Coral Spring St. Andrew Catholic Church issued the following announcement on May 31

Welcome back! How fortunate we are to be able to gather again in person for the celebration of the Holy Mass and other sacraments. For those who are able to attend Mass in person this weekend, as you arrived you received a printed copy of the Guidelines for the Resumption of Public Mass. These also have been posted on the parish website (www.standrewparish.org). As helpful as these Guidelines are, each of us must exercise personal responsibility and be conscientious in our behaviors.

It seems most fitting that we resume the public celebration of the sacraments on the Solemnity of Pentecost. As we hear in the first reading of today’s Mass, it was on Pentecost that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Apostles who were in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 2: 1-11). The Responsorial Psalm prays that the Lord might “send out his Spirit and renew the face of the earth” (cf. Psalm104). Pentecost is traditionally known as the “birthday of the Church”. This is so because it was on Pentecost that the Apostles ‒ animated by the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life ‒ boldly began to proclaim Jesus as Lord and Messiah and fervently urged their fellow Jews to believe in Jesus Christ, to accept his Gospel, and to be born again in the waters of Baptism.

Pentecost, however, is not originally a Christian feast. The Jewish people have long celebrated Pentecost. Today known as Shavuot, Pentecost was first called “the feast of the grain harvest” (Exodus 23:16) and observed seven weeks after Passover (cf. Deuteronomy 16: 9). The feast originated among farmers and who offered it in thanksgiving for the grain harvest. Whereas, at Passover, they offered the first barley harvest to the Lord, it was the first wheat that they offered as a sacrifice at Pentecost. Pentecost is also one of three “pilgrimage feasts”, during which every Israelite was instructed to visit the House of the Lord (cf. Exodus 34:23; Deuteronomy 16:16). When the temple was built in Jerusalem, Jews from all parts of the world traveled to the Holy City for these pilgrimage feasts, including Pentecost. That is why, in the account found in the Acts of the Apostles, there are Jews from various nations and ethnicities in Jerusalem for the feast, which, by then, had come to be known as, “the fiftieth day” or Pentecost. During pilgrimage feasts, including Pentecost, the Jewish priests would show to the pilgrims the holy bread (or bread of the presence) which was kept in the Holy of Holies of the Temple and offered every Sabbath (cf. Exodus 25:23-30). Furthermore, Jewish traditions tell us that while showing the holy bread to the pilgrims, the priest announced, “Behold, God’s love for you”.

As Catholic Christians, we can see how what was anticipated in the Jewish feast of Pentecost is fulfilled in the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginnings of the Church. How fitting it was that the Church began on the Jewish holiday originally known as “feast of the grain harvest”, celebrated seven weeks after Passover, and an occasion for Jews from all parts of the world to journey on pilgrimage to the Holy City. On today’s Feast of Pentecost, we who were scattered by the Coronavirus disease have come together again as pilgrims to the House of the Lord to pray for a renewal of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and to receive the Most Holy Eucharist, the holy bread of angels. Behold, God’s love for you.

May the Lord continue to bless you and your families with His love!

Original source can be found here.