pENTEcOsT

descent of the holy spirit

“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you”

Can you recall what happened at the Tower of Babel? God

confused the languages of the people, because of their sinful
desires to become powerful, and afterwards the people could
not communicate. The Lord scattered the nations over the
face of the whole earth. But thousands of years later and
50 days after Christ’s Resurrection, God sent down His Holy
Spirit to the apostles and gave them the gift to speak in many
languages in order to spread the message of salvation to
the entire world. This is known as the feast of “Pentecost.”

Old Testament prophecies

• Genesis 11:1-9
• Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29
• Joel 2:28-32
• Ezekiel 36:24-28

New Testament passages

• Luke 24:45-49

• John 7:37-39, 14:15-17, 25-26
• Acts 1:4-9, 2:1-11

+ Prayer of the Third Hour +

O Lord our God, You have given Your peace to men

and sent down the gift of Your all-holy Spirit to Your
disciples and apostles at the third hour (9 am) opening
their lips with fiery tongues by Your power. Open also
my lips and teach me, sinner that I am, how and for
what I ought to pray. Guide my life, reveal the way in
which I should walk, renew in me a right spirit that
by Your good Spirit, I may be enabled to practice Your
commandments. For You are blessed and praised in
all Your saints, unto the ages of ages. Amen

symbolism to look for:
• The Upper Room
• The Descent of the Holy Spirit from Heaven
• 12 Apostles (Judas was replaced by Matthias)
• 12 Flames of the Holy Spirit
• Gospels and scrolls containing message of Christ

• The semi-circle seating to indicate a united Church
• The symbolic figure, Kosmos, representing the people of the world living in darkness and sin, but carrying
in his hands a cloth containing scrolls which represent the teaching of the Apostles enlightening all.
PRAYERS OF KNEELING ON PENTECOST SUNDAY

The First Prayer: the rays of fire; who have granted us to pass through the
length of the day and to draw near the beginnings of the
night. Hear our supplication and that of all your people.
Immaculate, undefiled, without beginning, invisible,
And pardoning all of us our offences, voluntary and
incomprehensible, unsearchable, unchangeable,
involuntary, accept our evening entreaties and send down
unsurpassable, immeasurable, long-suffering Lord, who
the multitude of your rich mercy and acts of compassion
alone possess immortality and dwell in unapproachable
on your inheritance. Wall us about with your holy Angels;
light; who made the heaven, the earth and the sea and all
arm us with the arms of justice; fence us with the rampart
that was created in them; who grant to all their requests
of your truth; guard us by your power; deliver us from
before they ask; we pray and beseech you, Master who
every misfortune and from every trick of the adversary.
love mankind, the Father of our Lord and God and Saviour
Grant us also that both the present day with the coming
Jesus Christ, who for our sake and for our salvation came
night and all the days of our life may be perfect, holy,
down from heaven and was incarnate from the Holy Spirit
peaceful, sinless, without stumbling, without dreams, at
and Mary, the Ever-Virgin and glorious Mother of God.
the prayers of the holy Mother of God and of all the Saints
who have been well-pleasing to you since time began.
Teaching us first by words and later also showing us by
deeds, when he underwent the saving Passion, he granted
2nd Prayer:
us, your humble, sinful and unworthy servants, an example
to offer supplications by the bending of neck and knees for
our sins and those committed in ignorance by the people. Lord Jesus Christ our God, who, while still present with us
Do you, then, who are full of mercy and love for mankind, in this life, gave your peace to humankind, and ever grant
hear us on whatever day we call upon you; but especially the gift of the all-holy Spirit to the faithful as an inheritance
on this day of Pentecost, on which after our Lord Jesus which cannot be taken away, you sent down this grace
Christ had been taken up and been enthroned at your right today in a more manifest form to your Disciples and
hand, God and Father, he sent down on his disciples and Apostles and gave eloquence to their lips with tongues of
Apostles the holy Spirit, who settled on each one of them fire, through which we, every race of humankind, having
and they were all filled with his inexhaustible grace and received the knowledge of God in our own language by the
spoke in strange tongues of your mighty works and hearing of the ear, have been enlightened by the light of
prophesied. the Spirit, delivered from the darkness of error and, by the
distribution and supernatural force of the perceptible
tongues of fire, have been taught faith in you and have
Now therefore hear us as we pray, remember us, humble
been illumined to speak of you as God with the Father and
and condemned, and turn back the captivity of our souls.
the holy Spirit in one Godhead, power and authority.
Receive us as we fall before you and cry out, ‘We have
sinned’. On you we have been cast from the womb. From
our mother’s womb you are our God. But because our days Do you, then, the radiance of the Father, the unchangeable
have wasted away in vanity, we have been stripped of your and unalterable stamp of his Essence and nature, the
help, we have been deprived of all defense. But confident source of salvation and grace, open also the lips of me, a
of your compassion we cry, ‘Do not remember the sins of sinner, and teach me how I should and for whom I ought to
our youth and cleanse us of our secret faults. Do not cast us pray, for you know the multitude of my sins, but your
aside in the time of old age. When our strength fails, do not compassion will overcome their measureless number. For
abandon us. Before we return to the earth, count us see, with fear I stand before you, having cast away despair
worthy to turn back to you and give heed to us with of my soul into the sea of your mercy. Govern my life, by
kindness and grace. Measure our iniquities by your acts of the ineffable power of your wisdom, you who govern all
compassion. Set against the multitude of our offences the creation by a word, who are the fair haven of the storm-
depth of your compassion. Look from your holy height, tossed, and make known to me the way in which I shall
Lord, upon your people here present and who await from walk.
you rich mercy. Visit us in your goodness; deliver us from
the oppression of the devil; make our lives safe with your Grant to my thoughts the Spirit of your wisdom, to my folly
holy and sacred laws. Entrust your people to a faithful the Spirit of understanding, with the Spirit of your fear
Angel guardian; gather us all into your kingdom; give overshadow my deeds. Renew a right Spirit within my
pardon to all who hope in you; forgive their sins and ours; inward parts and make firm the instability of my mind
purify us by the operation of your holy Spirit; destroy all with the sovereign Spirit, so that guided each day by your
the wiles of the foe against us’. good Spirit to what is profitable, I may be found worthy to
do your commandments and always keep in mind your
Blessed are you Lord, Master almighty, who made the day Coming, which searches out all that we have done. Do not
light with the light of the sun and the night radiant with neglect me, so that I become deceived by the corrupted
pleasures of the world, but give me strength to yearn for
the enjoyment of the treasures which are to come. For you unending glory, beloved Son of the most high Father,
said, Master, that whatever someone asks in your name eternal light from eternal light, Sun of justice, hear us who
they receive without restraint from your co-eternal God entreat you and give rest to the souls of your servants who
and Father. And so I a sinner at the coming of your holy have fallen asleep before us, our fathers, mothers and
Spirit implore your goodness, ‘The things that I have brethren and the rest of our relatives according to the flesh
prayed for grant me for my salvation’. Yes, Lord, the loving and all our kinsfolk of the household of the faith, whose
and most generous giver of every benefaction, for it is you memory we too now keep, because in you is the might of
who give superabundantly more than we ask. It is you who all things and in your hand you hold all the ends of the
are compassionate, merciful, who without sin became a earth.
partaker in our flesh and who in loving compassion bend
down to those who bend the knee to you and became the Master almighty, God of our fathers and Lord of mercy,
atonement for our sins. Give your people, Lord, your acts Creator of the mortal and immortal race and of every
of pity; hear us from your holy heaven; sanctify us by the human nature that is brought together and again
power of your saving right hand; shelter us in the shelter dissolved, of life and death, of our sojourn here and our
of your wings; do not despise the works of your hands. translation there, you apportion times to the living and
Against you alone we have sinned, but it is you alone that establish the moments of death. You lead down to Hell and
we adore. We do not know how to worship a strange god, you lead up. You bind with weakness and release with
nor to spread out our hands, Master, to another god. power. You dispose all things for our use and direct what is
Forgive us our offences and, accepting our supplications to come for our advantage. You give life by hope of
on our bended knees, stretch out to us all a helping hand. resurrection to those wounded by the sting of Death.
Accept the prayer of all as acceptable incense, rising up Master of all things, our God and Saviour, the hope of all
before your kingdom, above all goodness. the ends of the earth and of those far off upon the sea, who
on this final, great and saving day of Pentecost revealed to
Lord, Lord, who have delivered us from every arrow that us the mystery of the holy, consubstantial, co-eternal,
flies by day, deliver us also from every deed that walks in undivided and uncompounded Trinity and the coming and
darkness. Accept as an evening sacrifice the lifting up of presence of your holy and life-giving Spirit poured out in
our hands. Count us worthy also to pass through the the form of tongues of fire on your holy Apostles, setting
stadium of the night untried by evils, and rescue us from them as Evangelists of our true faith, revealing them as
every disturbance and fear which comes to us from the confessors and heralds of true theology; who have also
Devil. Grant our souls the grace of compunction and our been pleased on this most perfect and saving Feast to
thoughts concern for the examination at your dread and receive suppliant prayers of atonement for those who are
just judgement. Nail down our flesh with fear of you, and immured in Hell, granting us great hopes that repose and
deaden our members that are on earth, so that, in the calm comfort will be sent down from you to the departed from
of sleep, we may be made radiant with joy by the the pains which hold them, hear us, lowly and wretched,
contemplation of your judgements. Remove from us every who entreat you, and give rest to the souls of your servants
unseemly imagining and harmful desire. Raise us up at the who have fallen asleep before us in a place of light, a place
time for prayer strengthened in the faith and advancing in of green pasture, a place of refreshment, from which all
your commandments. grief, sorrow and sighing have fled away, and establish
their spirits in the tents of the Just and count them worthy
3rd Prayer of peace and repose. Because the dead will not praise you,
O Lord, nor do those in Hell have the freedom to offer you
Christ our God, ever-flowing Spring, source of life and thanksgiving, but we the living bless you and implore you
illumination, co-eternal creative power of the Father, for and bring before you atoning prayers and sacrifices on
the salvation of mortals, who fulfilled the whole behalf of their souls.
dispensation with surpassing goodness; tore apart the
indissoluble bonds of Death and the bars of Hell, trampling God, great and eternal, holy and lover of humankind, who
down multitudes of evil spirits; offered yourself as an have counted us worthy to stand at this hour before your
unblemished oblation for our sake, giving your most pure unapproachable glory to hymn and praise your wonders,
body, intangible and inaccessible to every sin, as a be gracious to us, your unworthy servants. Grant us grace
sacrifice, and through this dread and inexpressible offering to offer you without conceit and with a broken heart the
you granting us the grace of everlasting life. You thrice-holy hymn of glory and thanksgiving for your great
descended into Hell, smashed the everlasting bars and gifts, which you have made us and always do so.
showed the way up to those who sat below. With a bait of
divine wisdom you hooked the author of evil, the dragon of Remember, Lord, our weakness and do not destroy us with
the deep, bound him with cords of darkness in Tartarus our iniquities, but in our humiliation show us your great
and secured him with the unquenchable fire and the mercy, so that fleeing the darkness of sin we may walk in
exterior darkness through your infinitely powerful the daylight of justice; and having put on the weapons of
strength. Glorious wisdom of the Father, who appeared to light we may persevere unassailed by any assault of the
those in distress as a mighty helper and enlightened those evil one, and that with boldness we may glorify you for all
who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, Lord of things, the only true God and lover of humankind. For
indeed, Master and Maker of all things, truly great is your defilement before you, though they last but a day, except
mystery: the temporary dissolution of your creatures and you alone, who appeared sinless upon earth, our Lord
after this their restoration and repose to the ages. We give Jesus Christ, through whom we all hope to obtain mercy
thanks to you for all things, for our entrances into this and forgiveness of sins. Therefore, as you are good and
world and for our departures, which through your love humankind, remit, forgive, pardon us our faults,
unfailing promise betoken for us beforehand our hopes of voluntary and involuntary, in knowledge and in ignorance,
resurrection and unending life. Would that we may enjoy it manifest and unnoticed, in deed, in thought, in word, of all
at your future second Coming, for you are the author of our our actions and movements. Give freedom and respite to
resurrection and the impartial judge who loves humankind those who have gone before us and bless all of us here
of what we have done in life, the Master and Lord of our present, granting a good and peaceful end to us and to all
reward. your people, and opening to us the compassion of your
mercy and love for humankind at your dread and fearful
Through your supreme condescension you became a Second Coming, and make us all worthy of your kingdom.
partaker with us in the same flesh and blood and in those
passions of ours that are blameless by willingly submitting Great and most high God, who alone possess immortality
to temptation, and, possessing compassionate pity, having and dwell in unapproachable light, who made all creation
yourself suffered by being tempted, and, as you promised, with wisdom, who made a separation between the light
have yourself become a helper for us who are tempted, and and the darkness and placed the sun to rule the day and
so you have also led us to dispassion. Accept therefore, the moon and the stars to rule the night, who have counted
Master, our supplications and entreaties, and give rest to us sinners worthy on this present day to come before your
all the fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, and face with thanksgiving and to offer you our evening
children of each, and to every other kinsman and relative, worship. Direct our prayer, Lord, like incense before you
and to all the souls who have gone to their rest before us in and accept it as a sweet fragrance. Grant us also that the
the hope of resurrection to eternal life, and establish their present evening and the coming night may be peaceful;
spirits and their names in the book of life and in the clothe us with the weapons of light; deliver us from every
bosoms of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and in the land of the terror of the night and from every deed that operates in
living, for the kingdom of heaven, in the Paradise of darkness, and give us sleep, which you have given for the
pleasure, through your shining Angels introducing them repose of our weakness, free from every diabolical vision.
into your holy mansions. With them raise our bodies also Yes, Master of all things, giver of blessings, may we, being
on the day which you have appointed in accordance with moved to compunction on our beds, call to mind your all-
your holy and unfailing promises. There is therefore no holy Name in the night, and made radiant by the
death for your servants, Lord, when we go out from the meditation of your commandments may we rise up with
body and come to you, O God, but a translation from joy of soul to give glory to your loving-kindness, offering
sorrowful things to better and more desirable, and rest supplications and entreaties to your compassion for our
and joy. But if we have in anything sinned against you, be sins and those of all your people. Visit them in your mercy
gracious to us and them, because no one is clean of at the prayers of the holy Mother of God.

summary of three prayers

1. In the first prayer, we bring to God our repentance, our increased appeal
for forgiveness of sins, the first condition for entering into the Kingdom of God.

2. In the second prayer, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us, to teach us to pray
and to follow the true path in the dark and difficult night of our earthly existence.

3. In the third prayer, we remember all those who have achieved their earthly
journey, but who are united with us in the eternal God of Love