preach to the world his message of how to get to heaven.

So, back to our story. What does the wind and fire in the story mean? Well, the sound of the wind was actually the Holy Spirit coming to them – they couldn’t see the Holy Spirit, but they could hear it coming! The Holy Spirit came down out of the sky and right into the house where they were. And the fire in the story was the Holy Spirit filling each of the apostles with an understanding of all Jesus had taught them and a burning desire to preach to everyone about Jesus. And finally, he gave them new languages to speak so that they could preach to everyone and they would be able to understand. 

So, thanks to the Holy Spirit, the apostles remembered all that Jesus had taught them, and they could tell everyone how to get to heaven. Pretty cool huh? 

OK, but do you remember that I said today was a special birthday? Well, today is called Pentecost Sunday which is the day all this happened to the apostles 2,000 years ago – the sound of the wind, the fire that didn’t burn and speaking new languages. And because Jesus did this for the apostles, Jesus created our Catholic Church on Pentecost Sunday! It is the birthday of our Church! 

So, happy Pentecost Sunday and happy birthday to our Church!