Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-Praised Twelve Apostles
Categories: orthodox-life, hymns, feast-days, spiritual-journey
Date: 30 June 2010 10:32:46
Troparion (Tone 4):
First-enthroned of the apostles,
teachers of the universe:
Entreat the Master of all
to grant peace to the world,
and to our souls great mercy!
Kontakion (Tone 2):
Today Christ the Rock glorifies with highest honour
Peter, the rock of faith and leader of the apostles,
together with Paul and the company of the twelve,
whose memory we celebrate with eagerness of faith,
giving glory to the One Who gave glory to them.
Today [June 30] is the Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-Praised Twelve Apostles. A Synaxis in Orthodoxy is any 'gathering together' [from the Greek], including synods or councils, but in terms of this feast it is the day following a major Feast Day in honour of the Saints who participated in the event commemorated by the Feast Day. As yesterday was the Feast of the Holy Glorious and All-Praised Leader of the Apostles, Peter & Paul, today we remember the Twelve Apostles. There are a number of these: for example, we remember on December 26, the day after the Nativity of Christ [Christmas], the Theotokos, the ever-virgin Mary; on January 7 after the Feast of Theophany [Christ's Baptism] we remember St John the Baptist and Forerunner to Christ [and in Orthodoxy St John is the Forerunner of Christ not only in life, but also in death, in Hades, as he died before Christ and preached the Good News to those awaiting Christ's victory over Death on that that Great and Holy Paschal Weekend]. And there are many synaxes which commemorate groups of people or beings: the 70 Apostles; the Angelic Hosts; the Fathers of the Church Councils, and so on.
I do love this aspect of Orthodoxy: the celebration of a Feast, which celebrates an event in the life of Christ, in Salvation History or in the life of the Church, continues on in the remembrance of those who participated in it. And the Great Feasts also continue on in Afterfeasts [similar to what 'Western' Christians call an octave] which go for varied length of days, and some also may have a forefeast day as well. All rather confusing to my poor mind in terms of remembering and calculating: thanks be to God for calendars and informed parish priests!
I think the reason I love this so much is that, being a rather slow person at times, I need time to take in the magnitude of what is being celebrated. Rather like attending Divine Liturgy on Sunday; attending Vespers the evening before and Matins immediately before the Divine Liturgy helps me to get into a frame of mind where I am, at least in a small way, ready to celebrate Christ's Resurrection and victory over Death. I need that time to prepare...that time to ponder...that time to get into the frame of mind of a creature worshipping His all-loving Creator. And though my mind wanders [sadly regularly at the Cherubic hymn, which contains the words, "Let us ... lay aside all earthly cares ...", I seem to begin pondering what shopping or ironing needs to be done; Lord, have mercy!], I pray it can be brought back: through smelling the incense, seeing the icons, hearing the chanting or the bells on the censer [which is used a lot during Orthodox services], or doing something physical like crossing myself... These things, these material things, for we are material and spiritual creatures and all of us shall be redeemed and transformed from glory to glory, are important. I love the fact that many Christian churches, for it is not limited to Orthodoxy, use the senses in worship, for it truly proclaims, to me, the importance and further the redemption of our entire being: body and soul. Thanks be to God.
Thanks be to God also for you wonderful people; thank you for the prayers, comments, encouragement and love always, but I am thinking in particular today of my previous post. The weekend was intense, but wonderful. As I get my thoughts together a blog post may form. But until then, God bless, and a blessed Synaxis of the Holy, Glorious and All-Praised Twelve Apostles!