Pentecost – The Descent of the Holy Spirit
The Feast of Holy Pentecost is celebrated each year on the fiftieth day after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter) and ten days after the Feast of the Ascension of Christ. The Feast is always celebrated on a Sunday.
The Feast commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, a feast of the Jewish tradition. It also celebrates the establishment of the Church through the preaching of the Apostles and the baptism of the thousands who on that day believed in the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ. The Feast is also seen as the culmination of the revelation of the Holy Trinity.
Learn more about the heresy of Arianism and why the Council was called.
Saturday of the Souls Liturgy – 9:30am May 30, 2015
The Saturday of the Souls Divine Liturgy is customarily held on the Saturday before Pentecost. A Memorial Service will be held following the Divine Liturgy. Liturgy begins at 9:30am.
Bring your names and Kolyva (boiled wheat). Bring the names of your loved ones to be commemorated even if you do not have any Kolyva.
Pentecost Vespers and Kneeling Prayers Following the Sunday Liturgy
Immediately following the Pentecost Liturgy on Sunday we will hold the Pentecost Vespers and Kneeling Prayers.
This will be an extended Sunday worship so please mentally prepare for it.
Why pray the prayers? Because God hears our prayers. Worship takes effort, but anything in life that has any value takes effort.
The Pentecost Prayers offer enduring things because the Holy Spirit whose presence we ask for in the prayers (along with forgiveness and mercy) gives us the things of God which are eternal.
Bible Study
Bible studies continue every Tuesday at 7pm. We have good studies and rich conversation. Everyone is invited.
Choir Practice
The choir practices weekly starting at 6pm on Tuesdays (one hour before bible study). Anyone wanting to join the choir is welcome.
Wisdom from St. Gregory Palamas
Let not one think, my fellow Christian, that only priests and monks need to pray without ceasing and not laymen No, no; every Christian without exception ought to dwell always in prayer.
Remember in Your Prayers
Pat and Milan Evanoff. Milan is home from rehab and doing well.
John, the brother of Pauline Poulos who is suffering from cancer.
Tom and Jean, parents of Patty and Jerry.
How should we pray for the sick? Remember them daily. Say their names and ask God to bestow mercy and grace on them.
Follow Konnie Yankopolus on his Cross-Country Bike Ride
Konnie is biking from San Francisco to Boston at the end of the month to raise $200,000 for stem cell research.
You can learn more and keep up with him on his road trip at his website Cycle for Stem Cells
The Sunday Scripture Readings
The Gospel Reading
The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (7:37-52; 8:12)
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’”
Now this He said about the Spirit, which those who believed in Him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. When they heard these words, many of the people said, “This is really the prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.”
But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ is descended from David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”
So there was a division among the people over Him. Some of them wanted to arrest Him, but no one laid hands on Him. The officers then went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this man!” The Pharisees answered them, “Are you led astray, you also? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd,who do not know the Law, are accursed.”
Nicodemus, who had gone to Him before, and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our Law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee.”
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The Epistle Reading
Their voice has gone out into all the earth.
The heavens declare the glory of God.
The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles. (2:1-11)
When the day of Pentecost had come, the Disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”