The Theological School of the Apostles

 By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

In the beginning the Apostles were called "Disciples", then they were called "Apostles" because they were sent throughout the world, then they were called "Ecumenical Teachers".

This successive series of characteristics - Disciples, Apostles, Teachers - shows that the Apostles went through a "spiritual school", a "spiritual Theological School", where they learned the spiritual knowledge that comes from faith and love.

Homily on the Second Sunday After Pentecost - On Ambition (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 

Second Sunday After Pentecost - On Ambition

 

By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and All Crimea

(Delivered in 1958)

About one of our severe spiritual wounds - about ambition - I now intend to tell you.

In the Evangelist Luke we read something amazing about what happened at the Secret Supper, when our Lord Jesus Christ told the apostles that one of them would betray Him. Of course, this terrible news shocked the apostles, and they asked each other who could do this. But immediately, not finding an answer, they began to argue with each other about which of them should be considered greater.

How could this ambitious dispute arise among them, who had just heard the terrible prophecy of their Teacher about His betrayal by one of them and about His coming sufferings and death on the Cross?

The Holy Apostles (St. Nikolai Velimirovich)

 

 By St. Nikolai Velimirovich

From the divine apostles flowed rivers of living water across the whole world. Others came and drank their fill of this living water, while others did not. The apostles walked among people like gods, working miracles, healing all sicknesses and every infirmity, preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins. Some received them rejoicing, while others rejected them, angrily and mockingly. Those who accepted them also experienced communion with the Holy Spirit and the action of the Holy Spirit in them. And so the holy nation grew, and God’s Church spread and became established in the world. The seed grew and bore fruit. Thus was the house of truth, the cornerstone of which is our Lord Jesus Christ, sanctified by the All-Holy Spirit, spread to the four corners of the world, and its rooftop rose to the greatest heights of heaven.

The Holy Spring of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople

The Holy Spring of the Twelve Apostles in Constantinople is one of hundreds of holy springs in the Queen City, though it is one of the few that can be found outside of a church, on private property, that still functions.

In Constantinople, almost every church has a holy spring which is dedicated to another saint from the one commemorated in the main church and celebrates its own feast separately. The most significant holy springs in the City are in Panagia Blachernae, Panagia Vefa and Saint Demetrios in Xerokrini. The most famous of these holy springs is Zoodochos Pege in Balukli. Besides these, which are well known, there are hundreds of others that can be found even in homes, stores and private spaces. These sacred springs in the City were unique to the Orthodox Church, with none belonging to the Armenians. An exception is Sulu Manastır (Water Monastery), which is an Armenian church with a holy spring, however this shrine is built over the historic Monastery of Panagia Peribleptos from the 11th century, which was forcibly removed from the Romans of the City and given to the Armenians by the Ottomans.

Synaxis of the Holy Twelve Apostles: Epistle and Gospel Reading

Synaxis of the Holy Twelve Apostles

June 30

 Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Mode Plagal 4.
Psalm 18.4,1
Their voice has gone out into all the earth.
Verse: The heavens declare the glory of God.

The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 4:9-16

English

Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

Holy Apostle James the Son of Zebedee: Epistle and Gospel Reading

Holy Apostle James the Son of Zebedee

April 30th

 Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Mode Plagal 4.
Psalm 18.4,1
Their voice has gone out into all the earth.
Verse: The heavens declare the glory of God.

The reading is from Acts of the Apostles 12:1-11

English

About that time, Herod the king laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword; and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people. So Peter was kept in prison; but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the Church. The very night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison; and behold, an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter on the side and woke him, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands. And the angel said to him, "Wrap your mantle around you and follow me." And he went out and followed him; he did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened to them of its own accord, and they went out and passed on through one street; and immediately the angel left him. And Peter came to himself, and said, "Now I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."