Pentecost

Fifty days after Pascha and ten after the Ascension, the apostles were gathered in Jerusalem when, as Acts records, "suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind," and "cloven tongues like as of fire" rested on each of them; "and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues" (Acts 2:2-4). Pilgrims from every nation heard the Gospel each in his own language, and that day, after Peter preached, about three thousand were baptized. What Christ had promised at His Ascension was given: the Spirit came to abide in the Church.

This is why the day is called the Church's birthday. The frightened disciples become fearless apostles; the community that had waited behind closed doors goes public and worldwide in an afternoon. For the historical event and its meaning as the founding of the Church, see Pentecost: the Birth of the Church; here the focus is the feast the Church keeps every year to receive that same gift anew. The scattering of languages at Babel, the tradition notes, is here reversed — not by making everyone speak one tongue, but by making one Gospel understood in all of them.

The icon shows the apostles seated together in a gentle semicircle, tongues of fire resting on their heads, the Spirit descending in rays from a small arc of heaven above. Two things surprise newcomers. The apostle Paul is often shown among them though he was not present that day, and the four evangelists hold books though not all were in the room — because the icon depicts the Church, not a photograph of the hour. At the bottom, in a dark space beneath the room, sits a crowned old man labeled "Kosmos," the world: the whole aged cosmos, in shadow, waiting to receive the light the apostles carry.

The troparion, in OCA's translation, praises the transformation of simple men into teachers of the world: "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 is one of the Twelve Great Feasts and a high point of the Church year. It is marked by the moving Kneeling Vespers, usually served on the afternoon of the feast, when — for the first time since Pascha, during which the Church stands in resurrection joy — the faithful kneel again while long prayers invoke the Holy Spirit upon all. Many churches are decorated with green branches and grasses, and the faithful hold flowers, signs of the life the Spirit breathes into the world.

The day after the feast is kept as the Day of the Holy Spirit, and the whole feast is the natural home for teaching about the Holy Spirit Himself — the Lord, the Giver of Life, whom the Creed confesses. Pentecost is not only remembered but requested: the Church does not merely recall a past fire but prays, every year, "come, and abide in us."