Dear brothers and sisters!
We congratulate you on Holy Trinity Day!
On this joyful day the festal Divine Liturgy was celebrated in our church!
The Liturgy was celebrated by the rector of our church, Priest Igor Babakov.
The All-Night Vigil was served on the eve, Saturday.
On this day the church was filled with greenery and the scent of freshly mown grass.
Trinity Day, or the feast of Holy Pentecost, is always celebrated on the 50th day after Pascha. It marks the Gospel event of the descent of the Holy Spirit (the third Person of the Hypostatic Trinity) upon Christ's divine disciples, the 12 apostles. The "Holy Trinity" is the triune God: God the Father, God the Son in His incarnation as Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit.
Among the particular features of the Pentecost services is that the Great Vespers of Pentecost is usually served immediately after the Liturgy.
A special feature of this Vespers is that the three kneeling prayers of St. Basil the Great are read at it (this is the first time knees are bent since Pascha).
It is the only kneeling service of the year. The priest, on his knees, reads three special prayers: for the Church of Christ, for the salvation of those praying, and for the repose of the souls of all the departed, including those "held in hades".
So it was in our church as well. Our dear Father Igor read these prayers on his knees in the Royal Doors, facing the people, while the parishioners listened reverently and prayed too.
At the end of Vespers the rector, Fr. Igor, addressed the parishioners with a pastoral word.
The Trinity service is one of the longest of the year (it lasts about three hours), and devoting three hours to God sometimes seems to us an overwhelming task. But if we only stop to think: the Lord provides for us every second! How little we are able to give! How little we know how to give thanks!
Let us also strive, with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be Christians filled with love for God and neighbor.
Save us all, O Lord!
Happy feast!
