The following discourse is from “The Life Of Jesus Christ And Biblical Revelations From the Visions Of The Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824 A.D.) As Recorded In The Journals Of Clemens Brentano Arranged and Edited By The Very Reverend Carl E. Schmöger, C.SS.R. Volume Four”:
The Holy Day Of Pentecost
The whole interior of the Last Supper room was, on the eve of the feast, ornamented with green bushes in whose branches were placed vases of flowers.
Garlands of green were looped from side to side.
The screens that cut off the side halls and the vestibule were removed; only the gate of the outer court was closed.
Peter, in his episcopal robe, stood at a table covered with red and white under the lamp in front of the Holy of Holies.
On the table lay rolls of writing.
Opposite him in the doorway leading from the entrance hall stood the Blessed Virgin, her face veiled, and behind her in the entrance hall stood the holy women.
The Apostles stood in two rows turned toward Peter along either side of the hall, and from the side halls, the disciples ranged behind the Apostles took part in the hymns and prayers.
When Peter broke and distributed the bread that he had previously blessed, first to the Blessed Virgin, then to the Apostles and disciples who stepped forward to receive it, they kissed his hand, the Blessed Virgin included.
Besides the holy women, there were in the house of the Last Supper and its dependencies one hundred and twenty of Jesus’ followers.
After midnight there arose a wonderful movement in all nature.
It communicated itself to all present as they stood in deep recollection, their arms crossed on their breast, near the pillars of the Supper Room and in the side halls, silently praying.
Stillness pervaded the house, and silence reigned throughout the whole enclosure.
Toward morning I saw above the Mount of Olives a glittering white cloud of light coming down from Heaven and drawing near to the house. In the distance it appeared to me like a round ball borne along on a soft, warm breeze.
But coming nearer, it looked larger and floated over the city like a luminous mass of fog until it stood above Sion and the house of the Last Supper.
It seemed to contract and to shine with constantly increasing brightness, until at last with a rushing, roaring noise as of wind, it sank like a thunder cloud floating low in the atmosphere.
I saw many Jews, who espied the cloud, hurrying in terror to the Temple.
I myself experienced a childlike anxiety as to where I should hide if the stroke were to follow, for the whole thing was like a storm that had suddenly gathered, that instead of rising from the earth came down from Heaven, that was light instead of dark, that instead of thundering came down with a rushing wind.
I felt that rushing motion.
It was like a warm breeze full of power to refresh and invigorate.
The luminous cloud descended low over the house, and with the increasing sound, the light became brighter.
I saw the house and its surroundings more clearly, while the Apostles, the disciples, and women became more and more silent, more deeply recollected.
Afterward, there shot from the rushing cloud steams of white light down upon the house and its surroundings.
The streams intersected one another in sevenfold rays, and below each intersection resolved into fine threads of light and fiery drops.
The point at which the seven streams intersected was surrounded by a rainbow of light, in which floated a luminous figure with outstretched wings, or rays of light that looked like wings, attached to the shoulders.
In that same instant the whole house and its surroundings were penetrated through and through with light.
The five-branched lamp no longer shone.
The assembled were ravished in ecstasy.
Each involuntarily threw back his head and raised his eyes eagerly on high, while into the mouth of every on there flowed a stream of light like a burning tongue of fire.
It looked as if they were breathing, as if they were eagerly drinking in the fire, and as if their ardent desire flamed forth from their mouth to meet the entering flame.
The sacred fire was poured forth also upon the disciples and the women present in the antechamber, and thus the resplendent cloud gradually dissolved as if in a rain of light.
The flames descended on each in different colors and in different degrees of intensity.
After that effusion of heavenly light, a joyous courage pervaded the assembly. All were full of emotion, and as if intoxicated with joy and confidence.
They gathered around the Blessed Virgin who was, I saw, the only one perfectly calm, the only one that retained a quiet, holy self-possession.
The Apostles embraced one another and, urged by joyous confidence, exclaimed, “What are we? What are we now?”
The holy women too embraced.
The disciples in the side halls were similarly affected, and the Apostles hastened out to them.
A new life full of joy, of confidence, and of courage had been infused into all. Their joy found vent in thanksgiving.
They ranged for prayer, gave thanks and praised God with great emotion.
The light meanwhile vanished.
Peter delivered an instruction to the disciples, and sent several of them out to the inns of the Pentecost guests.
Between the house of the Last Supper and the Pool of Bethsaida there were several sheds and public lodging houses for the accommodation of guests come up for the feast.
They were at this time very numerous, and they too received the grace of the Holy Spirit. An extraordinary movement pervaded all nature.
Good people were roused interiorly, while the wicked became timid, uneasy, and still more stiff-necked.
Most of these strangers had been encamped here since the Pasch, because the distance from their homes rendered a journey to and fro between that feast and Pentecost altogether impracticable. They were become, by all that they had seen and heard, quite intimate and kindly disposed toward the disciples, so that the latter, intoxicated with joy, announced to them the Promise of the Holy Spirit as fulfilled.
They too did they become conscious of a change within their own souls and, at the summons of the disciples, they gathered around the Pool of Bethsaida.
———
Nihil Obstat: Em. de Jaegher, Can. lib. cens. Brugis, 14 Februarii 1914 A.D.
Imprimatur: A. C. De Schrevel, Vic. Gen. Brugis, 14 Februarii 1914 A.D.
