Vatican City (Fides) - “Today the Church celebrates the Feast of Pentecost which recalls the miraculous effusion of the Holy Spirit upon Mary and the Apostles in the Upper Room”, Pope John Paul II said to crowds gathered on Sunday 30 May in St Peter’s Square to pray with the midday Regina Cæli prayer. “Fifty days after Easter Christ’s promise to his disciples comes true: that they would receive a new baptism in the Holy Spirit and power from on high to have the courage to announce the Gospel to all nations. Filled with the fire of the Spirit the Apostles left the Upper Room and began to speak about Christ who died and is Risen, to people who had come to Jerusalem from all over and each heard what was said in their own tongue.”
The Pope recalled that Pentecost “is the birth of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ spread all over the world. It is made up of men and women of all races and cultures, gathered in faith and in love by the Most Holy Trinity to be a sign and tool of unity of the whole human race. Conformed by the Spirit to Christ the new Adam, believers become his witnesses, sowing hope, spreading mercy and peace.” Lastly the Pope asked the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we contemplate in the Upper Room as she and the Apostles receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, to intercede “for a new Pentecost in the Church so all men and women may welcome the happy news of salvation”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 31/5/2004 - Righe 17; Parole 247)
See the Pope’s address in Italian
http://www.evangelizatio.org/portale/adgentes/pontefici/pontefice.php?id=114