Sunday, June 23, 2024, was celebrated by the Patriarchate and by the entire Church as the feast of Pentecost, that is, as the day of commemoration of the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit, whom our Lord Jesus Christ sent to His Disciple and Apostles from the Father.
Then, on the day of Pentecost, the Apostles spoke in various languages the greatness of God to the multitudes gathered “by the violent breath” of the Holy Spirit, to whom the Apostle Peter preached and believed and were baptized and formed the first Church, Mother of all Saints of churches, according to the book of the Acts of the Apostles.
On this occasion, a solemn Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Holy and Life-giving Tomb, presided over by His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, with the co-celebration of their Eminences, Metropolitan Isychios of Capitolias and the Archbishops, Theophanes, of Gerash, Aristarchos of Constantina and Theodosios of Sebasteia, Holy Sepulchre Hieromonks and Presbyters, the first of whom was the Elder Kamarasis Archimandrite Nektarios, the representative of the Romanian Patriarchate Archimandrite Ioannis. The service was attended by the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem, Mr Dimitrios Angelosopoulos and many faithful Christians who received the ever-lasting grace of the Holy Spirit.
After the end of the Divine Liturgy, the Vespers of the Monday of the Holy Spirit began, as defined by Pentecostarion, and the prayers of the Pentecost of the Kneeling service were read, while everyone was kneeling and asking for the Grace of the Holy Spirit, to enlighten their souls and bodies.
The first prayer was read by His Beatitude and the others by the concelebrating High Priests.
After the Divine Liturgy, the congregation went to the Patriarchate Reception Hall and His Beatitude wished to the Fathers and to those who came to worship the life-giving grace and energy of the Holy Spirit.
