The Day of Pentecost, 7 weeks after Easter, is a celebration of the Holy Spirit. But Holy Spirit is not the only name we give to the third person of the Trinity.

Some older hymns and songs such as the "Gloria Patri", refer to the Holy Ghost. So does the King James Version of the Bible. And some modern Christians still use the term. Holy Ghost goes back to Anglo-Saxon times, and means Holy Spirit. It wasn't until centuries later that the word "ghost" came to mean the spirit of a dead person haunting the living.

Still, because of this change, Christians since the 19th century have increasingly preferred Holy Spirit. "Ghost" survives in some old hymns and songs chiefly because "Spirit" has an extra syllable that changes the meter and doesn't fit the tune.

Since the biblical word we translate as "spirit" literally means "breath" or "wind," these terms are also used for the Holy Spirit.

The Bible describes the Holy Spirit coming like a dove at the baptism of Jesus, and like tongues of fire on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2).

May the Holy Spirit, by whatever name, come upon us.

- The Rev. Hoyt Hickman

Acts 2:1-21 tells us that thousands of people gathered in Jerusalem for the celebration of a Jewish festival. They had brought the first fruits of their harvest as offerings to the temple in Jerusalem. They gathered on the day of Pentecost which means fiftieth, for it falls on the fiftieth day after Passover.

Suddenly there is a rush of wind filling the place. There are tongues of fire, resting on each person, and everyone is speaking in different languages at once, talking about God's great power. Then Peter begins to preach. What preaching it was! Filled with the Holy Spirit he gave witness to the Spirit's power, available at all times and places. He witnessed to the fact that Jesus was himself God as well as a human being. He told them they were living in a wicked time, that the world was a mess and that they stood in need of God's love. The gift of Pentecost is the gift of the Holy Spirit, it is the gift of speech and it is time to tell it like it is.

The Spirit which descended at Pentecost is the same Spirit which empowers each of us to tell the world the good news of God's love, which enables us to tell the world what it cannot know unless we dare to be used by the Spirit to speak. It is awesome power that God has given us... the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is highly contagious. Let's share it!