When two uniformed men came to my door on Memorial Day afternoon, I thought they were collecting for charity. Instead, they told me that my sister and her husband had been killed in an accident earlier that day.

Just over a year after that shattering event, our church choir sang “Veni, Sancte Spiritus” (“Come, Holy Spirit”) on Pentecost Sunday (Whitsunday). It brought a wave of peace over my still-aching soul. One verse says: “Thou best of Consolers, sweet guest of the soul, sweet refreshment. In labor, Thou art rest; in heat, the tempering; in grief, the consolation.”

On Pentecost Sunday, many churches celebrate the Holy Spirit’s coming in power on the disciples (Acts 2:1-21). But the Spirit came also as the Comforter promised by Jesus: “I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16). The Spirit lives within each Christian, bringing the peace of Christ along with encouragement and alleviation of grief.

Pentecost and Memorial Day seldom fall next to each other as they do in 2004. But the “sweet guest of the soul” is always with us on any day we remember our loved ones who have died. In grief, the Spirit is our consolation, the light of our hearts, the giver of everlasting joy.