Monday of the Holy Spirit
On this day, the Monday of Pentecost, we celebrate the
All-Holy and Life-Creating and Omnipotent Spirit, Who is God, and One of the
Trinity, and of one Honor and one Essence and one Glory with the Father and the
Son.
Verses
O every breath, glorify the Spirit of the Lord,
Through Whom the impudence of evil spirits is put to flight.
Synaxarion
On this day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the Holy Apostles
concretely in the form of fiery tongues, sitting upon each of them in the upper
room in which they were staying. In honor of the Holy Spirit, the Divine
Fathers, who have arranged all things well, decreed that we celebrate this
event both separately and on the actual day of Pentecost. For, before His
Passion, the Savior promised the coming of the Holy Spirit, saying: “It is
expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you” (St. John 16:7). And again: “When He cometh, He will teach you
and will guide you into all truth” (St. John 14:26; 16:13). And again: “And I
will pray the Father, and he shall send you another Comforter, the Spirit of truth,
Who proceedeth from the Father” (John 14:16; 15:26). And again, after the
Passion, when He was ascending to Heaven, He said: “Tarry ye in the city of
Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (St. Luke 24:49).
Therefore, having made these promises, He sent the Holy Spirit.
When the day of Pentecost came, while the Disciples were waiting in the upper
room around the third hour of the day, it suddenly thundered from heaven, to
such an extent that it resounded throughout the inhabited earth; and the Holy
Spirit appeared in the form of fiery tongues to each one of them, and not only
to the Twelve, but also to the Seventy, and they spoke in foreign tongues, that
is, each of the Apostles spoke the languages of all the nations. However, it was
not so much that a foreigner heard an Apostle speaking his own language, but
rather, that the Apostle heard and spoke the language of each nation; hence, to
those who had gathered they appeared to be drunk; for, not understanding how
each Apostle could be conversing with them all individually, they supposed that
he was drunk. Others were amazed, saying: “What is the meaning of this?” These
latter had assembled from all parts of the earth for the Feast — Parthians,
Medes, and Elamites, who had some time previously been taken captive by
Antiochos.
At any rate, the Holy Spirit descended after the Ascension, ten days having
elapsed, and not immediately after the Ascension, so that the Lord might make
the Disciples more fervent as they awaited the Spirit. Some say that on each of
these days each of the Angelic Orders approached and adored that deified flesh
of the Lord. Therefore, after nine days were fulfilled, the Holy Spirit
descended, when reconciliation had taken place through the Son, fifty days
after Pascha, in commemoration of the old Law; for, Israel received the
Decalogue fifty days after crossing the Red Sea. Consider also the symbols:
there a mountain, here the upper room; there fire, here tongues of fire;
instead of thunder and darkness, here there is a mighty wind.
The Holy Spirit descended in the form of tongues, because this shows His
affinity with the living Word; or because the Apostles were going to teach and
convert the nations through the tongue; tongues of fire, because God is a
consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), and also because fire has the property of
cleansing; they were divided because of the different gifts of the Spirit. And
just as at one time He divided into many languages and confounded those who
knew one language, so also now He divided into many languages those who knew
one language, in order to gather together those who were scattered by those
languages into the ends of the inhabited earth. The descent of the Spirit took
place on the Feast in order that, with many people gathered together, the event
might be recounted everywhere, and in order that those who happened to be there
at the Passover and who saw what happened to Christ might be able to marvel. It
occurred on Pentecost, because it was necessary that the Grace of the Spirit be
poured out at the same time that the Law was given of old, just as Christ did
on the Judaic Passover when He celebrated the proper Passover, the true
Passover.
The Holy Spirit did not sit in the mouths of the Apostles, but upon their
heads, encompassing the nous itself, the principal part of the soul, and one
which is superior to the body, from which the tongue derives the power of
speech; or because the Spirit somehow emitted a sound through the tongues of
fire when He Ordained the Apostles by touching their heads to be teachers of
the entire world; for the laying on of hands is performed upon the head.
The sound and the fire were manifested because these things occurred on Mount
Sinai, so as to show that it was the same Spirit both then and now that gave
the Law and appointed all things. The multitude was confounded by the sound of
the wind, because they thought that all the predictions which Christ had made
to the Jews about their destruction had come to pass. St. Luke said “tongues as
of fire” (Acts 2:3), lest anyone should think about the Holy Spirit in
corporeal terms.
The Apostles were condemned for drunkenness. But Peter stood up and spoke in
the midst of the crowd and exposed the falsity of this claim, citing the
prophecy of Joel in his speech, and he converted about three thousand of them
(Acts 2:41).
The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter, since He is able to comfort and
refresh us, and because in His love for mankind He intercedes before God for us
with unutterable sounds (Romans 8:26), as our Advocate, just as Christ also
does. For He, too, is called a Comforter or Advocate; for this reason, the Holy
Spirit is said to be another Comforter. The Apostle says: “We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous” (I St. John 2:1). The Holy Spirit
is called “another” Comforter because He is co-essential with the Father and
the Son; for the adjective “another” (in the masculine gender) is applied to
things of the same essence and nature, whereas we are accustomed to apply
“different” (in the neuter gender) to different natures. The Holy Spirit is in
both the Father and the Son in every respect. Hence, together with Them He
creates the universe and the future resurrection, and He does whatever He
wills; He sanctifies, appoints, renews, sends out, makes wise, and anoints the
Prophets. To put it simply, He does all things, possessing sovereignty of will
and being almighty, good, upright, and governing. Through Him come all wisdom,
life, and movement, whatever participates in holiness and life of any kind; in
short, He has whatever the Father and the Son have, except for ingenerateness
and generation, for He proceeds from the Father.
When the Spirit was poured out upon all flesh, the world was filled with
spiritual gifts of every kind, and through Him all the nations were guided to
the knowledge of God, and every disease and infirmity was banished. Three times
was the Holy Spirit given by Christ to the Apostles: before the Passion very
indistinctly; more manifestly after the Resurrection, through insufflation; and
now Christ sent Him down in concrete form; or rather, He descended,
illuminating and sanctifying the Apostles more perfectly; and through them He
reclaims the ends of the earth.
By the visitation of the Holy Spirit and the intercessions of the Apostles, O
Christ God, have mercy on us. Amen.
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast shown forth the fishermen as
supremely wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit, and through them
didst draw the world into Thy net. O Befriender of man, glory be to Thee.
Kontakion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
Once, when He descended and confounded the tongues, the Most High divided the
nations; and when He divided the tongues of fire, He called all men into unity;
and with one accord we glorify the All-Holy Spirit.
