The Feast of Pentecost
Categories: parish-life, feast-days, spiritual-writings
Date: 06 June 2009 09:58:59
Troparion - Tone 8:
Blessed are You O Christ Our God!
You have revealed the fishermen as most wise;
By sending down upon them the Holy Spirit
Through them You drew the world into Your net.
O Lover of Man, Glory to You!
Kontakion - Tone 8:
When the most High came down and confused the tongues,
He divided the nations;
But when he distributed the tongues of fire
He called all to unity.
Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the All-holy Spirit!
Today is the Feast of Pentecost in the Orthodox Calendar, the Feast Day in which we commemorate not only the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles but also, through the preaching of the Apostles and the baptism of the many thousands who believed on that day, the establishment of the Church. For Orthodox Christians, it is also a commemoration of their Chrismation [Eastern equivalent of Confirmation] and, in the words the priest prays while anointing with the sign of the cross the various parts of the body, "The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit".
It is also a Feast on which the full and final revelation of the Trinity is celebrated: the famous Rublev icon of the Old Testament Trinity, or The Hospitality of Abraham, may also be displayed with the Festal icon on this day: this visitation to Abraham of the three angels is seen as a type and pre-figuring of the Revelation of the Blessed Trinity.
A feast day that is full, overflowing even, of rich imagery, symbolism and meaning. A blessed Feast Day to all. It will be a day of joy for our parish too as we will have a post-Liturgy picnic to celebrate the Feast and the purchase of a property two months ago on which we can, God willing, make a permanent Church home.
I leave you with two Pentecost-related links: from Word from the Desert An Invocation to the Holy Spirit by St Symeon the New Theologian, and two quotes on Pentecost from St Gregory of Nazianzus and St Basil the Great from Sister Macrina [who has, sadly, announced she has stoped blogging: may God continue to bless her and her ministry].