Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

Changing them by Your Spirit:
How to celebrate Pentecost every day

Dr. Alexander Roman alex@unicorne.org

It was on the fiftieth day following the Resurrection of Christ that a remarkable change occurred in His disciples. This change was preceded by the dramatic events of noisy wind and fiery tongues appearing above their heads. The Holy Spirit poured Himself onto them, anointing them and empowering them with His own miraculous strength as the promised Comforter, Spirit of Truth and Treasury of all good. People who saw the Apostles, the Spirit-Bearers, wanted them to share their dynamic spiritual experience with them. How can we do the same today?

The icon of Pentecost is one of the four icons of the Holy Trinity in Orthodoxy. The reason for this is that the Father sent the Holy Spirit through His Son, Jesus Christ and so the icon and the feast celebrate all Three Persons of the Trinity.

This feast is the completion of the revelation of the Trinity as is also celebrated in the icon of the Hospitality of Abraham. As Abraham's Three Visitors sat beneath the Oaks of Mamre, so too we honour God's condescension to us then and in Christ with the use of branches with green leaves. Another name for Pentecost in our tradition is the "Green Feast."

The person at the bottom of the icon of Pentecost is, in fact, the Prophet Joel whose prophecies announced the pouring out of the Holy Spirit long before.

The Spirit reminded the Apostles, as He does us, about the mission and Person of the Lord Jesus. He communicates Christ Himself to our hearts and transfigures us into His Temples of holiness.

"Holiness" is a term that has been often abused. In the West, it often refers to a "state of soul" which is purified of sin and sinfulness.

Orthodoxy, in fact, understands "holiness" as the extent to which we allow the Holy Spirit to dwell and act within us, the extent to which we have become His Temples.

We don't therefore, strive to acquire "holiness" as such, but we strive to acquire the Holy Spirit Himself.

As St Seraphim of Sarov, a true "Pneumatophore" or "Spirit-Bearer" himself, said, the "Goal of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit."

But how do we attain that goal? We have each received the experience of Pentecost when we received the Mystery of Chrismation following our Baptism. What's next?

Following Christ's Resurrection and Ascension, the Apostles continued in earnest and continual prayer. They sang Psalms, praised and worshipped God, poured out their hearts in thanksgiving for all that was done for our salvation through Christ and asked God to give them the strength to fulfill His Will all the days of their lives.

They were calling down the Holy Spirit on themselves by way of a true Epiclesis, the invocation of the Spirit in the Divine Liturgy by which the Bread and Wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ following the Anamnesis and Words of Christ at the Last Supper.

They prayed constantly and waited for the Holy Spirit to come upon them according to His Will and choice of time.

When the Spirit finally did come upon them, those who saw them and heard them speak thought they were intoxicated. And, of course, they were . . .

The Apostles could perform miracles in the Name of Jesus, just as He told them they would. Even objects touched to their bodies were imbued with the anointing of the Spirit!

The Comforter kept on reminding them, as He does us today, about the fact that God had become Incarnate in Christ and that matter could now be a true vehicle for the communication of His Divine Grace.

But is all this out of our own reach today? Is all this something that happened to "other people?" Is this attitude of ours responsible for a "ho-hum" approach to the Feast of Pentecost?

Christian life is anything but boring. It is dynamic and exciting. If we don't experience it that way, we only have ourselves to blame.

The other day I walked into my father-in-law's study to turn on the television. I clicked and clicked, but no image! Something must be wrong with the darn thing, I thought!

It didn't occur to me to check to see if there were any problems with the electrical connection. And, lo and behold, a light switch that controlled the electrical current to the particular switch the television was plugged into was off. Just as soon as I turned the switch, the image came on.

Our Christian life is a lot like that. Unless we get the power of the Holy Spirit properly channeled into the "TV sets" of our souls, there won't be any image of Christ there!

And the fundamental basis of our acquiring the Holy Spirit is, of course, our prayer life. We hear a lot about prayer. Some of us may think it is a boring enterprise and that it is more for clergy and monks and other "professional" Christians like that. Work is prayer, putting up with the annoyances of the members of our families and our friends is prayer, just getting through the day with our sanity in check is prayer - right? Nope!

What is prayer is our experience of communicating with God and how we turn everything that happens to us into a part of that conversation.

Like that television set, we need to get plugged into God.

And we do this by spending a formal portion of the day praying, doing our "prayer thing" or however one wishes to call it.

For some, this means relaxing and calming ourselves inwardly to prepare to say the "Jesus Prayer" thoughtfully and meaningfully.

For others, this means praying the Psalms or portions of the Horologion or daily prayer of the Church. Still others prefer to repeat the words of the Our Father or the Rejoice, Theotokos-Virgin (Hail Mary).

However one prays, it is important to exercise ourselves in praying daily. Reading of Scripture, especially of the Gospels, is an important element of any prayer life and it affords us an opportunity to listen to God speaking to us.

We will also come back to God frequently throughout the day, having a "prayer" break, perhaps when we have our coffee break (too much caffeine is bad for one anyway!).

An Irish cleaning lady who lived not too far from us and reposed in the Lord in 1906 would ask God to help her decide what to make for dinner and other mundane matters. God created us, after all, to enjoy our company, and vice-versa. There is nothing too "silly" for us to talk to Him about and ask His advice and guidance on. Those of you who receive it regularly know what this is all about!

We hear about people suffering every day, every time we open the newspaper in fact. Rather than just read the papers for its "gossip" value, why not transform it into an opportunity for intercessory prayer?

I know a man who reads the papers and places his hand over a story about a tragedy as he prays for the people involved. We can do that also by placing our hand over a computer screen when someone tells us about their experience of suffering via e-mail.

And what about all those people on the public transit and on the highways we go to work with? Can't we call down the blessings of the Holy Spirit on their lives too? Do we need bulky prayer books to do that?

The Orthodox priest and writer, Lev Gillet ("Monk of the Eastern Church") worked in the British Library in London. He would call down the Spirit onto the lives of the people he met on his way to and from work by simply reciting "Jesus" over each and every one of them.

The Lord Jesus carried His Cross to show us He knows what we have to carry in our lives, even if it is the internal negative baggage so many of us have to deal with. He no longer carries His Cross, but is ready to help us carry ours. He can walk through walls, but He won't come into our souls uninvited.

The great saints, including our sainted Irish cleaning lady, Holy Ann Preston of Thornhill, would really spend time with God in prayer. Ann would pray two hours on average and often spend the night in prayer. Her prayer shed is still there in the field where she prayed for so many people, and still does!

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