One of the major holidays for the Christian Year is Pentecost Sunday, marking the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostolic church. Luke’s record of that event in Acts 2 describes what happened that day as people had gathered from many nations for the Jewish Pentecost festival in Jerusalem. Jesus’ followers were meeting together in an upper room, waiting for the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise. With the sound like a rushing wind and the appearance of what looked like tongues of fire, the Holy Spirit was poured out on those disciples. The commotion attracted a crowd who then heard the gospel being preaching in their own language, occurring as a supernatural gift from the Holy Spirit.
In all of those events, the common theme was power, the power in the wind, the flames, and the tongues. But the greatest demonstration of power was in the incredible change of hearts in hearers that took place while Peter was preaching. Three thousand people who were spiritually dead were transformed by the Holy Spirit, producing in them conviction of sin and faith in Christ, as they interrupted Peter’s preaching to cry out, “Brothers, what must we do?” Such total reversal of thinking could only have happened by the power of the Holy Spirit. He did what Jesus told Nicodemus needed to happen: “You must be born again.”
Musical reflections about Pentecost abound in the church’s repertoire, especially from the time of the Reformation. Some are instrumental works, frequently for organ. Others are choral compositions, including cantatas. But almost all of them are based on hymns about the Holy Spirit and His coming at Pentecost. Today, every hymnal will have, in its topical structure, hymns about God the Father, hymns about God the Son, and also hymns about God the Holy Spirit. Many of these are actually addressed to the Spirit Himself. Quite a few composers have written works based on the ancient (9th century) hymn, “Veni Creator Spiritus” (“Come, Creator Spirit”).