The Feast of Mid-Pentecost

“In the Dismissal Hymn of Mid-Pentecost we ask of our Saviour that the ‘waters of piety’ be imparted to our thirsty souls.

The Fathers teach us that this feast stands in the middle of the fifty-day period from Pascha to Pentecost as a mighty flowing river of divine grace which has these two great feasts as its source.

It is as if the grace of the two auspicious feasts of Pascha and Pentecost are united at Mid-Pentecost.

This feast was held in great esteem by our holy Elder Joseph the Hesychast.

Every year he would await it with great expectancy and would especially prepare for it in order to receive the ‘waters of piety.’ He would delight and exult in the feast as one that had been converted and become a child. Many were the ascents in his heart and great the divine vision which he received on this feast as a soul truly thirsty.

. . . the theme of water is woven throughout the whole Pentecostarion. On the Sundays following Pascha we are found at the Sheep's Pool, the Well of Jacob, and the Pool of Siloam. It is during this festive period that we hear concerning the 'living water' of which, if one drink, 'he will never thirst,' and we are taught that our Savior Himself is this living water"

— from the preface to the Pentecostarion

Note: The Pentecostarion is the service book containing all the hymnography of every service from Pascha to the Sunday of All Saints (the Sunday after Pentecost). The Sunday of All Saints celebrates the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all saints of the past, present and future, those who with the grace of the Holy Spirit brought heaven down to earth.