| PENTICOSTARION -- FROM PASCHA TO PENTECOST |
| From the moment the priest exclaims, "Come receive the light...!" the book of the Penticostarion opens. This is the book that covers the time period from Pascha to the Sunday of All Saints (one week after Pentecost). These are great feastdays, with many others in between them. The "Feast of Feasts", Pascha, is followed by: - Bright Week (all the week of Pascha) -- which includes the Friday of the Life-Giving Font - Thomas Sunday - Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women - Sunday of the Paralyzed Man - Midpentecost (Wednesday of the week of the Paralyzed Man) - Sunday of the Samaritan Woman - Sunday of the Blind Man - The Ascension of Our Lord (40 Days after Pascha) - Sunday of the Fathers of the 1st Ecumenical Council - Pentecost - Monday of the Holy Spirit - Sunday of All Saints These feasts are always approached with great reverence and joy. For Bright Week, as well as the week of Pentecost, there is no fasting, only feasting. The Hymn, "Christ is risen..." is said throughout the 40 days of Easter, and is not said from the day of the Ascension onwards. On the day of Pentecost, the Church has (after the Divine Liturgy) a Vespers Service of the Kneeling (Goniklisias). Pentecost is the Church's "birthday". After this week, we have the Sunday of All Saints, celebrating all the Saints (known and unknown in the Orthodox Calendar of Saints). It is truly a great time of the Year, and one that every Orthodox Christian looks forward to. It is up to us to keep the spirit of the Resurrection alive, and to cry aloud, "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and bestowing life to those in the tombs!" Click here for the Catechetical Homily of St. John Chrysostom, read on Pascha!! Click here for the Pentecost Services!! Click here for a speech on Pentecost!! Click here for all the Sunday Gospels of the Penticostarion!! |
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| The Ascension of Christ |
| The Holy Trinity |
| Pentecost |
| The Resurrection of Christ |
| The day of Resurrection; let us be radiant for the festival, and let us embrace one another. Let us say, brethren, even to those that hate us, �Let us forgive all things on the Resurrection�, and so let us cry, �Christ has risen from the dead: by death he has trampled on death, and to those in the graves given life�. |