On Saturday the 30th and Sunday the 31st of May, the clergy and brethren of Holy Trinity Monasteryin Jordanville, NY celebrated the great feast of Holy Pentecost – the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. Leading the All-Night Vigil on Saturday evening and the Divine Liturgy and Great Vespers on Sunday morning was His Eminence, Metropolitan Jonah (former Primate of Orthodox Church in America).

Co-serving with His Eminence were Archimandrites Luke (Murianka; monastery abbot) and Nektarios (Harding), Archpriest Michael Taratuchin (rector of St. John of Kronstadt Memorial Church in Utica, NY), Hieromonks Theophylact (Clapper-DeWell), Cyprian (Alexandrou), Moses (Borges), Gabriel (Astrahankine), and Anatoly (Zilin), Priest Andrei Rudenko (cleric of Holy Virgin Nativity Church in Albany, NY), Protodeacons Joseph Jarostchuk (cleric of St. John Memorial Church) and Alexander Jarostchuk (cleric of Holy Epiphany Church in Boston, MA), Hierodeacon Seraphim (Nikoloski), and monastery Deacons Andrei Psarev, Andrew Doubleday, and Peter Markevich. The monastic and seminary choir (including Priest Ephraim Willmarth) sang under the direction of Reader Nicholas Kotar.

The three Kneeling Prayers were read by Metropolitan Jonah, Fr. Luke, and Fr. Theophylact. Upon completion of the service, Metropolitan Jonah addressed the faithful with a sermon, in which he said, in part:

"We celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit… so that we might be united to Him, and He to us; so that He might dwell in us, and we in Him; so that our union with God might be fulfilled and completed. So often in our culture, we think of God as somewhere out there, somewhere distant, and the more secular our culture, the further God is from this reality. They have no concept that God permeates reality, that God permeates this existence, that God permeates the creation. The sending of the Holy Spirit is a type and a sign, as well as the reality, of God’s sending down the Holy Spirit upon all flesh: first of all upon us, who are believers, so that our faith might be ignited, our knowledge of God might be kindled, and our awareness of the presence of God throughout this creation might be enabled, and strengthened, and energized, so that our whole life might become an act of awareness of God."

Click here to view Metropolitan Jonah’s sermon.

Tomorrow, the feast day of the Holy Spirit, Metropolitan Hilarion will arrive at Holy Trinity Monastery to lead the patronal feast day.