An homily from St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Winfield, PA, by Priest Paul Siewers, given at Pentecost 7534 (2026).

We do not take a breath without the Holy Spirit moving us. So our dear Vladyka Bishop Luke reminded us at our feast day last year.

Brothers and Sisters, our very bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit as St Paul writes. That is because our Church, the one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and even our little humble country Church here, is the Body of Christ. And we receive His Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

As St. John of Kronstadt said, “Everything that breathes, breathes by air and cannot live without air; similarly all reasonable free creatures live by the Holy Spirit, as though by air, and cannot live without Him. ‘Every soul is quickened by the Holy Spirit.’ Recognize that the Holy Spirit stands in the same relation to your soul as air stands in relation to your body.”

So direct is our relationship with the Holy Spirit in Orthodoxy. For in Him, God, do we live and move and have our being, as the Apostle Paul said, and God is three persons in one, Father Son and Holy Spirit. We should feel this in the Person of the Holy Spirit moving through our Lord’s Church and in our lives as Orthodox Christians, this life that in Him we live and move and have our being.

Orthodoxy is God’s great gift to us. Because without the false teaching of the filioque that has entered into modern forms of Christianity that have wandered away, Orthodoxy experiences the Holy Spirit directly in the uncreated energies of God.

For Orthodoxy is not a religion, it is the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

Friends, a mother I know wrote me this week. Her family has been attending an Orthodox Church and God willing will become Othodox. But her son in high school as a result has been thrown out of a supposedly non-denominational Protestant club at school because he is attending an Orthodox Church. He helped co-found the club, the so-called Fellowship of Christian Athletes. But they said now he is attending an Orthodox Church he must repent because he is not believing in the false doctrine of sola scripture, or by Scripture alone.

The problem with the widespread heresy of sola scripture is that it leaves out Pentecost.

Pentecost is the birthday of the Church and the blossoming forth, like the leaves of a forest of trees, of the inspired life guided by the Holy Spirit, from which grows the Tradition of the Holy Orthodox Church through the ages, the Body of Christ. We revere Scripture but we do so in the light of the Holy Spirit in our Lord’s Church.

The Slavs have a word for this, sobornost, which means catholic, but in a deeper Orthodox sense of solidarity with the Holy Spirit. We are mystically joined in the unity of sobornost with God and with each other in His Church. At Pentecost Christ’s followers were in one place together as the Holy Spirit came upon them. This is sobornost, which we are given also in every Liturgy, where the Gospel is the focus of the first half, and the Body and Blood of Christ comes to us in the second half. By contrast our Lord denounced the religious leaders of Pharisees and Sadducees for promoting religion devoid of the Holy Spirit and oppressing people with it.

How cold, how lifeless, how even of the anti-Christ it is to live without the Holy Spirit, God, whence comes His great gift the uncreated grace. But rather than judging others, we must ever keep watch that we do not live our lives in that lifeless way.

St. Gregory the Theologian writes in his Oration on Pentecost (from orthodoxagape@substack.com) wrote

“[The Holy Spirit] is always the same as Himself, and as those with Whom He is ranked: invisible, eternal, uncontainable, unchanging, without quality, without quantity, without form, intangible, self-moving, ever-moving, self-powered, all-powerful. If indeed this pertains to the first cause [i.e., the Father], as it is all ascribed to the Only-Begotten, so also it is ascribed to the Spirit: He is life, and creates life; He is light and distributes light; He is goodness itself, and the source of goodness. He is the upright Spirit, sovereign, Lord. He sends, sets apart, builds a temple for Himself, guides, acts as He wills, distributes gifts. He is the Spirit: of adoption; of truth; of wisdom; of understanding; of knowledge; of piety; of counsel; of strength; of fear, as was enumerated, through Whom the Father is known and the Son is glorified, and by Whom alone He is known. They are one common rank — One in adoration, worship, power, perfection, sanctification. Why should I speak at length? All that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son, except unbegottonness. All that belongs to the Son belongs to the Spirit, except begottonness. These things do not divide the essence, according to my teachings, but they are divided in the [common] essence.”

Then the holy Theologian challenges us:

“Are you in labor to bring forth objections? I am also [in labor]: to get back to my discourse, or logos. Honor the day of the Spirit. Hold back your tongue a little, if you can. Our discourse is about other tongues; respect them, or fear them — seeing that they are of fire. Today, let us teach; tomorrow, let us quibble. Today, let us keep the Feast; tomorrow, let us behave rudely. This is mystical, that is theatrical. This is for the churches, that is for the marketplaces. This is for the sober, that is for the drunk. This is for the serious, that is for those who poke fun at the Spirit.” [Part 7 of 11]

Let us not poke fun at the Spirit either in our lives or by our mouths by neglect and pride.

How in worldly cares we may feel exhausted, tired, irritated, caught in self-centeredness, desire of the world’s comfort and power. St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia said,  “When you get bitter and annoyed, even if only in thought, you ruin the spiritual atmosphere. You stop the Holy Spirit from working and you allow the devil to increase evil. You should always pray, love, and forgive, rejecting each and every bad thought within you.”

The Cherubic Hymn reminds us so beautifully in our Liturgy, “let us who mystically represent the Cherubim, and chant the thrice-holy hymn to the Life-creating Trinity, now set aside all worldly cares, that we may receive the King of all…”

Brothers and sisters, a pop song tells us in secular terms, that we all get weary, but that we should try a little tenderness.

By the grace of the Holy Spirit, as Orthodox Christians, let us try a little tenderness, from Pentecost this day forth.  As Elder Sophrony of Essex put it, a modern saint in England: “Stand at the brink of the abyss of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little and have a cup of tea.” For the Holy Spirit is moving in that abyss of our lives, wherein really is the love of God that He unfolds.

The spark of divine love shines in each of our hearts. Nourish it. The Holy Spirit will roar it up into a flame, a light. It will shine like a lighthouse into the nights of the soul and our current age. Acquire the spirit of peace and thousands around you will be saved.

I am the Light of the World said our Lord, and you are the light of the world, He also said.

That is the open secret of Pentecost.

Glory to God!

***

The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to John, § 27 [7:37-52; 8:12]

The last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ (But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believe in Him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.) Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, ‘In truth this is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ.’ But some said, ‘Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh out of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem where David was?’ So there was a division among the people because of Him. And some of them would have taken Him, but no man laid hands on Him. Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said unto them, ‘Why have ye not brought him?’ The officers answered, ‘Never did man speak like this man!’ Then the Pharisees answered them, ‘Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? But this people, who knoweth not the law, are cursed.’ Nicodemus said unto them (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them), ‘Doth our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doeth?’ They answered and said unto him, ‘Art thou also from Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet.’ […] Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, ‘I am the Light of the world. He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’