In one of the gospel readings for the Solemnity of Pentecost, Jesus promises his disciples he will send his Spirit to them to “teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” “Teach” and “remind” go together in this passage. What is learned is what Christ has already taught and which the Spirit will remind us of.

Divine breath has a long history in the Bible. In the Book of Genesis God animates the dust of the earth with breath to form the first human being. The psalmist today assures us that life is renewed or withdrawn every moment at the movement of God’s breath. In the Johannine gospel account Jesus breathes on his frightened disciples to make new creatures of them: fearless apostles.

WHEN MY MOTHER was 43 years old she was diagnosed with a rare cancer that required radical surgery that she had only a 50 percent chance of surviving. I was 12 years old at the time, and not completely sure of all that was happening. I knew my mom was very sick and in a lot of pain.

Let us ask God for a spirit of forgiveness.

The “fire” and the “stormwind” evoke the gathering of all the nations, in Isaiah 66. The power of the Spirit has made a group local Galileans into witnesses of the gospel to the known world, including the Gentile world, represented by “travelers from Rome.”

One of the strangest things Jesus ever did after the Resurrection, from our fastidiously clean, middle-class American perspective, was to breathe on his disciples. It’s something we just don’t do—unless, of course, we are trying to save a life.

The Blessed Trinity inhabits the soul by . . . delighting its will in the Holy Spirit. —Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), The Living Flame of Love