Synaxarion of our Venerable Father Hypatios of Rufinianes

Verses

Hypatios was laid next to the sea,
And is obedient with the friends of God above.

This Saint lived during the reign of Honorius (395-423) and Arcadius (395-408), was born in Phrygia, and having been educated by his father he was also beaten by him. When he was eighteen years old, he left his parents and went to Thrace. There he went to a cenobium and became a monk, and his virtues rendered him venerable and revered by all, for he never drank wine.

And at one time he battled against the demon of fornication, for which he went eight days without eating or drinking at all. When the superior of the monastery learned of this, he gave him with his own hands a cup of wine and a bread, to eat and drink after compline, before all the brothers. Having eaten and drank, he was freed of the battle, for which he thanked God, as well as his teacher and abbot.

Pentecost: The Gospel of the Descent of the Holy Spirit

By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

When seed is sown, the power of warmth and light must descend upon it to make it grow.

When a tree is planted, the power of the wind must come in order to make it strong.

When a householder builds his house, he has recourse to the power of prayer, in order to sanctify it.

Our Lord Jesus Christ has sown a most select seed in the field of this world. The power of the Holy Spirit had to descend in order to warm and sanctify that seed, so that it would grow and prosper.

God the Son planted the tree of life in the overgrown field of death. The mighty wind of God the Holy Spirit had to sweep through, in order to strengthen the tree of life.

Third Homily on Pentecost (St. Leo the Great)

Sermon 77

(On Pentecost, III)

31 May 442(?)

By St. Leo the Great

I. The Holy Spirit's work did not begin at Pentecost, but was continued because the Holy Trinity is One in action and in will

Today's festival, dearly-beloved, which is held in reverence by the whole world, has been hallowed by that advent of the Holy Spirit, which on the fiftieth day after the Lord's Resurrection, descended on the Apostles and the multitude of believers , even as it was hoped. And there was this hope, because the Lord Jesus had promised that He should come, not then first to be the Indweller of the saints, but to kindle to a greater heat, and to fill with larger abundance the hearts that were dedicated to Him, increasing, not commencing His gifts, not fresh in operation because richer in bounty. For the Majesty of the Holy Spirit is never separate from the Omnipotence of the Father and the Son, and whatever the Divine government accomplishes in the ordering of all things, proceeds from the Providence of the whole Trinity. Therein exists unity of mercy and loving-kindness, unity of judgment and justice: nor is there any division in action where there is no divergence of will. What, therefore, the Father enlightens, the Son enlightens, and the Holy Spirit enlightens: and while there is one Person of the Sent, another of the Sender, and another of the Promiser, both the Unity and the Trinity are at the same time revealed to us, so that the Essence which possesses equality and does not admit of solitariness is understood to belong to the same Substance but not the same Person.

First Homily on Pentecost (St. Leo the Great)

Sermon 75

(On Pentecost, I)

23 May 443

By St. Leo the Great

I. The giving of the Law by Moses prepared the way for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit

The hearts of all Catholics, beloved, realize that today's solemnity is to be honored as one of the chief feasts, nor is there any doubt that great respect is due to this day, which the Holy Spirit has hallowed by the miracle of His most excellent gift. For from the day on which the Lord ascended up above all heavenly heights to sit down at God the Father's right hand, this is the tenth which has shone, and the fiftieth from His Resurrection, being the very day on which it began , and containing in itself great revelations of mysteries both new and old, by which it is most manifestly revealed that Grace was fore-announced through the Law and the Law fulfilled through Grace. For as of old, when the Hebrew nation were released from the Egyptians, on the fiftieth day after the sacrificing of the lamb the Law was given on Mount Sinai, so after the suffering of Christ, wherein the true Lamb of God was slain, on the fiftieth day from His Resurrection, the Holy Spirit came down upon the Apostles and the multitude of believers, so that the earnest Christian may easily perceive that the beginnings of the Old Testament were preparatory to the beginnings of the Gospel, and that the second covenant was founded by the same Spirit that had instituted the first.

Holy Forty Martyrs of Rome

Holy Forty Martyrs of Rome (Feast Day - June 16)

Verses

Five plus five, five plus five nobles in the fire,
And five plus five plus five, with five are burned.

The Holy Forty Martyrs of Rome met their end by fire.