would die rather than leave Our Lord, shamefully denied Him;
and St. John, the beloved disciple, stood near the Cross, but offered no
resistance to Our Lord's enemies. After the Crucifixion of Our Lord, the
Apostles, afraid of being put to death, shut themselves up in a room.
Ten days after Our Lord's Ascension they were praying as usual in their
room, when suddenly they heard the sound as it were of a great wind, and
then they saw tongues the shape of our own, but all on fire, coming, and
one tongue resting on the head of each Apostle present. (Acts 2).

This was the Holy Ghost coming to them. The Holy Ghost, being a pure
spirit without a body, can take any form He pleases. He sometimes came
in the form of a dove; so when you see a dove painted in a church near
the altar, it is there to represent the Holy Ghost. You could not paint
a spirit, so angels and God Himself are generally represented in
pictures as they at some time appeared to men.

"Whit-Sunday," or White-Sunday; probably so called because in the early
ages of the Church converts were baptized on the day before, and after
their Baptism wore white robes or garments as a mark of the soul's
purity after Baptism.

"Pentecost" means the fiftieth day, because the feast comes fifty days
after the resurrection of Our Lord. After His resurrection He remained
forty days upon earth, and ten days after He ascended into Heaven the
Holy Ghost came, thus making the fifty days.

After the Holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles they were no longer
timid men. They went forth boldly into the streets and preached Christ
crucified, telling the people how the Son of God--the true Messias
promised--had been put to death. Many who heard them believed and were
baptized. The first time St. Peter preached to the people three thousand
were converted (Acts 2:41); so that when all the Apostles preached the
number of Christians increased rapidly, and the Christian religion was
soon carried to distant parts of the world.

At the time Our Lord was put to death the Jews were celebrating a great
feast in Jerusalem. The Jews were not like us in this respect. We have
many churches, and in all of them sacrifice, that is, the Holy Mass, is
offered. The Jews had only one temple where sacrifice could be offered,
and that was in Jerusalem. They had synagogues or meeting houses
throughout the land in which they assembled to pray and hear the Holy
Scriptures read; but they could not offer sacrifi