Pentecost. The day of the Holy Trinity
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another: Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians — we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God?!
Acts of the Apostles 2:1–11
After the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, the light of the resurrection that saves the race of men shone over all the world. The holy Apostles tasted the eternal and untouchable joy of the rising of their Teacher and Lord from the dead. With full understanding, with reason and with joy they grasped the great victory that Christ God had won over the evil of the world and over death, and they grasped too that they themselves were called to share in that victory.
Before the Apostles a great way was opening, a glorious and a very heavy one, and human strength was plainly not enough to set out upon it and to reach the final victory. Only the Holy Spirit, His grace and His love for mankind, gave the Apostles and the mother Church that unconquerable power by which the whole world has been caught and enlightened. The Holy Spirit made the Lord's disciples victors over this world; He appointed them, who had weak bodies and were mortal men, to be the good angels of the world and the conquerors of evil and of the prince of the legion, and through Him they were shown to be the richest of all. He shows them to be wise men — men who took nothing from Greek philosophy or from the wisdom of this world! With “fishermen's nets” they caught mankind, and in the sea of the knowledge of God and of wisdom they drowned all the foulness of godlessness.
Since the Pentecost of the holy Apostles' day, the Holy Spirit abides in the Church inseparably, and His grace accomplishes every mystery without ceasing. This feast is not merely the remembrance of a past event; it is the particular and abundant presence of the divine Spirit in the Church, His great protection by grace over everyone who on this day prays in the churches of God on bended knee and with a contrite heart, that he may receive the Holy Spirit into his soul and that his life may be blessed. We must prepare ourselves not only to be touched by this grace but for it to dwell in our hearts unfailingly and inseparably. Let us not think that the time from the Lord's Ascension to holy Pentecost is empty, for it is given to us precisely so that we may bring to Him the vessel of our soul, honest and cleansed by prayer.
It is said that the Saviour's disciples, while they awaited the descent of the Spirit of God, were only “in prayer and supplication”. Their joy in this greatest of gifts (Acts 11:20) was bound to no toil and no hardship, for the Apostles' labour was of the spirit alone. Until that wondrous day comes, neither are we asked to fast or to make prostrations, but only to thirst for grace with joy and to pray: “O Holy Spirit, come and dwell in the heart of the Church! O Holy Spirit, come into our earthly churches and into our hearts as well!”
The Church is where the Holy Spirit dwells. Therefore a gathering of heretics cannot be the Church, even though the outward form of their building may remind us of the house of God — it is only a lifeless body. The Holy Spirit is only where the true faith is, and righteousness and goodness firmly established. It is of such a Church that the Lord bears witness as of His bride, saying to her: “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee” (Song 4:7).
We too are temples of God, as the Apostle Paul himself says: “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own” (1 Cor. 6:19). That is, we belong not to ourselves but to God, to our Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed us and gained us at the greatest price — with His own precious blood (Acts 20:28).
Earthly churches built of stone, brick, marble and iron are damaged too and need renewing, though they are built of far firmer stuff than our body, which after the fall passes on its infirmity and its many sicknesses to the soul without a trace. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit may not only not forsake us, but renew us, strengthen us, enlighten us and grant us beauty as well.
The Holy Spirit is the light of the first ages; He is the eternal life-creating fire, the giver of life and life itself. He is the mind and the power whose depth no mortal will ever be able to reach or to describe — and not mortals only, but not even the ranks of the angels of heaven. Whoever says “I know the Holy Spirit” is mistaken, for only God knows truly concerning Him, since He Himself is God: “The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11).
Heretics are given to a kind of “familiarity” with the Holy Spirit. We the Orthodox must name the heavenly Spirit, our God, with fear and trembling. If the Spirit of Christ is not in you, then neither are you Christ's; if He does not touch your heart in this life, woe to you! — for you are still dead in the spirit (Rom. 8:9, 10). Whoever has ever known great joy: this was the Holy Spirit. In a time of complete outward contentment, were you not tormented by the sorrow of being far from heaven? — that was the Holy Spirit telling you so and calling you to Himself. And the other way round: destitute of everything, have you never known complete contentment in everything, so that you desired nothing more? — that too was the Comforter Spirit. Let us truly believe: when the Holy Spirit touches our soul, the world appears to us otherwise, and a wondrous warmth and love towards all and before all takes up its dwelling in us.
O Lord, raise up our mind from the earth to Thee in heaven; and when the fog of useless and burdening thoughts falls away from our eyes, let it be always in the contemplation of Thee. Make our heart a pure altar of exalted thoughts; make it Thy “holy mountain” (Ps. 47:1). O Sun of righteousness, Lord Jesus Christ, shine again into the night of this world of us sinners and make bright our deeply sleeping souls; awaken them, that they may praise and glorify the one true God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen!
Prepared by Davit Surguladze from the notes of an unknown monk, the journal Karibche, no. 12, 2008
St John Chrysostom, “On Pentecost”
St Gabriel (Kikodze) the Hierarch, a teaching for the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit (spoken in the year 1864)
St Gabriel (Kikodze) the Hierarch, a word spoken in the cathedral of Kutaisi on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit
St Gregory of Nyssa, “A word on the Holy Spirit, or on Pentecost”
St Gregory Palamas, “On the manifestation of the divine Spirit and its division, which came to pass at Pentecost; and herein also on repentance”
St Nikolai of Serbia (Velimirović) the Hierarch, to a doubting reader of Holy Scripture, on the question: why was the Holy Spirit sent in the form of fire
His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, a sermon on the day of Pentecost (the Patriarchal Cathedral of Sioni, 30 May 2004)
His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, a sermon for the feast of Pentecost (the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, 19 June 2005)
His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, a sermon for the feast of Pentecost (the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, 11 June 2006)
