Dear brothers and sisters!
We congratulate you on Holy Trinity Day!
On this joyful day the festive Divine Liturgy was celebrated in our church!
The Liturgy was celebrated by the rector of our church, Priest Igor Babakov.
On the eve, Saturday, the All-Night Vigil was served.
On this day the church was filled with greenery and the scent of freshly cut 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 the divine disciples of Christ, the 12 apostles. The “Holy Trinity” is the triune God: God the Father, God the Son incarnate as Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit.
Among the particular features of the Pentecost service is that the Great Vespers of Pentecost day is usually served immediately after the Liturgy.
A distinctive feature of this Vespers is that three kneeling prayers of St. Basil the Great are read at it (the faithful kneel for the first time since Pascha).
This 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 hell”.
So it was in our church too. Our priest, Fr. Igor, read these prayers on his knees in the Royal Doors, facing the people, while the parishioners listened reverently and prayed as well.
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 giving three hours to God sometimes seems to us an overwhelming effort. But if we only think about it: the Lord cares for us every second! How little we can give! How little we know how to give thanks!
Let us too strive, with the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit, to be Christians filled with love for God and neighbour.
Save us all, O Lord!
Happy feast!
