Feast of the Pentecost

Program: #05-21   Air Date: May 16, 2005

Dear Friends of Millennium of Music:

Even by the standards of our most popular program, we have
been gratified (and taken aback) by the overwhelming response we have received from this series dedicated to the work of the monks of Chevetogne. To this end, we are providing some extra information on how to reach the monks on line or by mail.

Monastère de l'Exaltation de la Sainte Croix
Rue du monastère 65
B - 5590 - Chevetogne
Belgique

Tel.: + 32 (0)83 21.17.63
Fax: + 32 (0)83 21.60.45

Email addresses of the Monastery: [email protected]
This is the current e mail address of Fr. Thomas
Pott, current music director--new as of January 2005.
Again, thank you for you enthusiastic support for the program;
we hope to continue this series for some time.

Robert Aubry Davis

The program is sponsored in part by the Belgian Tourist Office
and the Embassy of Belgium in Washington, D.C.
For more information on visiting Belgium (including the Abbey), you may contact the Belgian Tourist Office at:
www.visitbelgium.com

As Fr. Thomas writes: "On the fiftieth day after Easter, all Christian churches celebrate the feast of Pentecost. They commemorate the pouring out of the spirit of Jesus onto his disciples, when on the morning of the Jewish feast of Pentecost the Apostles saw descending on them tongues of fire. On this day Christians live more than the mere memory of a past event. It is for them a fulfillment of the ancient prophecy made by God to Abraham. The bestowal of the Holy Spirit, announced by Jesus before His Passion and Resurrection, is the first fruit of the universal blessing promise by God and now extended to the entire world. The Feast of Pentecost, the "seal" of the Paschal Mystery, recalls the memory of granting divine Law at Sinai. It echoes the "feast of Weeks," one of the four great Jewish feasts prescribed by Leviticus (Lv. 23). This feast, which closes the Paschal cycle, is marked by the biblical symbolism of Fifty--the perfection of seven (7 x 7+ 1)--and fulfills the Law in Mercy. The gift of the spirit effectively corresponds to the renewal of all things in the newness of time, following the symbolism of the Jewish jubilee year. At Pentecost, we encounter a new creation and the universal fecundity of the Covenant so aptly reflected in the Russian custom on this feast of decorating churches with boughs of spring foliage."

Saturday Evening Vespers:
--Initial Blessing: "Arise! Master, give the blessing."
--First cathisma: "Blessed the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly."
--Lucernarium: "I have cried to You, hear me."
--Entrance: "O Joyful Light of the holy glory."
--Prokeimenon: " The Lord reigns."
--Aposticha: "Do not cast me away."
--Canticle of Simeon.
--Troparion of the Feast: "Blessed are You, O Christ our Lord."

Matins Service:
--Polyeleos: "A blessing for the Lord from Sion."
--Megalynarion: "We extol you, O Christ the Giver of life."
--Canons:
"He drowned Pharoah and his army."
"You said to Your apostles."
"Meditating upon Your final coming."
"O Lord, the Spirit of your salvation."
"Sailing across the ocean of life."
(Kontakion) "When the Most High descended and confused tongues."
"In the fiery furnace."
"On Sinai, the bush that burned."
"You have conceived in all purity."
"O most Holy Spirit."
--Lauds: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord."
--Great Doxology: " Glory to You who have shown us the light!"
--Troparion: "You filled the fishermen with wisdom."

Sunday Evening Vespers:
--Great Prokeimenon: "What God is as great as our God?"