On 3 June 2012, the Day of the Holy Trinity, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Moscow Church of the “Joy to All the Afflicted” Icon of the Mother of God.

The Moscow Synodal Choir conducted by the honoured artist of Russia, Alexei Puzakov, sang at the divine service, after which Metropolitan Hilarion celebrated Pentecostal Great Vespers with the Kneeling Prayers and addressed the worshippers with archpastoral homily. He explained in length the great meaning of the feast. He said: “The Holy Spirit enlivens the whole world and the hearts of all people. Therefore we celebrate Pentecost in later spring or early summer and decorate our churches with greenery… Many of us know inspiration or its lack from our own experience. We, the believers, know that inspiration comes to us from God. There is a mysterious connection between God and man and mysterious actions of the Holy Spirit… As we are members of the Church, we feel the mysterious influence of Divine grace, which the holy fathers called the grace of the Holy Spirit.”