And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship,
in the breaking of the bread, and in prayers.
Acts of the Apostles 2:42
We often have a let-down after the intensity of Great Lent and Holy Week, and we are tempted to return to a worldly way of thinking and neglect our Christian duties. Yet there are so many spiritual treasures during the Pentecost, the fifty day period from the 1st Sunday of Pascha through the Feast of Pentecost, that if only we make some effort to continue following the Church's liturgical life during this time, we will receive a great reward.
The Apostolic reading at the daily Divine Liturgy during this time is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, the account of events in the early Church written by the Evangelist St. Luke as Part II of the history he set down for his friend Theophilos, whom he addresses at the beginning both of the Gospel and of the Acts. The Church, in Her divine wisdom, appointed the reading of the Acts at this time so that we would not only hear the proclamation of the Resurrection at Pascha, but also learn what it means to live in communion with the Resurrected Lord. We must not only affirm our faith in the Resurrection, but we must also live as members of Christ's Body the Church, in which we experience the Resurrection in this life and prepare for eternal life with the Resurrected Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The above verse from Acts summarizes the life lived by the early disciples. There are four elements: 1. The Apostles' doctrine, 2. fellowship, 3. the breaking of the bread, and 4. prayers. If we are to be true disciples of the Lord, we must also participate in these four fundamental elements of the Church's life.
- The Apostles' doctrine consists of the dogmas of the Faith which have been passed down from Christ through the Apostles and Fathers, and which are taught anew to every Christian generation. To be in the Church, we must adhere to the true dogmas, that is, we must be orthodox, not heretics. We should read more about our Faith and accept in humility and openness what the Church teaches.
- Fellowship is the life of charity (agapi) lived among our brethren. We must not isolate ourselves, but strive to gather as often as possible, both in Church services and formal Church events, as well as informally, with those who share the Faith with us.
- The Breaking of the Bread is the Divine Liturgy, at which the One Sacrifice of Christ and the Communion in His Risen Body and Blood are renewed daily, from the time of His Passion until the end of the world. This is the greatest and holiest mystery performed by the Church on earth. Those who forsake the Liturgy are Christians in name only, not in reality.
- Prayers are primarily the other services of the Church, especially the daily Vespers and Matins (Orthros), but also all of the various services in our church books performed by the clergy and assisted by the faithful. Even when we pray "in private," we employ the prayers of the Church as preserved and passed down in our prayer books, the Psalter, and the tradition of the prayer rope, and taught by genuine spiritual Fathers who embody Holy Tradition.
Let us live the life of the Resurrection in the Church!
"Sentenced" to Immortality
Men have condemned God to death; God, however, has by His Resurrection "sentenced" men to immortality. In return for their buffets, He offers embraces; for their insults, blessings; for death, immortality. Never have men shown such enmity for God as when they crucified Him; and never has God shown such love for men as He did in resurrecting. Men wish to render God mortal, but God by His Resurrection designed to make men immortal. The crucified God resurrected and overcame death. Death is no more. Immortality has overtaken man and the whole of his world.
Through the Resurrection of the God-Man, the nature of man has been led irrevocably to the path of immortality, and death has thus become fearful. For, before the Resurrection of Christ, death was something feared by man; but after the Resurrection of the Lord, man has become something fearful for death. If a man lives in Faith within the Resurrected God-Man, he lives above death. He stands impregnable by death. Death is transformed into a "footstool beneath his feet": "O death, where is thy victory? O Hades, where is thy sting?" (I Corinthians 15:55). Therefore, when a man in Christ breathes his last, he sheds only the shell of his body, to be clothed with it once again on the day of the Second Coming.
- from Man and the God-Man, essays by Archimandrite Justin Popovich
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