Holy Pentecost

 

REMINDERS:

• TODAY we celebrate Holy Pentecost. Friendly reminder that the Orthros service
  on this date (and all major feast days of our Lord) is shorter. Kindly also note that
  the services for the day also include Vespers directly after Divine Liturgy.
  Church School
• Today is the Awards and Graduation of the Religious Education of our Parish.
• Kindly encourage our youth, offer a kind word of support. Encourage your children and grandchildren to learn about our faith and way of life!
• Kindly, offer to teach a class, a skill, a song, a craft to our children. Talk to Father Ioannis and become part of our Religious Education Team.

 

The Holy Spirit and the relics of the Saints

Passage of the 5th Century

Before baptism, one is called the “old man”, but after baptism the “new man”. Now the Holy Spirit is the abiding Soul of the “new man”, and Ηe remains, not only during the body’s life, but also after its death, and in the case of the saints Ηe performs miracles and works signs. For the bones of the just, that is to say, [the relics] of the apostles and martyrs and all the saints, while they do not have any natural soul in them – for that left them at their death – still have the Holy Spirit abiding with and in them, and it is He who effects signs and wonders in them; and demonic spirits cry out bitterly at his power within them, for sicknesses are driven off and illnesses chased away.

Holy Pentecost 

Today we celebrate in our Church the great feast of the Holy Pentecost. The Lord always spoke to His disciples about the Holy Spirit, who would send Him into the world from His Heavenly Father to stay in the Church forever. And before His Ascension, the Lord spoke to the disciples about the Holy Spirit, when he said to them: "stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on
high" (Luke ch. 24). On another occasion He told them these things, which are included in our Gospel today. At the Feast of Tabernacles, the Israelites symbolically poured water on the altar, offering the sacrifices of the Holocaust (= when the whole sacrificial animal was burned). Jesus Christ takes occasion from this and says to the world: "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink." This water is the Holy Spirit, who will come into the world to enlighten us all to understand the eternal truths that the Lord has taught us. The Holy Spirit founded, as we know, on the day of Pentecost our Holy Church, which is the Body of Christ. The head of the body is Jesus Christ. We, all people, are members of the House. In the Church, we all become children of God and thus live the eternal life of the "Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Holy Trinity. In the Symbol of Faith we confess: "And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Creator of life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who together with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke through the prophets.". The Lord calls the Holy Spirit "Comforter". That is why, when we pray in the Church, we say: "Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth: You are everywhere filling all things; (= you who fill everything with your presence). In the Divine Liturgy and the Mysteries of our Church, the priest with the prayers and the various petitions emphasizes the power of the Holy Spirit. At the holiest point of the Divine Liturgy, when the priest says: "Your own of Your own..." we ask God: "Send down Your Holy Spirit upon us and upon the gifts here presented." The Holy Spirit descends and mystically changes the Bread and Wine into the Holy Body and Precious Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each of us from an early age must prepare ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit within us. To purify ourself from every sin and to ask in our prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Church Fathers tell us that the purpose of every human life is to receive the Holy Spirit. Then man, as we have learned from our Catechism, realizes his divine destiny, which is his union and communion in the eternal life of God.

Ἡ Ἁγία Πεντηκοστή: Holy Pentecost (“Trinity Sunday”)

We celebrate Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit, the appointed time of the promise and the fulfillment of hope. How great is the Mystery? Great indeed and revered! And so we cry out to you: Creator of all, Lord, glory to you! (1st Hymn of Vespers) The feast day of Holy Pentecost is the high point of the Penticostarion period. This feast day is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and is called the “Birthday of the
Church”, because of the events that took place. The hymnographer tells us very eloquently what happened that day: Marvelous things all the nations saw today in the city of David, when the Holy Spirit came down in tongues of fire, as Luke, God’s mouthpiece, declared. For he said: When Christ’s Disciples were assembled, there came a sound as of a mighty wind, and filled the whole house where they were sitting; and all began to speak with strange words, strange doctrines, strange teachings of the Holy Trinity. (1st Hymn of Lauds) The Apostles were blessed by the Holy Spirit that day and were able to speak
different languages, even though some of them had never even been to school! St. Peter the Apostle preached that day in front of everyone, putting to rest the comments of some that day that the Apostles were merely “drunk.” He told them that Jesus was the One to come and save us all from our sins and that they should “repent and be baptized”. That day, about 3000 people became Christians. Ever since, the Gospel had been preached to billions of people, and the Eternal Truth of Jesus Christ lives in the Church. For the Church, this is the day she started Her ministry. It is our duty to also continue this ministry with everyone we know. People who were against the Church found themselves being Her greatest ambassadors (such as St. Paul the Apostle). We can show the Church’s love by a simple smile, a “hello” to someone we see that needs that ‘hello’, to sharing the Truth of Jesus Christ with those that might have not met Him yet. Let us continue the work of the Apostles and know that Jesus “will be with (us) always, even until the end of the age. Amen.” (Matthew 28:20)