Mid-Pentecost

Prepoloveniye_(meso-pentecost)by S. V. Bulgakov

On Wednesday of the fourth week we celebrate the Mid-Feast of Pentecost, i.e. half of the period from Pascha to Pentecost.

This day we commemorate that event from the life of the Savior, when He on the Mid-feast of the Tabernacles taught in the temple about His Own Divine ministry and the mystery of water, under which we understand the beneficial teaching of Christ and the beneficial gifts of the Holy Spirit (1).

The Mid-feast of Holy Pentecost is referred to among the ancient Christian feasts. If its beginning cannot be seen in the canons of the Apostolic [37] and Antiochian Councils [20] concerning the assembly of local councils during the fourth week of Pentecost, then in the time of St. John Chrysostom it is already existing and established by the Holy Church.

In the fifth century Anatolius of Constantinople, in the seventh the Venerable Andrew of Crete, in the eighth St. John of Damascus, in the ninth the Venerable Theophanes the Confessor wrote church hymns for the Mid-feast, with which the Holy Church even now praises the Lord in the Mid-feast of Pentecost.

Standing between the day of Pascha and the day of Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Mid-feast serves as a bond between these two great Christian celebrations: together with the continuing celebration of the first of these the Mid-feast reminds us of the approach of the feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and also the feast of the Ascension of the Lord.

“Let us glorify, brethren, – the Holy Church appeals to us, – the resurrection of Christ the Savior, and having reached the middle of the feast of the Master, let us most closely keep the commandments of God, that we may also be worthy to celebrate the Ascension, and the Coming of the Holy Spirit (The Praises, Verse after Glory, Both now and Ever by Anatolius) “; “Having reached the middle of the divine feasts let us who are godly wise hasten to learn the fulfillment of the divine virtues (canon 1, Ode five, Troparion 1).”

The Troparion, Tone 8

In the middle of the Feast, O Savior, Fill my thirsting soul with the waters of godliness, as Thou didst cry to all: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink! O Christ God, Fountain of our life, glory to Thee! (1967 OCA translation)

The Kontakion, tone 4

Christ God, the Creator and Master of all, Cried to all in the midst of the feast of the law: Come and draw the water of immortality! We fall before Thee and faithfully cry: Grant us Thy bounties, for Thou art the Fountain of our life. (1967 OCA translation)