Homily on the Apostles' Fast

By Fr. Patrick

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Christ is in our midst!

The Apostles Fast comes from ancient times. St. Leo the Great, Pope of Rome, who lived almost 1600 years ago mentions it in his homily: 

Today's festival [ of Pentecost ], dearly beloved, hallowed by the decent of the Holy Spirit, is followed as you know, by a solemn fast, which being a salutary institution for the healing of soul and body, we must keep with devout observance... Therefore, after the days of holy gladness, which we have devoted to the honor of the Lord rising from the dead and then ascending into Heaven, and after receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, a fast ordained as a wholesome and needful practice, so that, if perchance through neglect or disorder even amid the joys of the festival any undue licence has broken out, it may be corrected by the remedy of strict abstinence, which must be more scrupulously carried out in order that what was on this day divinely bestowed on the Church may abide in us. For being made the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and watered with a greater supply than ever by the Divine Stream, we ought not to be conquered by any lusts nor held in possession by any vices in order that the habitation of divine power may be stained by no pollution.

Can we see why we honor the Apostles during this season and why we fast? How did the message of Christ given to His disciples, for all mankind, make its way out of the remote corner of the world and to our present time? History tells us the price paid for everything we have in the present: the food we eat, the ideas that we consider, the freedoms we have;  what about Christianity? The Apostles had a difficult task. They marched through a pagan world and in the midst of the antagonism of Jewish leaders and, as St. Paul indicates, suffered for their labors:

Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in vigils often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. ( II Cor. 11:25-27 )

We fast to remember and participate in the labors and pains they endured to bring the message of Christ to us, and to remember  all the generations of disciples and apostles after them up to the present day Also, as St. Leo said in his homily, if we inadvertently missed the spirit of Pentecost now we have the opportunity to re-unite, re-member, be re-ignited in discipleship. [Read More >>]

 
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Talks from the 2018 Women's Retreat

Fr. Maximos' talks from the 2018 Lenten Women's Retreat (along with a short biography) are now online. Listen to them or download them here.