No Church without Pentecost, No Pentecost without the Virgin Mary

(23 May 10 – RV) Marking the Feast of Pentecost, Pope Benedict XVI called special attention to feast of Our Lady Help of Christians on Monday, which is also a day of prayer for the Church of China, and urged all the faithful to pray for the Church in China and for unity among Catholics throughout the world. He asked that we pray in a special way for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, especially among people of Chinese origin.  

Reflecting on the Feast of Pentecost before the Regina Coeli, Pope Benedict said, “There is no Pentecost without the Virgin Mary. Thus it was at the beginning, in the Upper Room where the disciples "devoted themselves to prayer, together with some women and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and his brothers" - as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles ( 1.14).

Speaking from the window of his study high above St Peter’s Square, the Holy Father explained that the Church constantly lives in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit without which it would exhaust its strength, “like a sailboat if the wind were to fail." Pentecost is especially renewed in particular moments, on a local and universal level, both in small gatherings and large encounters, from the Second Vatican Council to the local prayer meetings "in which young people clearly feel the God’s call to root their lives in love".

And there is no Pentecost without the Virgin Mary - concluded the pope – so it has always been and so it was a few days ago in Fatima, where "we were all one heart and soul", an immense multitude living a renewed Pentecost.