A Long Growing Season
Vol. 57 No. 29 | Second Sunday after Trinity | June 14, 2026
The celebration of the feast of Pentecost that is completed on Trinity Sunday is not the end of the Church’s year but the beginning of its longest season. The green months from Trinity Sunday to Advent occupy nearly half the Christian year. They are the Church’s growing season. To understand why, we must understand the gift that Pentecost celebrates.
In the Gospel for Pentecost (John 14:15–31), Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure to the Father by promising them “another Comforter,” the Spirit of truth. Yet this gift is no mere substitute for his absence. “I will not leave you comfortless,” he says; “I will come to you.” Christ himself will be present in his people by the Spirit. Nor is it only Christ who comes. “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Through the Spirit, the faithful are brought into communion with the Father through the Son. The indwelling presence is the presence of the triune God. In this way God fulfills his ancient promise: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
This communion is the very heart of salvation. All that Christ accomplished for us in his death, resurrection, and ascension benefits us only as we are united to him as one Body. That union with Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit. This communion in all the benefits of Christ’s saving work is what Jesus means when he says, “Because I live, ye shall live also.”
The sacraments direct our attention to this mystery. Baptism is the sign of our incorporation into Christ; the Eucharist is the sign of our continuing participation in his life. We pray that those who receive Holy Communion may be “made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him.” To prepare the faithful for this sacrament of communion, the ancient Church developed a ministry of the Word, centered on two lessons from Scripture for each Sunday and holy day, an epistle and a gospel. In the twentieth century, many churches adopted a newer three-year cycle of readings designed to provide broader exposure to Scripture. The older lectionary serves a somewhat different purpose. It does not aim primarily at comprehensive coverage of the Bible—that has always been the work of Morning and Evening Prayer—but at preparing the faithful to meet Christ in Word and Sacrament. (As one observer said, “if you want to know more about the Bible, use the modern lectionary; if you want to know more about Jesus, use the ancient one”). Its readings are ordered around what St. Paul calls “the great mystery” of Christ and his Church: Christ’s saving work already accomplished for us, and now by his Spirit, accomplished in us. Thus, the gospel usually proclaims what Christ has done and who he is; the epistle often shows what that grace looks like in the lives of those who belong to him. Together, they present both gift and response, faith and works, Christ for us and Christ in us.
The same two-fold pattern appears in the overall structure of the Church year. From Advent through Trinity Sunday, the focus falls upon the mighty acts of Christ in the work of redemption: his coming, his passion, resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Spirit. But in the long season from Trinity to Advent, attention turns increasingly to what Christ is accomplishing in us by that same Spirit. This is the Church’s growing season. Week by week, the Scriptures teach us what life in Christ looks like in practice: faith working through love, growth in holiness, steadfastness in prayer, generosity in serving, patience in suffering, and perseverance to the end. The question before us is not simply whether we know the gospel, but whether the gospel is bearing fruit in us. Are we growing in faith, hope, and charity? Are we becoming more like Christ?
The months ahead invite us into that growth. As we hear the Scriptures, offer our prayers, and receive the Sacrament, Christ is not merely reminding us of what he once did. By his Spirit, he is conforming us to himself. The green season is long because Christian growth is slow. Yet God is patient, and he is faithful. The One who has begun a good work in us will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ.