Sunday Readings

Apostolic Reading – Acts 2:1-11

Gospel – John 7:37-52 & 8:12

Hymns: See our Church’s website for Audio Recordings: holycrossmelkite.org/hymns

Troparion of the Feast (Tone 8)

Blessed are You, O Christ our God, who have filled the fishermen with wisdom by sending down the Holy Spirit upon them, and who through them, have caught in Your net the whole world, O Lover of mankind, glory to You.         

Kondakion of the Feast (Tone 8)

When the Most High came down and confused the tongues (in Babel), He divided the nations; but when He distributed the tongues of fire, He called all men to unity. Wherefore, we glorify the Holy spirit, with one accord.

Prokimenon

Through all the earth, their voice resounds, and to the ends of the world, their message.

Stichon

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork.

Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-11)

When the days of Pentecost were ending, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a violent wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them separate tongues as of fire, and they settled upon each one of them, and all were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in foreign tongues, as the Holy Spirit granted them to speak. Now, there were staying in Jerusalem devout Jews from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, a great crowd gathered, and they were astounded because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And all of them, amazed and wondering, were saying to each other, “Look, are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? How then have all of us heard our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Lybia around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, Jews also and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, we have heard them speaking in our own language of the wonderful works of God.”

Alleluia  

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.

Stichon

From heaven the Lord looks down. He sees all the children of men.

The Holy Gospel According to St. John the Evangelist (7:37-52 & 8:12)

Now on the last, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Anyone who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘From within him there shall flow rivers of living water.’” He said this, however, of the Spirit, whom they who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Some of the crowd, therefore, when they had heard these words, said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” Some, however, said, “Can the Christ come from Galilee? Does not the Scripture say it is of the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived, that the Christ is to come?” So there arose a division among the crowd because of Him. And some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him. The attendants therefore came to the chief priests and Pharisees; and these said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?” The attendants answered. “Never has man spoken as this Man.” The Pharisees then answered them, “Have you also been fooled? Has any one of the rulers believed in Him, or any of the Pharisees? But this crowd, which does not know the Law, is accursed.” Nicodemus, the man who had come to Him at night, who was one of them, said to them, “Does our Law judge a man unless it first gives him a hearing, and knows what he does?” They answered and said to him, “Are you also a Galilean? Search and see that out of Galilee arises no prophet.” And again Jesus spoke to them saying, “I am the Light of the world. Anyone who follows Me does not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.”