Pentecost: Birth of the Church

Scripture Readings

• Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29
• Joel 2:23-32
• Ezekiel 36:24-28
• John 20:19-23
• Acts 2:1-11
• John 7:37-52, 8:12

Pentecost Troparion (Tone 8)

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!

Pentecost 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!

Holy Pentecost

Fr. Alexander Schmemann, 1994

In the Church’s annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is “the last and great day.” It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end—the achievement and fulfillment—of the entire history of salvation. For the same reason, however, it is also the celebration of the beginning: it is the “birthday” 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.

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