Catholic Activity: Pentecost Favors

Here is a way to emphasize the importance of cultivating the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit on the feast of Pentecost.

DIRECTIONS

We first heard of this idea through a friend of a friend of the Zelatrices of the Sacred Heart. As Pentecost favors, they make bookmarks in the form of white doves cut from parchment and threaded with red satin ribbons for markers. On one wing, or on one page of a tiny folder held in the dove's beak, is lettered a gift of the Holy Spirit; on the other, a fruit. They are placed all together in a basket and each Sister chooses one. The gift written on her dove is the gift the Holy Spirit wishes her to work on for the year. Sometimes it is the same gift year after year. In such a case, one can hardly fail to get the point!

We varied this custom by cutting two-piece doves and stapling the wings on so that they are two-dimensional, then hanging them in a flock by red ribbons of varying length. Pentecost morning we each chose a dove, blindfolded. A gift and a fruit were lettered on the wings of each. They were a brilliant display of "Holy Spirits" and we let them hang there through the Octave. Lots of people who came into the house asked questions.

Activity Source: Year and Our Children, The by Mary Reed Newland, P.J. Kenedy & Sons, New York, 1956