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Pentecost

Acts 2

1 Now when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit...

 Commentary from St. Gregory of Nazianzus.  Fifth Theological Oration, 26,26,27,28,29. B#7, pp.210-211.

So that by gradual increase and progress from glory to glory, the light of the Trinity might shine upon the more illuminated ... for this reason it was, I think, that He gradually came to dwell in His disciples. 

The Ascension of Our Lord

Thursday, Sixth Week of Pascha

LUKE 24

51 Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven.  52 And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.  Amen.

Commentary by St. Leo the Great.  The Tome, 4. B#7, p.367.

But after the Resurrection of the Lord - which was in truth the resurrestion of a real body, for no other person was raised again than He who had been crucified and had died- what else had been accomplished during the interval of forty days than to make our faith entire and clear of all darkness?

NICEPHORUS THE SOLITARY

A Most Profitable Discourse on Sobriety and the Guarding of the Heart

You, who desire to capture the wondrous Divine illumination of our Savior Jesus Christ—who seek to feel the Divine fire in your heart—who strive to sense the experience and feeling of recon­ciliation with God—who, in order to unearth the treasure buried in the field of your hearts and to gain possession of it, have re­nounced everything worldly—who desire the candles of your soul to burn brightly even now, and who, for this purpose, have renounced all this world?—who wish by conscious experience to know and to receive the kingdom of heaven existing within you—come and I will impart to you the science of eternal heavenly life or, rather, the method leading him who practices it, without labor or sweat, into the harbor of passionlessness, freeing him from the fear of prelest or of defeat by the wiles of the devil. Such fear is proper only when through our trans­gression the circle of our life revolves far outside the life of which I intend to teach you. For then it happens to us as to Adam;

Journey to Heaven by St Tikhon of Zadonsk

Part I The Love of God

Chapter 1. Love for God

On love for God

[76a] Beloved Christians, all Christians say, "How can we not love God?" Or, "Whom shall we love, if not God?" This is a true saying, "How can we not love God?" And likewise, "Whom shall we love, if not God?" God is the supreme good, uncreated, without beginning, without end, existent, and without change. As the sun always shines, as fire always warms, so God is by nature good; He is and always does good, since there is none good, but One, that is God (Mt. 19:17).