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Treasures of the Fathers: Feast of Pentecost

…If it be objected to us on this subject that we ourselves are accustomed ‎to observe certain days, as for example the Lord’s day, the Preparation, the ‎Passover, or Pentecost, I have to answer, that to the perfect Christian, who is ‎ever in his thoughts, words, and deeds serving his natural Lord, God the Word, ‎all his days are the Lord’s, and he is always keeping the Lord’s day. He also ‎who is unceasingly preparing himself for the true life, and abstaining from the ‎pleasures of this life which lead astray so many,–who is not indulging the lust ‎of the flesh, but "keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection,"–‎such a one is always keeping Preparation-day. ‎

Again, he who considers that "Christ our Passover was sacrificed for ‎us," and that it is his duty to keep the feast by eating of the flesh of the Word, ‎never ceases to keep the paschal feast; for the pascha means a "passover," and ‎he is ever striving in all his thoughts, words, and deeds, to pass over from the ‎things of this life to God, and is hastening towards the city of God. ‎

And, finally, he who can truly say, "We are risen with Christ," and ‎‎"He has exalted us, and made us to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ," ‎is always living in the season of Pentecost; and most of all, when going up ‎to the upper chamber, like the apostles of Jesus, he gives himself to ‎supplication and prayer, that he may become worthy of receiving "the ‎mighty wind rushing from heaven," which is powerful to destroy sin and its ‎fruits among men, and worthy of having some share of the tongue of fire ‎which God sends.‎

Excerpt from Origen’s writings printed in Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. 4, Ch. 22-23.‎

Posted by Fr. Moses Samaan

April 9, 2009