Expectation of the Holy Spirit’s coming

The prayer to the Holy Spirit, “O Heavenly King”, said in almost every Orthodox prayer service is not said from Paschal Matins until the Vespers service for Pentecost. Anywhere this prayer occurs it is omitted, and until Ascension Thursday, is substituted with the Paschal troparion (Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life), sung three times. We are like the Apostles during this period, “waiting” for the Holy Spirit to come, and the absence of this prayer makes a strong statement of our profound need and expectation of the Holy Spirit’s coming.

- On the absense of the prayer “O Heavenly King” and it’s meaning

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