Pentecost
Pentecost is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated fifty days after Pascha (thus always falling on a Sunday).
Fifty days after the Resurrection, on the exising Jewish feast of Pentecost, while the disciples and many other followers of Jesus Christ were gathered together to pray, the Holy Spirit descended upon them in the form of "cloven tongues of fire," with the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and they began to speak in languages that they did not know. There were many visitors from the Jewish diaspora to Jerusalem at that time for the Jewish observance of the feast, and they were astonished to hear these untaught fisherman speaking praises to God in their alien tongues. This account is detailed in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2.
Hymns
- Blessed art 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!
Kontakion (Tone 8)
- When the most High came down and confused the tongues,
- He divided the nations;
- But when he distributed the tongues of fire
- He called all to unity.
- Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the All-holy Spirit!
See also
External links
- Holy Pentecost Father Alexander Schmemann
- How to Celebrate Pentecost at Home by Fr. Anthony Coniaris (excerpt from Making God Real in the Orthodox Christian Home)