O Divine Holy Spirit, Who distributest gifts unto all men and doest all things by Thy will, inspire me with Thy luminous gift, that I may glorify Thee Who art one with the Father and the Son.
(Ode 1: the Canon to the Holy Spirit, by Theophanes)
Dear brothers and sisters, knowing that not all parishioners were able to be with us for Pentecost-Trinity, we send our greetings for this wonderful, salvific feast to our brothers and sisters wherever they are: to our students away for vacation; to parishioners on holiday with families; to those struggling under the pressure of work or studies; to those who are unwell.
We particularly pray for the newly-baptised, Macarius, and his baptismal companions who entered the holy font a little over a week ago, and for our catechumens who will soon receive Illumination.
On this Great Feast, we celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit, not simply as a foundational, historic event in the life of the Church, but as the continuing gift of God’s Grace and Divine Power, ever-outpoured and ever-giving: in the transformative cleansing of Holy Baptism, as our catechumens are born again, through water and the Spirit; in the restorative Grace of confession trough the Mystery of Repentance; in the consecrating Divine Grace through which bread and wine become the Very Body and Blood of the Saviour, Who promised us the Comforter at His Ascension; in the Grace with which God blesses us in prayer and liturgy, in which come together to worship Him, in Spirit and in Truth.
The Church is the House which Wisdom, our Lord and Saviour, built, not only for Himself, but to the glory of His Unoriginate Father, and as the Temple of the Holy, Good, Life-Giving and Uncreated Spirit: the Temple in which the Comforter dwells, shining through the lives of the saints; revealing eternal Truth as the authoritative Voice of the Church; speaking through the holy and God-bearing fathers and Seven Ecumenical Councils; protecting and preserving the Church and her children through the holy canons and God-revealed wholeness of sacred Tradition, which is the abiding sign of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church, from century to century, and from generation to generation.
Our beloved father, St Seraphim of Sarov, teaches us that the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, is the central and essential meaning of our Christian life, and as we celebrate this feast of the Trinity and the Sending of the Comforter, each of us is called to actively seek the life of the Holy Spirit in both the life of the Church and our individual lives, by active engagement, involvement and spiritual-labour.
Our personal pursuit of the Holy Spirit is a life ceaselessly seeking Divine Grace, in tireless, continual labour and spiritual activity – by prayer, fasting and noetic struggle.
We cannot pray, “Come and dwell in us, cleanse us of every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One…” unless we struggle to unite and align our weak and fragile human will with God’s Will, so that through His promised Comforter, we may be bandaged, healed and made whole.
For this process of healing and restoration, we must each be active in seeking the power of the Holy Spirit; active in living the Christian life; active in trying to sweep out the filth and detritus of our fallen lives, as we try to make ourselves dwellings and vessels worthy of the Holy Spirit.
But, in these life-giving days of Pentecost, let us be active in pursuing the power and life of the Holy Spirit not simply for ourselves, but for the life, healing and salvation of the world.
Let us immerse ourselves in continual, persistent, humble and repentant prayer, praying the canons and akathist to the Holy Spirit, calling and longing for the sanctifying power of the Comforter to purify us and restore the Divine Image and Likeness in which we created, heeding St Seraphim’s words, “… every good deed done for Christ’s sake gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives us this grace most of all, for it is always at hand, as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit.”
Let us understand Pentecost as the continuing indwelling of the Comforter, day by day, week by week, year by year, only possible through conscious, deliberate, determined searching, seeking and labour, if the Holy Spirit is to be an abiding and continued presence in our lives, and let us weigh and ponder every word and phrase of the invocation with which we once more begin our prayers:
O Heavenly King, Comforter, Spirit of Truth, Who art everywhere present and fillest all things, Treasury of good things and Giver of life: Come and dwell in us, and cleanse us of all impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
In the days ahead, let us continually return to this prayer, with compunction, concentration, and with awe at that as vessels of clay, the Saviour nevertheless vouchsafes us the seal, gift and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, with Whom He and the Father dwells in unoriginate and everlasting glory.