The Holy Pentekostarion: Catechesis on Holy Week, Pascha and Pentecost by Robert F. Slesinski (review)

68 Antiphon 16.1 (2012) to the mystery of faith as the source of theological inquiry, then those who sought a renewal of “the praxis of spirituality, preaching, liturgy and mysticism” (28) were seeking to renew the very sources of Christian faith itself. And pastoral renewal seems a necessary consequence of anyone who “returns to the sources,” recognizing that for someone like Augustine catechetical preaching and liturgical prayer were themselves a performance of theology. Only in modernity are they made separate. Yet this is a small problem for a work that is full of insight for someone seeking a historical introduction to nouvelle théologie as a whole. Further, the true benefit of a work such as this is that it may very well increase the desire of the reader to return to the sources themselves — not only of Congar and de Lubac but of Augustine and Aquinas as well. The reader who does, thanks to Mettepenningen, will be better prepared to perform his or her own ressourcement. Timothy O’Malley University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, Indiana Robert F. Slesinski The Holy Pentekostarion: Catechesis on Holy Week, Pascha and Pentecost Fairfax, Virginia: Eastern Christian Publications, 2010 166 pp. Paperback. $15. The author is a Byzantine Catholic priest and scholar with a doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He has also served as a parish priest for many years. This combination makes him especially qualified to produce a series of mystagogical catecheses. Two volumes have already seen publication: The Holy Encounter, meditations on the Feast of the Lord’s Presentation in the Temple (2008; reviewed in Antiphon 13.1), and The Holy Transfiguration (2009; reviewed in Antiphon 14.2). The present volume, The Holy Pentekostarion, is somewhat different from the first two in that it does not deal with a single feast but with a liturgical season punctuated by several feasts contained in the Byzantine liturgical book bearing the same title: the Holy Entry (Palm Sunday), Passion/Holy Week, the Holy Resurrection, the Holy Ascension, and Pentecost. Father Slesinski connects these mysteries to one another and connects the sources of the lex orandi within each. As in his earlier works, he conducts his mystagogical catechesis by paying attention to hymnody, iconography, the biblical readings of the lectionary as they are illuminated by typology, and the Church’s sacramental life, especially baptism and the Eucharist. 69 Book Reviews This is precisely the lesson Slesinski wishes to teach by example. In mystagogical catechesis, guided by the light of patristic teaching, “we are concerned with being enlightened as to the very mysteries in the life of Our Lord” (1). The author consciously grounds his work in a principle articulated by the First Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution Dei Filius: “Now reason, if it is enlightened by faith, does indeed when it seeks persistently, piously and soberly, achieve by God’s gift some understanding, and that most profitable, of the mysteries, whether by analogy from what it knows naturally, or from the connection of the mysteries with one another and with the final end of humanity” (2). The experience Slesinski seeks to craft for the reader is multi-sensorial: biblical revelation is seen in the icon, heard in liturgical hymnody, and actualized in the Church’s liturgy and sacraments. In other words, this sort of catechesis speaks from the pages of Scripture, from the painted board, from the choir’s voice, and from sacramental action. Perhaps an example from chapter five (on Pentecost) will illuminate. In the Byzantine churches, Pentecost Sunday is actually the Feast of the Holy Trinity, whereas Pentecost Monday is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. All talk about the Spirit coming at Pentecost is placed within a strong Trinitarian context. Slesinski begins by rooting the Christian feast in its Jewish antecedent: the three feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Booths. In the Old Testament, the number 50 was already a symbol for the remission of debts, and so the symbol of hope: seven times seven plus one leads us beyond the Sabbath to the eschaton, which is already ushered in on the day after the Sabbath, the “eighth day,” the day of Christ’s Resurrection when he became our mystical Passover. “The...