Dear in Christ Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the great and wonderful feast of Pentecost, the Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and of the Holy Trinity!

On this special day the Church sings the following words:

Once, when He descended and confounded the tongues, the Most High divided the nations; (a reference to the story of the Tower of Babel) and when He divided the tongues of fire, He called all men into unity; and with one accord we glorify the All-Holy Spirit. (Kontakion for Pentecost)

We can understand these words as a summation of all the history of the Old and New Testaments in an amazingly concise and focused manner. In the Old Testament our Lord God was constantly dividing people, separating sinners from the righteous, until finally a God-chosen people appeared. Even among this nation these divisions continued. Grace and holiness were concentrated in individual prophets and righteous people until finally all of Divine Grace was focused onto one family and one woman – Mary. From this Most-blessed and Most-pure Virgin was born Jesus Christ, who became a bridge between the Old and New Testaments, between the Law of Moses, which could not in any way save man, and Grace, which saves and sanctifies any willing person.

Today we celebrate the beginning of the New Testament and the birth of the Church. Today God’s Grace no longer divides, no longer focuses only on some, but spreads to all. It is accessible to anyone who believes in Christ, be he a Jew or a Greek, a Russian or a Canadian, a man or a woman, rich or poor, fortunate in life or unfortunate, healthy or sick, old or young, wise or simple. The Holy Spirit descends on all. All are invited into the Church of Christ. All become one in Christ.

Unfortunately, we see that this longed-for and ideal unity of all people in Christ has not come to fruition. From the time of the apostles (remember Ananias and Sapphira, the Epistles of St. Paul to the Corinthians, the General Epistle of St. Jude, the Apocalypse) until our own time, various quarrels have divided people, including the faithful. Today throughout the whole world and not excluding our own countries (Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and others) and even between the Orthodox, divisions are worsening. There are many different reasons for this. Right now some people are divided by the new virus and the way that governments, the church authorities, individual parishes and priests are dealing or not dealing with it. In the United States an awful and tragic murder at the hands of a police officer has shown the divisions in a whole country. The whole political system is strongly divided. Whole nations and peoples, as well as and individual families, are divided. It seems that the ‘wish’ of the Holy Spirit to unite everyone is impossible, fantastic and even laughable in light of what is happening around us and in what we may sometimes ourselves be involved in. What can we do? How can we all participate in this unity?

We all understand that we can’t change the world, but each of us is capable of changing our own lives and making sure that our families and our parish live in unity, so that in this unity the Holy Spirit can act. When the apostles went out to preach, there were no Christian communities save in Jerusalem, but in thirty some odd years, after the death of St. Paul, they were found throughout the Mediterranean world. In like manner, if we establish peace and unity in Christ and preserve them in our families and in our parish, this could become the beginning of a wider peace and unity.

Today let’s fervently pray to the All-Holy Spirit that He comes and dwells personally in each of us, sanctifies us and gives us the strength to live in unity and peace with our neighbours. Let’s thank Him from the depths of our heart that the past while our parish has lived peacefully. Let’s zealously pray that this peace continues and that in the near future we will be able to manifest this unity in our common communing of Christ’s Holy Mysteries. Let’s pray with compunction that the disease that is worrying the whole world passes by us, that divisions throughout the world are resolved, and that everyone in unity will praise the All-Holy Trinity.

priest Alexis