On the bright and joyful day of Pentecost, the Holy Trinity Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery celebrates its major patronal feast.

The churches of the Diveyevo monastery are buried in flowers and greenery of young birches, the fragrance of the summery offering of nature that praises its Creator, while every believing heart is beautified with the grace of the Holy Spirit and becomes a blooming paradise.

On this memorable day, hierarchical divine services were held there. Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas shared the joy of the patronal feast with the clergy, sisters, numerous parishioners and pilgrims of the monastery. On the eve of the feast, the ruling hierarch presided at the Little Vespers with the akathist and All-Night Vigil in the Trinity Cathedral, followed on the feast day by the prayer service with the akathist beside the relics of Venerable Seraphim of Sarov, paraklesis to the Most Holy Mother of God and late-morning Divine Liturgy.

Hegumen Seraphim (Dubrovsky) of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery uncovered the spiritual meaning of today’s reading from the Book of the Apostles that proclaimed the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

The first effect of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Christ resulted in their solemn praise of the Lord in languages unknown before that has become a prototype of the Church where all the tribes and nations of the universe were to enter to praise the Risen Christ.

“This event is immeasurable in its importance, fruitfulness, and salvific purpose for the Church of Christ as a whole. On this day, the apostles were dedicated by the Holy Spirit, and from them the future ministers received the grace of priesthood. On this day, the salvific mysteries the Church performs to this day have been revealed. The apostles and all believers received the gift of wisdom to preach the Gospel, along with the gift of making abundant miracles that drew a great many souls of men to faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit came into the world as the next Comforter equal to and glorified as Jesus Christ and God the Father, sent from the Father to do the work of salvation of men.”

At the end of the service, Hegumenia Sergia, the abbess of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery, heartily thanked Metropolitan Georgiy for beautifying the feast of the Holy Life-Giving Trinity with his presence.

As a token of gratitude, matushka hegumenia presented the ruling hierarch with prosphora and the icon of the Holy Trinity wishing that the Lord generously bestows upon him the gifts of the Holy Spirit, helps him in his archpastoral duties and that, along with St. Joannicios the Great, his soul never ceases to appeal: “My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son, my protection is the Holy Spirit.”

In his archpastoral address, the head of the Nizhny Novgorod Metropolis congratulated all those who prayed on the day of the Holy Trinity with the patronal feast day of the Diveyevo monastery.

Vladyka Georgiy noted that we know from the Old Testament that the people of Israel were the only ones who kept faith in the true God while paganism and polytheism reigned elsewhere. “And so God sends us the Messiah, the Redeemer of sins of the human race, His only begotten Son. Already at the Jordan during the Baptism of Christ the Savior, the Holy Trinity has been intimately revealed to the people: Christ as the Son of the Father and the Holy Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a dove.

Later on, the work of our salvation, Golgotha, the burial, and Resurrection, was complete. Christ’s disciples were to preach the faith in true God to the Gentiles. The apostles understood their weakness and infirmity in this lofty endeavor, but, following Christ’s Resurrection, their faith grew stronger in their hearts: anything impossible for men was possible to God.