Christ died that we might live. This is the very heart of the good news of the Christian faith. How that is so encompasses the entire Christian story. It is summed up over the course of the Church year in our feasts and fasts and the details of the Orthodox way of life. But all of it, is about God’s love. Christ died that we might live.
This Sunday is the 50th day after Pascha, the feast known as Pentecost. We celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church, the “Lord and Giver of Life.” All that Christ did for us, the Holy Spirit makes real and possible in our lives through His indwelling. The Holy Spirit makes us alive.
One tradition, observed at St. Anne, marks the feast of Pentecost by bringing trees into the Church as part of its festal decoration. The green branches remind us of the life-giving presence of the Spirit in our midst. When a child asks, “Why are there trees in the Church?” We should answer, “Because they remind us that God is the Lord and Giver of Life. He gives life to all things.”
The weekend of Pentecost also represents the final end to the cycle of “Soul Saturdays,” days on which we pray for the departed. Those Saturday liturgies began before Great Lent. This Saturday (9 am) is the last of those liturgies. We have completed our prayers for the season as we ask God to remember the departed and to give them rest with the blessed in His kingdom.
On Sunday, after the Coffee Hour, there is a service known as “Kneeling Vespers.” It is the first time we kneel in Church after Pascha. In those prayers that are offered, we pray for all things, especially for the departed – even the souls in Hades. There is no limit to the love of God.
Plan to take part in everything this weekend. Christ is risen and has given us the Holy Spirit!
