Penitential Psalms.—Being the 6th, 32d, 38th, 51st, 102d, 130th and 143d Psalms of David, all of which are read during the services on ASH WEDNESDAY (which see). There are no prayers more fitted for penitent sinners than the Seven Penitential Psalms, if we enter into the feelings of compunction, {211} love, devotedness and confidence with which the Royal Psalmist was penetrated. The purport of each psalm may be briefly stated as follows:
Psalm 6 exhibits a sinner in earnest and hearty prayer after having sinned, with assured hope and confidence in the mercy of God.
Psalm 32 shows how a sinner is brought to understand his sins, to confess and bewail them and obtain remission.
Psalm 38, in which the penitent earnestly prays to God to pardon his sins and mitigate his punishment.
Psalm 51 shows the great sorrow of a sinner for his sins.
Psalm 102 shows how a sinner in affliction of mind prays to God and derives comfort from His help and goodness.
Psalm 130 shows how a sinner in tribulation cries to God for deliverance; while
Psalm 143 may be used in any spiritual or temporal tribulation.
Pentecost.—The Greek name for the "Feast of Weeks" in the Jewish Church. The word means fiftieth, the Feast being fifty days after the Feast of the Passover. Whitsun Day is so called, being observed fifty days after Easter, the Christian Passover, and because it was on the Day of Pentecost that the Holy Ghost was given. (See WHITSUN DAY.)
Peter, festival of Saint.—A Holy Day of the Church observed on June 29th in honor of the Apostle Saint Peter, and is one of the oldest of Christian Festivals, having been traced back to the Second Century. St. Peter was one of the first two disciples {212} whom our Lord called. His original name was Simon or Simeon, which was changed into Cephas, which in the Syrian language, signifies a stone or rock; from this it was derived into the Greek Petros, and so termed by us Peter. This new name was to denote the firmness and constancy which St. Peter should manifest in preaching the Gospel and in establishing the Church. He has left two Epistles which appear in the New Testament as the "First and Second Epistles General of St. Peter." It is said that his later years were spent at Rome where he was crucified with his head downwards, on the hill where the Vatican now stands, on the same day, June 29th (as is generally believed) that St. Paul was beheaded A.D. 63. In ecclesiastical art St. Peter is variously represented, with a key in his hand; with a key and church; with keys and cross; in chains and in prison, etc.