Family Communion for Pentecost: celebrant the Revd Tola Badejo.

First reading: Acts 2. 1–21
Gospel: John 14. 8–17, 22–27

It's inevitable that when the first reading is from the New Testament, we hear the story in the wrong order. The disciples must have been mystified by Jesus's words in the Gospel, not only by what he says about absolute unity with the Father but also by his promise of an Advocate who will be with them forever. On the day of Pentecost his promise is fulfilled: whatever it is that actually happened, the disciples were utterly changed. The painting above by the French artist Jean Restout is clearly a work of imagination, but it dramatically conveys the same sense of transformative power as the description in Acts.