Our God is Fire - Fr. Gregory - June 7, 2020

Today in Orthodoxy we celebrate the Major Feast of Pentecost and the name day of our beloved Cathedral. Pentecost was originally an Old Testament Feast that celebrated the giving of the law by Moses to the people but it took on new meaning for Christians when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples in the upper room. Father Gregory shares with us a powerful message of how we as Orthodox Christians can have our hearts set on fire to continue the work of Jesus Christ and His Church. The disciples of Our Lord were completely incompetent, illiterate fisherman who could seemingly do nothing right and had to be told the same things over and over. But on this day of Pentecost over two thousand years ago they were transformed by tongues of fire that sat upon each of them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit as it says in today’s Epistle reading from Acts. Father Gregory gives us several examples of God as a consuming fire and how He can set our hearts on fire so we become a flame from His flame. Saint Mary of Paris a modern saint in Orthodoxy puts into perspective for us in one of her quotes, “Christianity is either fire or it is nothing”. We as Orthodox Christians can be transformed by the Holy Spirit, burn with love for Jesus Christ like the disciples and fulfill our calling.