In the Church\u2019s annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is \u201cthe last and great day.\u201d It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end\u2014the achievement and fulfillment\u2014of the entire history of salvation. For the same reason, however, it is also the celebration of the beginning: it is the \u201cbirthday\u201d of the Church as the presence among us of the Holy Spirit, of the new life in Christ, of grace, knowledge, adoption to God and holiness.<\/p>\n
This double meaning and double joy is revealed to us, first of all, in the very name of the feast. Pentecost in Greek means fifty, and in the sacred biblical symbolism of numbers, the number fifty symbolizes both the fulness of time and that which is beyond time: the Kingdom of God itself. It symbolizes the fulness of time by its first component: 49, which is the fulness of seven (7 x 7): the number of time. And, it symbolizes that which is beyond time by its second component: 49 + 1, this one being the new day, the \u201cday without evening\u201d of God\u2019s eternal Kingdom. With the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ\u2019s disciples, the time of salvation, the Divine work of redemption has been completed, the fulness revealed, all gifts bestowed: it belongs to us now to \u201cappropriate\u201d these gifts, to be that which we have become in Christ: participants and citizens of His Kingdom.<\/p>\n
THE VIGIL OF PENTECOST<\/p>\n
The all-night Vigil service begins with a solemn invitation:<\/p>\n
\u201cLet us celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit,
\nThe appointed day of promise, and the fulfillment of hope,
\nThe mystery which is as great as it is precious.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the coming of the Spirit, the very essence of the Church is revealed:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Holy Spirit provides all,
\nOverflows with prophecy, fulfills the priesthood,
\nHas taught wisdom to illiterates, has revealed fishermen as theologians,
\nHe brings together the whole council of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the three readings of the Old Testament (Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29; Joel 2:23-32; Ezekiel 36:24-28) we hear the prophecies concerning the Holy Spirit. We are taught that the entire history of mankind was directed towards the day on which God \u201cwould pour out His Spirit upon all flesh.\u201d This day has come! All hope, all promises, all expectations have been fulfilled. At the end of the Aposticha hymns, for the first time since Easter, we sing the hymn: \u201cO Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth…,\u201d the one with which we inaugurate all our services, all prayers, which is, as it were, the life-breath of the Church, and whose coming to us, whose \u201cdescent\u201d upon us in this festal Vigil, is indeed the very experience of the Holy Spirit \u201ccoming and abiding in us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Troparion \u2014 Tone 8<\/strong><\/p>\n
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!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Having reached its climax, the Vigil continues as an explosion of joy and light for \u201cverily the light of the Comforter has come and illumined the world.\u201d In the Gospel reading (John 20:19-23) the feast is interpreted to us as the feast of the Church, of her divine nature, power and authority. The Lord sends His disciples into the world, as He Himself was sent by His Father. Later, in the antiphons of the Liturgy, we proclaim the universality of the apostles\u2019 preaching, the cosmical significance of the feast, the sanctification of the whole world, the true manifestation of God\u2019s Kingdom.<\/p>\n
THE VESPERS OF PENTECOST<\/p>\n
The liturgical peculiarity of Pentecost is a very special Vespers of the day itself. Usually this service follows immediately the Divine Liturgy, is \u201cadded\u201d to it as its own fulfillment. The service begins as a solemn \u201csumming up\u201d of the entire celebration, as its liturgical synthesis. We hold flowers in our hands symbolizing the joy of the eternal spring, inaugurated by the coming of the Holy Spirit. After the festal Entrance, this joy reaches its climax in the singing of the Great Prokeimenon:<\/p>\n
\u201cWho is so great a God as our God?\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, having reached this climax, we are invited to kneel. This is our first kneeling since Easter. It signifies that after these fifty days of Paschal joy and fulness, of experiencing the Kingdom of God, the Church now is about to begin her pilgrimage through time and history. It is evening again, and the night approaches, during which temptations and failures await us, when, more than anything else, we need Divine help, that presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who has already revealed to us the joyful End, who now will help us in our effort towards fulfillment and salvation.<\/p>\n
All this is revealed in the three prayers which the celebrant reads now as we all kneel and listen to him. In the first prayer, we bring to God our repentance, our increased appeal for forgiveness of sins, the first condition for entering into the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n
In the second prayer, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us, to teach us to pray and to follow the true path in the dark and difficult night of our earthly existence. Finally, in the third prayer, we remember all those who have achieved their earthly journey, but who are united with us in the eternal God of Love.<\/p>\n
The joy of Easter has been completed and we again have to wait for the dawn of the Eternal Day. Yet, knowing our weakness, humbling ourselves by kneeling, we also know the joy and the power of the Holy Spirit who has come. We know that God is with us, that in Him is our victory.<\/p>\n
Thus is completed the feast of Pentecost and we enter \u201cthe ordinary time\u201d of the year. Yet, every Sunday now will be called \u201cafter Pentecost\u201d\u2014and this means that it is from the power and light of these fifty days that we shall receive our own power, the Divine help in our daily struggle. At Pentecost we decorate our churches with flowers and green branches\u2014for the Church \u201cnever grows old, but is always young.\u201d It is an evergreen, ever-living Tree of grace and life, of joy and comfort. For the Holy Spirit\u2014\u201cthe Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life\u2014comes and abides in us, and cleanses us from all impurity,\u201d and fills our life with meaning, love, faith and hope.<\/p>\n
Source: oca.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the Church\u2019s annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is \u201cthe last and great day.\u201d It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end\u2014the achievement and fulfillment\u2014of the entire history of salvation. For the same reason, however, it is also the celebration of the beginning: it is the \u201cbirthday\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":375840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7767],"class_list":["post-241643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feasts-and-saints","tag-pentecost"],"better_featured_image":{"id":375840,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":480,"height":624,"file":"2022\/06\/4-pogorarea_sf._duh_rusalii.png","filesize":606765,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"file":"4-pogorarea_sf._duh_rusalii-360x360.png","width":360,"height":360,"mime-type":"image\/png","filesize":269206,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/4-pogorarea_sf._duh_rusalii-360x360.png"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":241643,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/4-pogorarea_sf._duh_rusalii.png"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241643\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=241643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241643\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375840\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=241643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=241643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=241643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}