Although it might seem more appropriate to call it Mid-Pascha, Mid-Pentecost is the feast day which marks the exact midpoint in the fifty days between Great & Holy Pascha and Pentecost. The commemoration of this day – which is meant to be a link between these two great Feasts and was designed to strengthen our faith in the Risen Lord and to focus our attention on the coming of the Holy Spirit – can be traced back to the time of St. John Chrysostom. Both St. Andrew of Crete and St. John of Damascus have provided hymnography for its services.
The gospel lesson for this day is from St. John 7:14-30, which tells us that “Now about the middle of the feast of tabernacles, Jesus went up into the temple and taught;” with Christ instructing the scribes and learned men that “My doctrine is not Mine, but His Who sent Me” and that “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.”
Because of this particular reading there is a tradition of performing the lesser blessing of waters on this day and to remember the life-giving water which poured forth from the barren stone that Moses struck with his staff in the wilderness during the Exodus. It is also interesting to note the fact that this is the Temple Feast of the great cathedral, “Hagia Sophia,” in Constantinople.
