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.

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.

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

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.

The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. St. Seraphim of Sarov

Saint Justin Popovich

Everything in the Church comes about through the Holy Spirit, from the least to the greatest.
In fact, every holy mystery and holy virtue is a little Pentecost; in them, the Holy Spirit descends upon us, into us.
The Lord dwells in us by the Holy Spirit, and we in Him. This is testified to us by the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. We live by the Holy Spirit in Christ, and He in us. We know this “by the Spirit which He hath given us” (I Jn. 3:24).

***

Holy Trinity
Sunday 11th June 2000
Anthony Bloom of Sourozh

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In a week’s time we will keep the Feast of the Holy Trinity and on the next day especially the Feast of the Holy Spirit. We are going to ask, in our prayers, for the Holy Spirit to come down to us; more than this, to pervade, to fill us, to transform and transfigure us.

The world was created by God’s word, by a call of God to come into existence and to meet Him in the mystery of the divine love that gives itself to us. And we know to what extent love divine is capable of giving without counting – think of the crucifixion, think of the life and death of Christ. This is the measure of God’s love for us.

And when the world was created, we are told in the beginnings of Genesis that the Holy Spirit was breathing upon the newly-created world, bringing out all its capabilities, making it possible to unfold, to grow from glory to glory. And when sin had confused the ways of the created world, and of men in particular, the Holy Spirit was there, reminding us, calling us, making Himself tangibly known to us and bringing us in repentance to the God who loved us to the point of the crucifixion.

If we want to understand the dread words of the Gospel, that all sins against the Son can be forgiven but not the sins against the Holy Spirit, we can try to understand it in the following way.

Christ was a Word which we can hear, and we can misunderstand or understand. Christ was light that makes everything visible, but the light itself remains unseen to us. He called us to understand, He explained to us all that we are capable of understanding. But there was something more to be done, because we may confuse words and notions and understanding. But He sent to us the Holy Spirit: the Holy Spirit who is like fire and like warmth – warmth that pervades all it touches. And here we can understand the difference between the knowledge acquired in the Spirit and in the Son.

The Son remains the Word. He remains the truth, which we can understand to the extent to which we are ready for it. The Holy Spirit is the divine warmth, divine life, pervading us and making us to commune with what is God, and God’s own. We may be confused by what we hear and do not understand but if we deny the direct experience which is given us in the gift of the Holy Spirit, if we say we are filled with the warmth of God and that it is untrue, it remains cold, then we deny not the Holy Spirit, we deny the experience which we actually have and which we do not want to recognise. And no one can save us from the denial of our own knowledge of the truth. The knowledge proclaimed we may not be ready, mature enough to understand. The knowledge experienced, if we deny it, condemns us.

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? What has He taught us, not in words but in direct knowledge up to which I have not lived? And let us make haste to recapture it, to beg the Holy Spirit for forgiveness, to come back to the point of experiential knowledge which was ours, and open ourselves to a vaster, deeper, more profound and more perfect knowledge which we can receive from the Holy Spirit, in Christ and by the gift of the Father, next week when we pray. Amen.
https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Antonij_Surozhskij/sermons/283
http://masarchive.org/Sites/texts/2000-06-11-1-E-E-S-EM04-139HolyTrinity.html

By the intercessions of Thy Holy Apostles, O Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.

My hope is the Father, my refuge the Son, my shelter the Holy Spirit. O Holy Trinity, glory be to Thee

Apolytikion of Holy Pentecost. Tone 8.

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!

Of the Feast, in Tone IV:

The Holy Spirit is Light and Life, * and a living, noetic Fountain, * a Spirit of wisdom, a Spirit of understanding; * a good, an upright, a noetic Spirit, * presiding in power and purging offenses. * Deity and deifier; * He is Fire, issuing from Fire, * speaking, working, distributing the gifts; * through Whom all the Prophets, and the Apostles of God, * and all the Martyrs received their crowns. * Strange is this report, strange and new this sight, ** a Fire divided that these gifts may be apportioned.

Glory …, Now & ever …, in Tone VI:

Heavenly King, * Comforter, Spirit of Truth, * Who art everywhere present * and fillest all things, * Treasury of good gifts * and Giver of life: * come and abide in us, * and cleanse us of all impurity, ** and save our souls, O Good One.

The Great Prokeimenon, in Tone VII:
What God is as great as our God? * Thou art God, Who alone workest wonders.
Verse: Thou hast made Thy power known among the peoples.
What God is as great as our God? * Thou art God, Who alone workest wonders.

May the Spirit of God Who came in tongues of fire upon the Apostles, come to us also – perhaps like a fire that sets us aglow and makes us like a Burning Bush, or touches us like the still, small voice which the Prophet heard in the wilderness in which God was… Anthony Sourozh

Synaxarion From the Menaion.
On June 14 we commemorate the holy Prophet Elisha (9th century BC)
On this day we also commemorate our Father among the Saints Methodius Archbishop of Constantinople (846)
On this day we also commemorate the holy Hieromartyr Cyril Bishop of Gortynia on the island of Crete (c. 303)
Our righteous Mother Julitta (Julia) of Tabennisi in Egypt (4th century)
Our righteous Father Elisha of Sumsk, monk of Suma (Solovki) (15th-16th centuries)
Our righteous Father Niphon Kausokalybites of Mount Athos, proponent of hesychastic theology (1411)
On this day we also commemorate our Father among the Saints Justin (Popovic) of Ćelije Monastery in Serbia (1979)
Synaxis of All Saints of Diveevo:
Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, Venerable Alexandra of Diveevo (Melgunova) (1789), Martha of Diveevo (Melyukova) (1829), Helena of Diveevo (Manturova) (1832), Blessed Pelagia Ivanovna (Serebrennikova) the Fool for Christ (1884), Blessed Parasceva Ivanovna Semyonovna the Fool for Christ of Diveyevo, called her Pasha of Sarov or “a second Seraphim,” (1915), Maria Ivanovna (Fedina) the Fool for Christ of Diveyevo(1927), Natalia Dmitrievna -“Natashenka” of Diveevo (1900), Holy Martyrs Eudocia (Shikova), Daria (Timolina), Daria (Siushinskaya) and Maria of Puzo (1919), Martha (Testova) of Diveevo ( 1941), Pelagia (Testova) of Diveevo (1944), Confessor Matrona (Vlasova) of Diveevo (1963), Xenia (Cherlina-Brailovskaya) (1937), New Hieromartyrs Michael and Jacob Gusev (1937), Seraphim (Chichagov) of St Petersburg (1937), Serafim (Zvezdinsky) of Dmitrov (1937)

We know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit Itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom 8:26);
Lord, I know not what to ask of You.
You alone know what my true needs are.
I put all my trust in You.
I have no other desire than to fulfil Your will.
Teach me to pray. Pray Yourself in me. Amen

St. Seraphim of Sarov

The true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.
The Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
“My joy, I beg you, acquire the Spirit of Peace.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
When the Spirit of God comes down to man and overshadows him with the fullness of His inspiration, then the human soul overflows with unspeakable joy, for the Spirit of God fills with joy whatever He touches.
Always rejoice! You can’t do anything good from inner straining, but from joy – you can do anything.”
This is the way all righteous men were saved and inherited the Heavenly Kingdom…”

DAY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Metropolitan Anthony Sourozh
1989, 19 JUNE

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Today we are keeping the Feast of the Holy Spirit. What do we know about Him? We heard wonderful words of prayer about Him yesterday on Trinity Sunday, but let us think of Him, of the name He is given in the Gospel, which is translated ‘The Comforter’ in English, in other translations ‘The Advocate’. He is the One Who is the Comforter indeed, the One Who consoles us for our separation from Christ, Who consoles us who are like orphans, who long to be with Christ our God, our Saviour, and who know that as long as we are in the flesh – and these are the words of St. Paul – we are separated from Him. But for Him to be our Comforter, to be our consolation, we must first be aware of the fact that we are separated and this is the first question we must ask ourselves: are we aware of it, or do we live in the delusion that we are in God and God in us, and that nothing more is needed? How much more is needed!
He is also the One Who, as the Comforter, gives us strength, strength to live despite the separation, strength to stand fast and to be the doers of the Will, the fulfillers of the Commandments of God, the One Who can give us vigour of soul, determination, power to act. But this, again, only if we turn to Him and say, Come! Come and abide in us! Cleanse us! Be not only our Comforter but our strength also.

Lastly, He is the One Who gives us, already now, the joy of knowing how close we are despite what seems to be an infinite distance between God and us, the One Who, in unutterable groanings, speaks to God from the depths of our being; the One Who, because we are Christ’s own people, His brothers and sisters in humanity – and these are His own words – that we are the children of the Father. The joy of this, the wonder of this, the dignity of this! Indeed also, the responsibility of this…

If we think of our world which is to such a great extent alien to God, the Spirit is already the beginning of eternal life. His presence is a decisive fact. He beats against the rocks like the sea, He breaks resistances. He is the joy of eternity knocking at our door, forcing Himself into our lives, reminding us of God our Father, of Christ our Saviour and of our greatness and dignity before God, showing us that all things are possible in the power of Christ Who sustains us.

Let us therefore responsibly and gratefully keep this Feast. And may the Spirit of God Who came in tongues of fire upon the Apostles, come to us also – perhaps like a fire that sets us aglow and makes us like a Burning Bush, or touches us like the still, small voice which the Prophet heard in the wilderness in which God was, in His quiet humility, in His surrender to us, in His love for us. Amen.
http://www.mitras.ru/serm_eng.htm
http://www.mitras.ru/eng/eng_71.htm

***

Your faces are radiant with the glory of the Holy Spirit…

Ten years ago a certain two of the fathers of Holy Mount Sinai went up to worship on the Holy Summit. One of them is still alive. When they arrived at a distance of about two bow-shot from (the chapel of) Saint Elias they smelled a fragrance unlike any worldly fragrance. Then the disciple thought that the one who dwelt there was offering incense. The elder, his spiritual guide who is still living said, “The fragrance is not of this earth.”
Therefore, approaching the church, behold they saw within it like a fiery flaming kiln with tongues of fire coming from all the doors (and windows). Then, seeing this the disciple feared the sight. But the elder reassured him saying, “Why are you afraid, my child. It is an angelic power and our fellow servant; don’t lose courage. They venerate our nature in heaven; not we theirs.” Thus they fearlessly entered the church as if (going) into a kiln. They prayed and thus they ascended to the summit in the morning.
Beholding them, the guardian (of the peak) saw their faces glorified and shining like the face of Moses and he said to them, “Did you see anything unusual coming up?” Wanting to conceal the matter, they said, “No”. Then he said to them, Believe me, you saw some vision for behold your faces are radiant with the glory of the Holy Spirit.” They bowed to him and related the matter, asking that he tell nobody.

***

3. Once when the festival of Pentecost was celebrated, there was liturgy on the Holy Summit. When the priest intoned ‘the triumphal hymn of great glory’ the mountains answered with an awesome sound, saying three times, “Holy Holy Holy.” And the sound of the echo and the shout remained for about half an hour. This shout not everyone heard but only those having ears as the Lord said, “He who has ears let him hear.”
Various Narrations of Anastasios the humble monk concerning the holy fathers in Sinai
F. Nau. “Le texte grec des recits du moine Anastase sur les saints peres du Sinai”. Oriens Christianus 2 (1902) 58-89.

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St Seraphim of Sarov

Saint Seraphim of Sarov talks about the Holy Spirit with his friend and disciple Nicholai Motovilov:
“How do you feel now?” Father Seraphim asked me.
“Extraordinarily well,” I said.
“But in what way? How exactly do you feel well?”
“An extraordinary joy in all my heart.”
“When the Spirit of God descends on a man, and envelops him in the fulness of His presence, the soul overflows with unspeakable joy, for the Holy Spirit fills everything he touches with joy…
This is that joy of which the Lord speaks in His Gospel: A woman when she is in travail has sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. In the world you will be sorrowful; but when I see you again, your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you (Jn. 16:21-22). Yet however comforting may be this joy which you now feel in your heart, it is nothing in comparison with that of which the Lord Himself by the mouth of His Apostle said that that joy eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for them that love Him (I Cor. 2:9).
If the first-fruits of futire joy have already filled your soul with such sweetness, with such happiness, what shall we say of the joy in the Kingdom of Heaven, which awaits all those who weep here on earth. You also, my freind, have wept during your earthly life, but see the joy which our Lord sends to console you here below. For the present we must work, and make continual efforts to gain more and more strength to attain ‘the perfect measure of the stature of Christ…’ “so that the words of the Lord may be fulfilled in us: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall grow wings like eagles; and they shall run and not be weary (Is. 40:31); they will go from strength to strength, and the God of gods will appear to them in the Sion (Ps. 83:8) of realization and heavenly visions. Then this transitory and partial joy which we now feel will be revealed in all its fulness, overwhelming our being with ineffable delights which no one will be able to take from us.”
An extract from a booklet called “The Message of Saint Seraphim” by Irina Gorainov and published by Fairacres Publications

Synaxis of All Saints of Diveevo. “Here for you is Jerusalem, and Athos, and Kiev!’ Saint Seraphim of Sarov
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2018/06/13/23854/

“O Lord, give us peace!”St. Seraphim of Sarov
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2016/01/26/o-lord-give-us-peacest-seraphim-of-sarov/Apolytikion of Holy Pentecost
Mode pl. 4.

Blessed are You, O Christ our God. You sent down the Holy Spirit into the fishermen, and You gave them knowledge and wisdom in everything; and through them, as in a net You caught the whole world. O Lord who loves humanity, glory to You!

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!”

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.

Troparion of Prophet Elijah the Tishbite, the fiery Prophet, the prince of the Prophets – Tone 4

An angel in the flesh and the cornerstone of the prophets, the second forerunner of the coming of Christ, Glorious Elijah sent grace from on high to Elisha, to dispel diseases and to cleanse lepers. Therefore, he pours forth healings on those who honor him.

Troparion of St. Seraphim of Sarov, Tone 4

Thou didst love Christ from thy youth, O blessed one, and longing to work for Him alone thou didst struggle in the wilderness with constant prayer and labor. With penitent heart and great love for Christ thou wast favored by the Mother of God. Wherefore we cry to thee: Save us by thy prayers, O Seraphim our righteous Father.

Apolytikion of Saint Justin of Ćelije in Tone One

Let us honor with splendor the divinely inspired theologian, the wise Serb Justin, who by the scythe of the Holy Spirit hath thrashed the error of atheism and the insolence of the Latins, being a mystic of the God-man and lover of piety, crying out: Glory to Christ Who hath glorified thee, glory to Him Who hath crowned thee, glory to Him Who hath rendered thee a luminary to those who are in a state of darkness.

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

Synaxarion From the Pentecostarion.
On this day, Monday after Pentecost, we celebrate the all-holy, life-giving, and almighty Spirit, God, one of the Trinity, same in honor, essence, and glory with the Father and the Son.

Verses
Everything that breathes, glorify the Lord’s Spirit,
through whom gone is the impudence of evil spirits.

“The true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.
“My joy, I beg you, acquire the Spirit of Peace.”
St. Seraphim of Sarov

HOMILY
About how the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of men
by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Love is joy and love anoints the heart of man with joy. Brethren, love is power and love anoints the heart of man with power. Love is peace and love anoints the heart of man with peace. And from joy, power and peace, courage is born and love anoints the heart of man with courage.

The love of God, as a fragrant oil, is shed abroad in our hearts by no other than the Holy Spirit, the All-gentle and All-powerful Spirit. Completely undeserved by us, the Spirit of God is shed abroad in us: the love of God in our hearts in the Mystery [Sacrament] of Chrismation. However, in time we neglect this love and by sin we alienate ourselves from God and fall into the disease of spiritual paralysis. And the Holy Spirit unwilling to abide in an impure vessel, distances Itself from our heart.

When the Holy Spirit distances Itself from us, then joy, power, peace and courage also departs from us immediately. We become sorrowful, weakened, disturbed and fearful. But the All-good Spirit of God only distances Itself from us but does not abandon us completely. He does not abandon us but He offers to us who are sick, remedies through the ystery of Repentance and the Mystery of Holy Communion.

When we again cleanse ourselves through the Mysteries [Sacraments] of Repentance and Communion then He, the Holy Spirit of God, again abides in us and the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. We fall, we rise, we fall and we rise! When we fall, the Spirit of God stands by us and raises us if we desire to be raised. However, when we are raised, the Spirit of God stands within us all until we, by sin and foolishness, do not desire to fall. Thus, we in this life interchangeably become a fertile field and a wilderness, sons of repentance and prodigal sons, fullness and emptiness, light and darkness.

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.

To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen.
The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič
http://orthodox.cn/prologue/May24.htm

***

The burning Holy Table and Father John of Gelveri Kapadokya

On another occasion [Elder Ieronymos] told us about a certain priest of Kelveri named John, married and with a family. He was very compunctionate and when he served the Liturgy he wept and sighed and cried like a little child. He would often tarry at the time of the epiclesis when the Precious Gifts are sanctified — five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, and more. The chanters didn’t know what to do in their bewilderment. They would slowly chant “We hymn Thee, we bless Thee…” once, twice, thrice — after that they didn’t know what to chant. Begin to chant the Polyeleos? But that would be out of place. Chant the Communion Hymn? That wouldn’t do either. So one day they said to some of Father John’s disciples, ‘The Teacher [that is, the priest] takes a long time at the epiclesis, and we fall into despair about what to do. We chant ‘We hymn Thee’ over and over, but the blessed one doesn’t finish, we don’t hear the ‘Especially our all-holy, immaculate…,’ and everything’s in confusion out here.” They in turn said to Father John, “Venerable Father, you often take a long time at the epiclesis, and the chanters and the people are waiting outside. The chanters fall into despair and perplexity about what to say. Forgive us, is it not possible for you to finish the prayer, that confusion might be avoided?” At that the blessed one answered them, saying, “How can this be?” “Easily,” they said. “As you are prostrate, get up, seal the Precious Gifts with your right hand with the sign of the Cross, and say ‘And make this bread… and this cup… and the rest of the prayer, and so you finish.” “The prayer I know,” he answered. “It’s even written in the book. But I can’t.” “Why can’t you, our Father? Forgive us, it’s easy! Just say the prayer and seal the Precious Gifts, and then we can finish.”

“It’s not that easy. For there is a fire round about the Table, and I am not able. I say the prayer up to a certain point, but suddenly I am unable to enter into the fire to seal the Precious Gifts. There is fear and terror then, and I don’t know what to do. I fall down prostrate, I weep, I sigh, I beseech the Father of Lights, my sweet Jesus, the All-holy Spirit. I cry out, ‘Lord and Master of my life! My Fashioner and God! Spare Thy creatures and take away these flames so that I can approach and seal the Precious Gifts.’ I then lift up my eyes and gaze towards the Holy Table. If the flames have ceased, I get up and seal the Gifts. If not, then I pray again and beseech with tears and deep sighs until either the fire ceases, or a way is found that I might be able to enter into the veil of fire without being burned. Sometimes the fire ceases and everything is as it was before. At other times the flames divide to one side and the other, and become like an arch, and thus trembling I enter and dare to stretch out my hand and seal the Precious Gifts.”

Hearing such astonishing things, they didn’t bother Father John any more about the length of the epiclesis.
— The Elder Ieronymos of Aegina by Peter Botsis, Pub. Holy Transfiguration Monastery; pages 282–283

I am begging you: shed at least one [little] drop of tears every day. Let there pass for you no day without tears. St. Gregory of Nyssa writes: “A deep sigh returns the grace of God, to have been gone”.

***

Saint Paisios of Mount Athos

Whoever thinks that he can come to know the mysteries of God through external scientific theory, resembles the fool who wants to see Paradise with a telescope.

Those who struggle patristically become empirical theologians through the visitation of the Grace of the Holy Spirit. All those who have an external education, in addition to the internal enlightenment of the soul, may describe the divine mysteries and interpret them correctly, as did many Holy Fathers.

When purity comes to man and simplicity with its fervent faith and devotion arrives as well, then the Holy Trinity takes up His abode within us. With this divine enlightenment one easily finds the keys to divine meanings, so as to interpret the Spirit of God in a very simple and natural way, without causing an intellectual headache.

I wish you could find the heavenly divine spigot and drink and continue to get drunk away from the heavenly wine.

Troparion of Holy Pentecost, Tone 8.

Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit: through them Thou didst draw the world into Thy net. O Lover of Man, Glory to Thee!

Tone II

We have seen the true Light; * we have received the Heavenly Spirit; * we have found the true Faith, * we worship the indivisible Trinity; ** for He hath saved us.

O Gracious Light Phos hilaron
(At Vespers daily)

O gracious light,
pure brightness of the everliving Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!
Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
and our eyes behold the vesper light,
we sing your praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
and to be glorified through all the worlds.

By the coming of Your Holy Spirit, by the intercessions of Your Apostles, O Christ God, have mercy on us. Amen.

Orthodoxy has its own true and infallible Pope, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the wisdom and power of God, who rules all and everything,… O All-seeing God, strengthen our hearts that we neither be blind leaders not blind followers. Saint Nicholas Velimirovich

On this day, the seventh Sunday of Pascha, we celebrate the First Ecumenical Synod in Nicaea of the three hundred eighteen Godbearing Fathers.

Repose in the Lord of Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea,
Holy Elder Eumenios Saridakis (May 23, 1999)
Elder Justin Pârvu of Romania (June 16, 2013).
Abbess Macrina of the Monastery of Panagia Odigitria in Portaria (June 4, 1995)

Verses
Luminous stars of the spiritual sky,
illumine my mind with the light of your rays.
Against Arius
Arius be a stranger to God’s glory,
for calling the Son a stranger to the Father’s essence.

”O Master, leave not as orphans, But as Thou didst promise, * send us Thine All-holy Spirit…”

Saint Nikolai Velimirovich:
To an Orthodox scholar who asks why Orthodoxy doesn’t have its own pope (Letter 48)

“Well, oh yes! Orthodoxy has its own Pope, greater than all popes and patriarchs in the world. It has had and will have from the beginning to the end of the ages. This is the same pope invoked by all Christ’s Apostles, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and reason, the Spirit of God’s comfort and power. He is the true pope of Christ’s Church, without substitution or change, without disputations or elections, with no precursor or successor.

Moreover, fortunately, there is a document, written by their own hands, where we observe that the Apostles recognized/confessed the Holy Spirit as their chosen patron and pope.
At the first Council in Jerusalem, the Apostles had written these famous words: It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. (Acts.15, 28)

It is obvious that the Apostles put the Holy Spirit before and over them. Before this and each of their meetings, they used to pray and invoke Him. Have not the leaders of the Church done the same thing until nowadays? Every time they meet, first of all, they remember of their infallible pope-the Holy Spirit. They invoke Him with fear before all their work and obey to Him without any condition. Not only the leaders of the Church but also the leaders of the Orthodox states, the ministries and the members of the Parliament first used to invoke the Holy Spirit and than began their work as civil authorities. Similarly, also did and do the school leaders. You know that, at the beginning of their school work, they go to church with their students for invoking the Holy Spirit? And the All Benefactor, Almighty and All Wise handles, invigorates and inspires all of them: the Church, the State and those who work into the educational system. And He governs all people in all deeds, not brutally like the earthly dictators but like a father, with wisdom and love. He is our father through the Baptism we received. And you know that the Greek word “papa” means father. Indeed it means, ethically and historically felt, that the Holy Spirit is our father, our pope. Then, what should it be necessary for the Orthodox Church to have another father or pope? Isn’t Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself who has advertised us to avoid the earthly fathers, the stepfathers? He, nineteenth centuries ago, ordered us: And do not call anyone on earth ‘father’ (being read: pope), for you have one Father and He is in Heaven. (Mt. 23,9.).

I wish you health and the peace of God

Source: https://svetosavlje.org/sr/misionarska-pisma/49/
Extracted from the Saint’s book: “Missionary Letters”, Translated and published by Anda Maria Martin
https://laortodoxia.wordpress.com/2018/09/29/saint-nikolai-velimirovich-to-an-orthodox-scholar-who-asks-why-orthodoxy-doesnt-have-its-own-pope-letter-48/

***

Homily
About the power that God gave to the words of the prophets
by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

“Behold, I made My words in your mouth, a fire. And this people is the wood that it shall devour!” (Jeremiah 5:14).

You see brethren, that the effect of the word of God is different according to different people. The word of God is like fire, in whom the righteous one rejoices, as one frozen in the cold of this world; and the word of God is like fire which burns the unrighteous one whom this material world has overly warmed. The experienced spiritual fathers have left us proof that only the Name of Jesus brings power, joy and refreshment to the faithful – and this Name consumes evil spirits as a living fire. That is the way with every word of God. With some it creates comfort, with others irritation, with some it quiets anger, with others it increases anger, with some it provokes respect with fear and with others scorn. To the healthy it is honey; to the unhealthy it is the honey of wormwood.

But, why should the people be as wood which will be consumed? For, are the people to be blamed if the godless elders and false prophets lead them astray? The people are not to blame to such a degree as their elders and false prophets but nevertheless they are to blame to a certain extent. For God also gave the people to know the right path through conscience and through the preaching of God’s word and the people should not blindly follow their blind leaders when they lead them on the false paths and distance them from God and God’s law.

Brethren, God is Just and He knows the measure of everyone’s faults, and He will not permit the illiterate and the least to suffer as much as the literate and the greatest.

O All-seeing God, save us that we neither be blind leaders not blind followers. Strengthen our hearts that, as leaders and as followers, we will always be Your servants and only Your servants.

To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.
The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič 
http://livingorthodoxfaith.blogspot.gr/2010/01/prologue-may-6-may-19.html

Here the angelic music of the eternal truth of God—is clothed in human words.St. Justin Popovich
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/here-the-angelic-music-of-the-eternal-truth-of-god-is-clothed-in-human-words-st-justin-popovich/

Let us prepare ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we must truly be in the world in which we live an incarnate presence of Christ and the temple of Spirit, a vanguard of the Kingdom. Anthony Bloom of Sourozh
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2021/06/12/let-us-prepare-ourselves-to-be-filled-with-the-holy-spirit-so-that-we-must-truly-be-in-the-world-in-which-we-live-an-incarnate-presence-of-christ-and-the-temple-of-spirit-a-vanguard-of-the-kingdom-a/

St Nicholas Archbishop of Myra and the First Ecumenical Council
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/st-nicholas-archbishop-of-myra-and-the-first-ecumenical-council/

Apolytikion For the Fathers.
Glory. Mode pl. 4.

Supremely blessed are You, O Christ our God. You established the holy Fathers upon the earth as beacons, and through them You have guided us all to the true Faith, O greatly merciful One, glory be to You.

Both now. Apolytikion of the Feast. From Pentecostarion
Mode 4.

You ascended in glory, O Christ our God, after You filled the Disciples with joy, by promising to send them the Holy Spirit, and You blessed them and established their faith, that You are the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world.

For the Fathers. From Pentecostarion
Mode pl. 2. That woman, who was spurned.

Who is it, O Savior, that rent Your garment? * “Arius,” You said, who creates divisions, * dividing the Trinity’s equipotent dominion. * He rejected You as being one of the Trinity’s persons. * He teaches Nestorius not to use the term Theotokos. * But the holy Council in Nicea * proclaimed that You are the Son of God and share the throne * with the Father and the Spirit, O Lord.

Arius the fool introduced division * into the holy Trinity’s single kingship, * asserting three dissimilar and alien natures. * Therefore the God-bearing fathers convened in the holy Council * burning with zeal for God, like the Prophet Elijah the Tishbite, * and they wielded the sword of the Spirit, * and they cut off that shameful teacher of blasphemy, * according to what the Spirit decreed.

Lauds.
Mode pl. 2. When the saints deposited.

When those holy hierarchs, preachers of Christ, and defenders * of the Gospel teachings and Orthodox traditions had received in themselves * the divine radiance of the Holy Spirit, * they proclaimed the supernatural * pronouncement openly * to be their conviction inspired by God, * namely the Creed, which is concise * yet defines the true faith sufficiently. * Clearly these enlightened and blessed men, receiving from on high * the revelation, declared to all * the decision taught by God.

When the holy Shepherds brought all of their pastoral knowledge * to the Council and they stirred * their most righteous anger now justifiably, * they drove out with the sling of the Holy Spirit * the offensive and corruptive wolves, * and from the complement of the Church of Christ they expelled them all, * as having fallen mortally, and as being ill and incurable. * Thus they demonstrated themselves as loyal servants of the Lord, * and sacred mystics of the divine * and inspired preaching of Christ.

Glory.  From Pentecostarion 
Mode pl. 4.

When the choir of Holy Fathers convened from every corner of the civilized world, they decreed into dogma the single essence and nature of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And the mystery of theology they clearly handed down to the Church. Let us the faithful call them blessed, and extolling them let us say: O divine battalion, heavy artillery of theologians of the Lord’s army; luminaries that shine brightly in the noetic firmament; the mystical Zion’s unassailable towers; the sweet scented flowers of Paradise; the solid gold mouthpieces of the Logos; the glory of Nicaea and the splendor of the universe. Intercede insistently on behalf of our souls.

Lord, Holy Spirit, help Your people by Your irresistible power that they drive away sin from their soul; so that You would be able to enter inside with Your life-creating gifts. Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

Homily
About how by sins good is being turned back from man
by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič

“Your sins have turned back these blessings from you” (Jeremiah 5:25).

If you do not possess good in abundance, O people, that means you have sin in abundance. Your sins have turned your good from you. O people, if you wish good for yourself, reject sin and do not sin anymore and you will travel toward good, and good will come to you and good will not depart from you.

O man, if you do not have good, it means that you have sin. Good cannot dwell in the same house with sin just as light and darkness cannot exist in the same place at the same time. When light departs, darkness settles in and when the darkness departs, the light shines. Thus, sin and good can be interchanged but they cannot dwell together.

O my brethren, “Your sins have turned back these blessings from you.” These words were not spoken by only one prophet, to one people only, rather every true prophet spoke these words to his people. False prophets flatter the sins of their people, and thus, assist them even more to turn back good from their people. The true prophets go against the sins of the people, for they go along with good and cry out against sin, in order to be able to introduce good, which is from God, in the souls of their people. If the beehive begins to smell, will the honey carrying bees enter it and deposit their honey in it? No! And when the irrational bees do not want to enter in a putrid and smoke-ridden beehive, then how will the rational Spirit of God enter a soul, putrid and smoke-ridden from sin? And the Spirit of God is the possessor and the dispenser of all good gifts.

O Lord, Holy Spirit, help Your people by Your irresistible power that they drive away sin from their soul; so that You would be able to enter inside with Your life-creating gifts.

To You be glory and thanks always. Amen.
The Prologue from Ohrid: Lives of Saints by Saint Nikolai Velimirovič
http://prologue.orthodox.cn/May7.htm

Love makes me God… Poem XXXIV(34) St. Nikolai Velimirovich, Bishop of Ochrid
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2017/12/26/20129/

Saint Symeon, the New Theologian (949-1022 CE)

Come, O true light!
— Come, O eternal life!
— Come, O hidden mystery!
— Come, O indescribable treasure!..
— Come, O endless delight!
— Come, O unsetting light!
— Come, O true and fervent expectation of all those who will be saved!..
— Come, O resurrection of the dead!
— Come, O powerful one, who always creates and re-creates and transforms by your will alone!..
— O Master, stay and do not leave me alone, so that my enemies, arriving unexpectedly, they who are always seeking to lessen my soul, may find you living within me and that they may take flight, in defeat, powerless against me, seeing you, O more powerful than everything, installed within my essence in the home of my poor soul.

O my King, You are nearer to me than my breath and dwell deeper within me than my thoughts. Poem LXXXV (85) St. Nikolai Velimirovich

‘‘O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Come and dwell in us…”

Prayers by the Lake
Poem LXXXV (85)
St. Nikolai Velimirovich, Bishop of Ochrid

Wherever a king is found, there is also a kingdom. A king without a kingdom is not a king, nor is a widowed kingdom a kingdom.

“The kingdom of heaven is within you,”1 said the Royal Son, and joy has illuminated all those wayfarers in the cemeteries, who have understood this heavenly message.

A Moslem does not believe that You ever touch the filthy earth. The pagan sees You entirely composed of earth. The Royal Son knows the royal way, and manifests You in purest earth. In purest earth He even clothed Himself and came down to bring luminescence and essence.2

O my King, You are nearer to me than my breath and dwell deeper within me than my thoughts.

What is my breath except something that enters into me from outside and leaves? Even before my lungs began breathing You were inside me. You knew of me while I was still in my father’s loins. Even before the creation of the world You thought about me.3

What are my thoughts except the impressions of external objects, impressions which enter my mind like threads in a loom, where they are woven and brought together, disjoined and lost? All objects are outside my mind, and objects do not enter my mind but only their impressions.

However You are the only reality of my mind, with which my mind is also born. And You were in me before any impression was; You were in contact with me before I had contact with any object.

From the time I first heard the glad tidings of the King, I have spread out my soul like a canopy over most precious treasures and have sought You and Your Kingdom within her. I have spread her out and I see no end or bottom to her. I can neither reach all her height, nor descend into all her vaults.

I have discovered radiant rays, which indicate some sun in the distance. I have discovered the golden columns of a temple, but nowhere do I see any end to the temple.

I smell the fragrant scent of a censer’s incense, but I cannot glimpse a royal throne.

The more I keep trying and discover, the more I see the One who is hidden.

You placed unimagined mysteries in me, O Lord of countless hosts. In each of Your soldiers Your royal radiance shines.

Just as a sun does not exist without radiant rays, so is the King not without His angels, His radiant rays.

You bring infinity with Yourself, my King, and You bring infinity into my soul.

You cloak Yourself with eternity as with a mantle, my King, and with this mantle you cloak my soul.

The Spirit creates His own Where and When, and is not dependent on His creations.

O Lord, Most Rich, I am discovering myself apart from the senses when I gaze into my soul. What immense wealth You have accumulated into this paltry earthen vessel!

Truly, I am to blame, if I feel poor. I am to blame, if I feel mortal.

It is my own suicide, if I feel that I am a slave of the world and of worldly self-deception.

Wherever You are, there also is the kingdom of heaven; and wherever the kingdom of heaven is, You are also.

If Your kingdom has not entered me, truly neither shall I enter Your kingdom.

O immortal King, hear the utterance of my tongue; hear my song, the sole sacrifice of my tongue:

Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Triradiate Life and Blessedness! Amen.
_________________________________________________________
1. Cf. Luke 17:21.
2. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, hill of grace and truth” (John 1:14). “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4).
3. “He was in the beginning with God. An things were made through Him, and without Hirn nothing was made that was made” (John 1:2-3).
http://www.sv-luka.org/praylake/pl85.htm

Apolytikion of Holy Pentecost. Tone 8. (Plagal Tone Four)

Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit: through them Thou didst draw the world into Thy net. O Lover of Man, Glory to Thee!

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.

My hope is the Father, my refuge the Son, my shelter the Holy Spirit. O Holy Trinity, glory be to Thee

The Divine Bridegroom chose a Bride for Himself, the Church of pure souls, and the Spirit of eternal joy had to descend, so that heaven and earth might be betrothed, and the Bride adorned in white garments. St. Nicholai Velimirovich

Synaxarion
On this day, the Monday of Pentecost, we celebrate the All‐holy and Life‐creating and Omnipotent Spirit, Who is God, and One of the Trinity, and of one honour and one essence and one glory with the Father and the Son.

Verses
O every breath, glorify the Spirit of the Lord,
Through Whom the impudence of the evil
Spirits is made to vanish.

Saint Justin Popovich

Everything in the Church comes about through the Holy Spirit, from the least to the greatest.
In fact, every holy mystery and holy virtue is a little Pentecost; in them, the Holy Spirit descends upon us, into us.
The Lord dwells in us by the Holy Spirit, and we in Him. This is testified to us by the presence of the Holy Spirit in us. We live by the Holy Spirit in Christ, and He in us. We know this “by the Spirit which He hath given us” (I Jn. 3:24).

***

St. Nicholai Velimirovich

When seed is sown, the power of warmth and light must descend upon it to make it grow.

When a tree is planted, the power of the wind must come in order to make it strong.

When a householder builds his house, he has recourse to the power of prayer, in order to sanctify it.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has sown a most select seed in the field of this world. The power of the Holy Spirit had to descend in order to warm and sanctify that seed, so that it would grow and prosper.

God the Son planted the tree of life in the overgrown field of death. The mighty wind of God the Holy Spirit had to sweep through, in order to strengthen the tree of life.

The Divine Bridegroom chose a Bride for Himself, the Church of pure souls, and the Spirit of eternal joy had to descend, so that heaven and earth might be betrothed, and the Bride adorned in white garments.

All of this happened just as it was foretold. The Holy Spirit was promised, and the Holy Spirit descended. Who could promise the descent of the Omnipotent Spirit on the earth other than He Who knew that this Spirit would obey Him and descend? And to Whom could the Omnipotent Spirit show such speedy obedience if not to the One for Whom He had perfect love?

Oh, how perfect love is always ready for perfect obedience! After all, perfect love cannot be perfectly expressed in any other way than by perfect obedience. Love is always vigilant in its desire and readiness to obey its beloved. And from perfect obedience flows, just like a stream of honey and milk, perfect joy, which is the content of the attractive power of love.
From the collected works of St. Nicholai (Velimirovich)

***

Metropolitan Anthony Sourozh

The Spirit of truth, but also Him whom the Scripture calls the Paraclete. It means “the Comforter”, Him who gives consolation. It means ‘Comforter’ in the sense that He gives us strength, it means also “Him, who brings joy”.

He is the One Who is the Comforter indeed, the One Who consoles us for our separation from Christ, Who consoles us who are like orphans, who long to be with Christ our God, our Saviour, and who know that as long as we are in the flesh – and these are the words of St. Paul – we are separated from Him.

Strength? St. Paul hoped for strength, he prayed for it and the Lord answered him, “My grace suffices unto thee, My strength is made manifest in weakness.” And Paul rejoices in his weakness, so, he says, that all should be the power of God. Not the weakness of our slackness, of our laziness, of our timidity, of our cowardice, of our forgetfulness, no, not that weakness but the frailty recognised, which is given to God, the surrender of ourselves.

The martyrs were frail, as frail as we were, but they abandoned themselves to God and they lived and died in the power of the Spirit. We need that strength.
And then the Paraclete is the one that gives joy, the joy of entering already now into eternity, the joy of being joined to Christ in the communion of the one body, the joy of giving our lives for Him and if necessary – our death, a joy which the world cannot give but which the world cannot take away.

Let us therefore in all our life, whether we pray, listen to the unutterable groanings of the Spirit within us, teaching us ultimately to call the God of Heaven our Father if we are in Jesus Christ, in the words of Irenaeus of Lyon, sons of God in the Only-Begotten Son of God.

By the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the
Intercessions of Thine Apostles, O Christ
God, have mercy on us. Amen.

Apolytikion of Holy Pentecost. Tone 8.

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!

Of the Feast, in Tone IV:

The Holy Spirit is Light and Life, * and a living, noetic Fountain, * a Spirit of wisdom, a Spirit of understanding; * a good, an upright, a noetic Spirit, * presiding in power and purging offenses. * Deity and deifier; * He is Fire, issuing from Fire, * speaking, working, distributing the gifts; * through Whom all the Prophets, and the Apostles of God, * and all the Martyrs received their crowns. * Strange is this report, strange and new this sight, ** a Fire divided that these gifts may be apportioned.

Glory …, Now & ever …, in Tone VI:

Heavenly King, * Comforter, Spirit of Truth, * Who art everywhere present * and fillest all things, * Treasury of good gifts * and Giver of life: * come and abide in us, * and cleanse us of all impurity, ** and save our souls, O Good One.

After the 2nd chanting of the Psalter (Kath. V) Sessional Hymn, in Tone IV:

The spring of the Holy Spirit hath descended upon the earth, * in the form of fiery streams apportioned noetically to all, * as it bedewed and enlightened the Apostles. * The fire became a cloud bedewing them, * filling them with light, and raining flames upon them. * And through them, grace hath been granted to us by fire and water. ** Lo the Comforter’s light hath come and illumined the World.

Sessional Hymn, in Tone VIII:

The all-holy Spirit, having now come down upon the blessed Apostles * in the form of fire, * filled with astonishment all the nations assembled there. * For, O Lover of mankind, * as they spoke with fiery tongues, * everyone there present heard the speech in his native tongue. * While the miracle was taken to be drunkenness by the unbelieving, * it truly led those with faith to salvation. * For this cause we glorify Thy sovereignty O Christ God, * asking that the remission of our sins, ** be sent down in abundance upon Thy servants.

Tone II

We have seen the true Light; * we have received the Heavenly Spirit; * we have found the true Faith, * we worship the indivisible Trinity; ** for He hath saved us.

The Great Prokeimenon, in Tone VII:

Prokeimenon: What God is as great as our God? * Thou art God, Who alone workest wonders.

Verse: Thou hast made Thy power known among the peoples.

The Feast of the Holy Trinity we are going to ask, in our prayers, for the Holy Spirit to come down to us; more than this, to pervade, to fill us, to transform and transfigure us. Anthony Bloom of Sourozh

Synaxarion
On this day the eight Sunday of Pascha, we celebrate Holy Pentecost.

Verse: In a mighty wind doth Christ distribute the Divine Spirit.
In the form of fiery tongues unto the Apostles.
In one great day, the Spirit was poured forth upon the Fishermen.

In the Holy Spirit, * every soul is quickened, * and, through cleansing, is exalted * and made radiant by the Triple Unity in a hidden sacred manner.

The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. St. Seraphim of Sarov

Holy Trinity
Sunday 11th June 2000
Anthony Bloom of Sourozh

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In a week’s time we will keep the Feast of the Holy Trinity and on the next day especially the Feast of the Holy Spirit. We are going to ask, in our prayers, for the Holy Spirit to come down to us; more than this, to pervade, to fill us, to transform and transfigure us.

The world was created by God’s word, by a call of God to come into existence and to meet Him in the mystery of the divine love that gives itself to us. And we know to what extent love divine is capable of giving without counting – think of the crucifixion, think of the life and death of Christ. This is the measure of God’s love for us.

And when the world was created, we are told in the beginnings of Genesis that the Holy Spirit was breathing upon the newly-created world, bringing out all its capabilities, making it possible to unfold, to grow from glory to glory. And when sin had confused the ways of the created world, and of men in particular, the Holy Spirit was there, reminding us, calling us, making Himself tangibly known to us and bringing us in repentance to the God who loved us to the point of the crucifixion.

If we want to understand the dread words of the Gospel, that all sins against the Son can be forgiven but not the sins against the Holy Spirit, we can try to understand it in the following way.

Christ was a Word which we can hear, and we can misunderstand or understand. Christ was light that makes everything visible, but the light itself remains unseen to us. He called us to understand, He explained to us all that we are capable of understanding. But there was something more to be done, because we may confuse words and notions and understanding. But He sent to us the Holy Spirit: the Holy Spirit who is like fire and like warmth – warmth that pervades all it touches. And here we can understand the difference between the knowledge acquired in the Spirit and in the Son.

The Son remains the Word. He remains the truth, which we can understand to the extent to which we are ready for it. The Holy Spirit is the divine warmth, divine life, pervading us and making us to commune with what is God, and God’s own. We may be confused by what we hear and do not understand but if we deny the direct experience which is given us in the gift of the Holy Spirit, if we say we are filled with the warmth of God and that it is untrue, it remains cold, then we deny not the Holy Spirit, we deny the experience which we actually have and which we do not want to recognise. And no one can save us from the denial of our own knowledge of the truth. The knowledge proclaimed we may not be ready, mature enough to understand. The knowledge experienced, if we deny it, condemns us.

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? What has He taught us, not in words but in direct knowledge up to which I have not lived? And let us make haste to recapture it, to beg the Holy Spirit for forgiveness, to come back to the point of experiential knowledge which was ours, and open ourselves to a vaster, deeper, more profound and more perfect knowledge which we can receive from the Holy Spirit, in Christ and by the gift of the Father, next week when we pray. Amen.
https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Antonij_Surozhskij/sermons/283
http://masarchive.org/Sites/texts/2000-06-11-1-E-E-S-EM04-139HolyTrinity.html

By the intercessions of Thy Holy Apostles, O Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.

My hope is the Father, my refuge the Son, my shelter the Holy Spirit. O Holy Trinity, glory be to Thee

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.

Tone I:

The Holy Spirit provideth all things; * He gusheth forth prophecy; * He perfecteth the priesthood; * He hath taught wisdom to the illiterate. * He hath shown forth the fishermen as theologians. * He holdeth together the whole institution of the Church. * Wherefore, O Comforter, * one in essence and throne with the Father and the Son, ** glory be to Thee.

Tone II:

We have seen the true Light; * we have received the Heavenly Spirit; * we have found the true Faith, * we worship the indivisible Trinity; ** for He hath saved us.

Kontakion and Ikos of the Feast. (Tone VIII):

Once, when He descended and confounded the tongues, * the Most High divided the nations; * and when He divided the tongues of fire, * He called all men into unity; ** and with one accord we glorify the All-Holy Spirit.

Ikos: Grant speedy and steadfast consolation unto Thy servants, O Jesus, when our spirits are become despondent. Depart not from our souls when they be in afflictions, nor be Thou afar from our minds when they be in tribulations, but do Thou ever go before us. Draw nigh unto us, draw nigh, O Thou Who art everywhere present; and even as Thou wast ever with Thine apostles, so also do Thou unite Thyself to them that long for Thee, O Compassionate One, that, being one with Thee, we may praise and glorify Thine All-Holy Spirit.

Communion Verse:
Thy good Spirit shall lead me in the land of uprightness. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia

Let us prepare ourselves to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we must truly be in the world in which we live an incarnate presence of Christ and the temple of Spirit, a vanguard of the Kingdom. Anthony Bloom of Sourozh

seventh Sunday after Pascha
Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea

Repose in the Lord of The seventh Sunday after the Feast of Holy Pascha,
Holy Elder Eumenios Saridakis (May 23, 1999)
Holy Elder Justin Pârvu of Romania (June 16, 2013).
Abbess Macrina of the Monastery of Panagia Odigitria in Portaria in Volos (June 4, 1995)

Saint John Triantaphyllides, the New Chrysostom and Merciful, of Chaldia in Asia Minor (1903)
Alexandra (Melgunova) of Diveyevo, foundress of Diveyevo Convent (1789)
Martyr Aquilina of Byblos in Lebanon (293)
The Myriad Holy Martyrs, by the sword
Saint Triphyllius, Bishop of Ledra (Leucosia, Nicosia) in Cyprus (c. 370)
Saint Anna of Larissa in Thessaly (826) and her son John (9th century)
Andronicus, disciple of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, Abbot (1395) – Sabbas of Moscow, Abbot (1410)
Saint Philotheos of Sklataina, second founder of the Monastery of St. Stephen at Meteora (1550)
Finding of the relics (1960) of Hieromartyr Nicholas of Lesvos, Deacon (1463)

Commemorated on June 13

Sermon on Sunday between Ascension and Pentecost
Anthony Bloom of Sourozh
22 May 1988

In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.

During the Last Supper our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples that separation was near, that He was to ascend to His God and to His Father as He would repeat again to the women who came to the grave. And when their hearts were filled with sorrow at the thought that they will not see Him again, He said, “Your hearts are full with sorrow and yet, you should rejoice for Me that I am returning to My Father. But I will not,” he added, “leave you orphan, I will send you the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father, whom I will send to you and who will teach you all things.” And so do we here now while we are still in the light of the Ascension.

St. Paul grieved about the necessity of living in the world and in the flesh. He said, “To me life is Christ and death would be a gain, a blessing, because as long as we are in the flesh, we are separated from Christ.” And yet, this separation is not total, we are not separated irremediably, we are not separated desperately from Christ if we only long for Him, if we only love Him, if as St. Paul longed to die to be inseparably forever with Him because according to the promise the Holy Spirit has come on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit whom we call the Comforter by word, which in ancient languages has a much wider meaning. It means the one who consoles, the one who gives strength, the one who brings joy. His presence indeed can console us from our separation from Christ because the Holy Spirit if we only live according to the Gospel, if we become not only in word or in imagination but in all truth, in action and in thought, in our heart and in our being disciples of Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in us. We become His temples and He speaks to us either in unutterable groaning or with that wonderful clarity that allows us to call ‘Father’ the God of Heaven because in Christ and by the power of the Spirit we have become the children of the Living God.

So the separation from Christ is a separation in space, it is the loss of that moving, wonderful contact of humanity as we know it on earth but it is the beginning of a new discovery of Christ, the Christ not only risen but ascended, the Christ who according to today’s Gospel is resplendent with the glory, the shining that belonged to Him before all ages, the shining, the resplendence, the splendour of Divinity. And it is this Christ whom we meet in prayer, whom we discover through and in the Holy Sacraments, to whom we can get united only by a faithfulness in life, it is this Christ of whom Paul speaks when he says, “We no longer know Christ according to the flesh”, we do not touch Him as Thomas did, we do not hear and see Him as Apostles and the women, and all crowds of people did, but we know the Christ of the Spirit, the risen and ascended Christ, who is everywhere where two or three are gathered together, who is everywhere when a lonely soul cries for Him, when a life is being dedicated to Him.

And so we are confronted with this mystery of a separation, which is a victory, a separation, which leads us to a new knowledge, to a new discovery of Christ. His Divinity is no longer veiled for us by His human presence, He is revealed to us as God resplendent not only in His Godhead but also in His humanity. And so it happens also all the time when people meet on a human level and then discover one another in the Holy Spirit, a discovery that makes humanity resplendent with eternity.

Let us rejoice in the Ascension but also let us remember that in a week’s time we will stand here remembering the day of Pentecost, not only remember it as an event of the past but bringing it back by presenting ourselves to the descent of the Holy Spirit as the Apostles offered themselves to Him in the Upper Room nearly 2,000 years ago. But to do this we must be disciples of Christ, we must be His own, we must be faithful to the word of His preaching, we must follow the example which He gave us, we must truly be in the world in which we live an incarnate presence of Christ and the temple of Spirit, a vanguard of the Kingdom.

Let us devote the coming week to preparing ourselves by searching our lives, by rejecting at least in intention and determination all that is unworthy of our calling. Let us prepare ourselves to come open, empty to be filled with the Spirit, so that we truly may be also in an ever-increasing way become the temples of His presence. Amen.
http://www.mitras.ru/eng/eng_118.htm

St Nicholas Archbishop of Myra and the First Ecumenical Council
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2015/05/24/st-nicholas-archbishop-of-myra-and-the-first-ecumenical-council/

Living as Orthodox means self-sacrifice, not for one minute or one day, not for a week, a month or a year, but for a lifetime …. Elder Justin (Pârvu)
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2021/02/12/living-as-orthodox-means-self-sacrifice-not-for-one-minute-or-one-day-not-for-a-week-a-month-or-a-year-but-for-a-lifetime-elder-justin-parvu/

If your heart becomes one with Christ’s heart, you feel what He feels. Elder Evmenios Saridakis
https://iconandlight.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/if-your-heart-becomes-one-with-christs-heart-you-feel-what-he-feels-elder-evmenios-saridakis/

Troparion of the Ascension, Tone IV:

Thou hast ascended in glory, O Christ our God, * and gladdened Thy disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit; * and they were assured by the blessing * that Thou art the Son of God ** and Redeemer of the world. (Once)

Kontakion and Ikos of the Ascension. Tone VI:

When Thou didst fulfill Thy dispensation for our sake, * uniting things on earth with the heavens, * Thou didst ascend in glory, O Christ our God, * departing not hence, but remaining inseparable from us, * and crying unto them that love Thee: ** I am with you, and no one shall be against you.