Synaxarion From the Pentecostarion.
On this day, the eighth Sunday from Pascha, we celebrate holy Pentecost.
Verses
In a violent wind Christ distributes
to the Apostles the Spirit in tongues of fire.
On one great day, the Spirit is poured out on the fishermen.
Saint Iakovos Tsalikis of Evia once revealed to a monk:
“Tonight, my child, I was concelebrating with saints and angels at altars beyond description. When I die, say that some old man was concelebrating every night and living with the Holy Trinity.“
Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia
On Pentecost, the grace of God was poured out not only on the apostles, but on all the people around them. It affected the believers and the unbelievers. What does Acts say? While the Apostle Peter was speaking his own language, his language was being processed in the minds of the listeners at that time.
In a secret way the Holy Spirit made them understand his words in their language, secretly, without being noticed. These miracles are done by the influence of the Holy Spirit.
For example, the word “home” to someone who knew French would be heard as “la maison”. It was a kind of clairvoyance; they heard their own language. The sound was heard in the ear, but inwardly, with the illumination of God, the words were heard in their language.
The Fathers of the Church do not reveal this interpretation of Pentecost very openly, they are afraid of distortion. The same is true of the Apocalypse of John. The ignorant cannot understand the meaning of the mystery of God.
Below he says: “And every soul was filled with fear” (Acts 2:43). This “fear” was not fear. It was something else, something foreign, something incomprehensible, something we cannot explain.
It was awe, it was fulfillment, it was grace. It was being filled with divine grace. At Pentecost, people suddenly found themselves in such a state of deification that they lost it.
Thus, when divine grace overshadowed them, it drove them all crazy – in a good way – it excited them. This has made a big impression on me. It was what I sometimes call a “state of being”. It was excitement. A state of spiritual madness.
Source: Γέροντος Πορφυρίου, Βίος και Λόγοι, εκδ. Ι.Μ. Χρυσοπηγής, σελ. 207-209. Translation by John Sanidopoulos.
***
When Christ enters our soul, everything within us will be altered
The Lord said to His disciples, ‘When the Holy Spirit will come, it will teach you all things’ (Cf. John 14:26). The Holy Spirit teaches us everything. It sanctifies us. It assimilates us to God. When we have the Spirit of God, we become incapable of all sin, incapable of sinning. When we have the Holy Spirit, we cannot do evil. We cannot be filled with anger or hate or speak evil.
We must become filled, replete with the Holy Spirit. This is where the essence of spiritual life lies. This is an art – the art of arts. Let us open our arms and throw ourselves into Christ’s embrace. When Christ comes, we will have gained everything. Christ will alter everything within us. He will bring peace, joy, humility, love, prayer and the uplifting of our soul. The grace of Christ will renew us. If we turn to Him with intense longing and desire, with devotion and love, Christ will give us everything.
Without Christ it is impossible to correct ourselves. We will not be able to detach ourselves from our passions. On our won we cannot become good. Without me, you can do nothing (John 15:5). However much we try, we will achieve nothing. There is one thing we must do, and that is turn to Him and love Him with all our soul (Mark 12:30). Love for Christ: this is the best and sole remedy for the passions.
***
“The secret lies in our devotion, our prayer to God for what is best for our brethren to come about through the grace of God. That is the best. What we are unable to do will be done through His grace“.
We need to approach Christ just like we willingly, with a joyful heart, join with a loved one who approaches us with open arms for an embrace. It is a self-giving, a surrender, a joy-filled submission to His love. Once we are willing to accept His love without any conditions, the Holy Spirit will visit us and embrace us in God’s love.
***
Elder Arsenie Boca
“If you will have patience in difficulties you know the Holy Spirit is within you; if you will also have the strength to be thankful in troubles that is when the Holy Spirit shines through you”.
Let us therefore, as we prepare for the service of Pentecost at which we will pray for the Holy Spirit to come down upon us, to fill us again, to burn all terrors, to bring warmth to what has gone cold, to melt the ice which is in our hearts and minds, let us ask ourselves: how much have I truly experienced the gift of the Holy Spirit? Anthony Bloom of Sourozh
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2023/06/03/let-us-therefore-as-we-prepare-for-the-service-of-pentecost-at-which-we-will-pray-for-the-holy-spirit-to-come-down-upon-us-to-fill-us-again-to-burn-all-terrors-to-bring-warmth-to-what-has-gone-col/
O All-good Holy Spirit of God, do not depart from us either when we want You and when we do not want You. Be with us all the time until our death and save us for life eternal. Saint Nikolai Velimirovič
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2022/06/12/80058/
Apolytikion of Holy Pentecost. Tone 8 (Plagal Tone Four)
Blessed are you, Christ our God, who revealed the fishermen to be most wise by sending down to them the Holy Spirit, and so through them catching the whole world in a net: Lover of mankind, glory to you!
Verse: Do not cast me away from your presence; and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
Heavenly King, Paraclete, Spirit of Truth, present everywhere, filling all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of life; come and dwell in us, cleanse us from every stain, and, O Good One save our souls.
Tone 4
The holy Spirit is light and life and living, spiritual spring. Spirit of wisdom, Spirit of understanding; good, right, spiritual, sovereign, cleansing faults. God and making divine; fire and proceeding from fire, speaking, working, distributing the gifts of grace; through whom all the prophets and Apostles of God with the Martyrs have been crowned. Strange tidings, strange sight: fire divided for the apportioning of gifts.
Idiomelon. Mode 1
The Holy Spirit supplies all things: He pours out prophecies, He perfects priests; He taught wisdom to the unlettered, He showed fishermen to be theologians; He welds together the whole institution of the Church. “O Comforter, You who share the same essence and throne with the Father and the Son, glory to You!”
Idiomelon. Mode 2.
We have seen the true light; we have received the heavenly Spirit. We have found the true Faith, worshipping the undivided Trinity; for this has saved us.
Mode pl. 2
Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, present in all places and filling all things, treasury of good things and giver of life: come; take Your abode in us; cleanse us of every stain, and save our souls, O Good one.
Glory. Both now . Mode pl. 4.
Tongues were confused once because people dared to build the Tower. Tongues now obtain skill, for the glory of divine knowledge. There, God condemned the impious for their transgression; here, by the Spirit, Christ illumined the fishermen. Then, discord was contrived as penalization; now a new concord has arrived, for the salvation of our souls.
iconandlight 