Among the gifts which the one who receives the gift of the Holy Spirit is endowed in the saintly life, when the person struggles to keep God's commandments to the highest degree and to live in purity of soul and body, the married life in Christ within the social customs, the pastoral diaconate in Christ with its many cares, etc. In other words, all the gifts of grace that the Holy Spirit grants. Thus the Holy Spirit "wholly makes up the institution of the Church", which is the Body of Christ.

The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost does not indicate that the Holy Spirit was previously absent from the earth and from people, but that, as we mentioned before, the Holy Spirit operates in a different way. We can offer two points that interpret the Descent of the Holy Spirit and His different energy.

Before Christ ascended into Heaven He gave a command to His Disciples to return to Jerusalem after His Ascension and remain there until they were invested with power from Heaven. Thus He gave them the promise that they would receive the Holy Spirit, about which He had spoken during His life.

For the Christian of true worship, the Holy Bible is the greatest source of Truth, virtue, and moral ethics. It is invaluable as a source of teaching doctrine and holiness. We call it the "Book of Life," for in its pages we find the closest expression we have of the Inexpressible. From generation to generation, the books that make up the Canon of Scripture have communicated to us the lessons God has taught and still is teaching His people. It is open to all and should be read by all; men and women, clergy and laity, children and adults, believers and unbelievers.

On this Sunday our Holy Church celebrates the memory of just one small group of His disciples and followers. The Holy Orthodox Church brings before you only 318 of His sweet, fragrant, and undecaying fruits. A small but chosen group. These are the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Synod, which was held in Nicaea in 325 A.D., in the time of the Emperor Constantine the Great, for the defense, clarification, and confirmation of the Orthodox Christian Faith.

It is no small irony that across the globe the edifice and image most widely associated with Turkey, Istanbul, and even perhaps Islam, is a sixth-century Orthodox Christian church--the magisterial Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, or "Holy Wisdom." Built by some 10,000 workers between 532 and 537 its patron, Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, inaugurated the construction of Hagia Sophia in the Imperial Capital of Constantinople with the proclamation that the Church of the Holy Wisdom would be a Cathedral like "one that has never existed since Adam's time, and one that will never exist again."