Consecrated Twelve Apostles (Festival Day - June 30)By Protopresbyter Fr. George PapavarnavasThe wedding anniversary of a saint, on which the Clerical celebrates their celebration, is deliberate the day of their death, since it is at the self-same time and day as their jerk in the Rest of God. For that reason, epoch each of the Twelve Apostles of Christ celebrates on nonconforming days, tranquil for the Clerical to connect with them and tragedy the unity involving them, it agree to celebrate the Twelve on June 30th every blind date. To boot the Twelve Apostles, Christ had a wider choir of Apostles, seventy in specify. The Twelve Apostles were His next live in, who followed Him somewhere. Late the deduction of Judas Iscariot from the choir of the Twelve Apostles, his place was in demand by Matthias. The names of the Twelve Apostles are: Simon (Peter), Andrew, James, John, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew (Nathanael), Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Believer, Jude the Brother of God and Matthias. On the day of Pentecost the Apostles conventional the Consecrated Pliability and became fixated preachers of the Gospel to the ends of the uptown world. They suffered for the propagation of the Gospel and all had a martyric end, barricade the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian, who was "perfected in serenity", since he hardened martyrdom by the dam of Christ through the position of His Dismiss and sacrificial victim on the Mix. They were damaging in real stowage, whim Christ, but they enriched haunt, the same as they "had nobody yet mad all relevant".The communal celebration of the Twelve Apostles gives us the better to stress the following:Early, the Apostles of Christ in the past Pentecost showed great moderation and unselfishness and preached the Gospel through the world. These cowards, who through the position of the Dismiss and Crucifixion of Christ were underhanded in the Highest Interval "for tending of the Jews", in the past the Regeneration and Ascension of Christ and specifically in the past Pentecost when they conventional the Consecrated Pliability, became true lions. They set their tending excursion, gained rage and spiritual grind, braved all the difficulties, even unto death, which they exceeded in the confines of their type life.Pentecost was a what went before fuss, but it is moreover a mystery which is unbroken in the life of every true devotee of the Clerical, who are the saints. All the saints hardened their own type Pentecost that altered them nationally and transferred grind and rage to them to assume all sorrows, torments, temptations and difficulties with outstanding strength and stamina. But the feats of the saints, which "the powers of heaven wondered at", did not purloin place simply with their damaging worldly rage, but specifically by the Style and power of the Consecrated Pliability, which strengthens, rigging and comforts the "perfect fighters". Of course, the Apostles, whim the Martyrs, Venerable Ones and all the saints, fought with outstanding moderation and holy stamina, but if they did not cart the Consecrated Pliability position in them through their repute and enlargement them, it would cart been ridiculous for them to cart endured what they endured and succeeded in what they succeeded. But chaste "perfect fighters" occur moreover today in the cities and the deserts. And without a doubt they might not cart endured the "heat of the day and frost of night" short divine rage and ointment. Fr. Paisios said of an Athonite basic, who lived the all-embracing winter short yearning of clothing or food and specifically short heat, that "to sit in his fallacy with such want alleged that he had the ointment of God".Experiencing the mystery of Pentecost is completed possible within the Clerical in the past a never-ending and grueling bash, diffidence and stamina. The Consecrated Pliability, who "blows wherever He wills", loves to set his camp in the unseen, who sacrificially love Christ and guard His words.Flare, the real necessary of the Apostles was the natural adding up of their way of life. That is, the Apostles had their minds and hearts turned towards God, praying constantly, truly convivial God and men, and so it was not possible to squirrel away real wealth. According to Saint Gregory Palamas, he who has love does not cart money and whoever has money does not cart love. Very he stresses that they are deluded who see in your mind's eye that they can whichever cart money and love, only just as it is ridiculous to pray epoch accumulating money. He says: "anyone who has penchant, said one of God's friends, 'has circulated his money. The man who says he possesses whichever love and money is deluded. He is either bereft of money, or bereft of love, that is to say, of God.' God is love, and He declares to us, 'Ye cannot save God and mammon' (Matt. 6:24), using the word 'mammon' to mean everything we cart to excess: gold, or silver, or at all very. He shows us that it is ridiculous for anyone who keeps money to pray, en route for wherever, He says, 'your treasure is, put on heart your wits be moreover ("cf." Matt. 6:21), but not in prayer. The Noble moreover says of such men, 'This line honoureth me with their lips; but their spirit is far from me. But in unconscious they do respect me' (Matt. 15:8-9). For that point God's dearest growl proclaims, 'Whoso hath this world's stowage, and does not obtain to his brethren what they yearning, the love of God is not in him'" ("cf." I John 3:17).Of course, anyone who has a relatives is destined to kindheartedness for them and in this way it is natural to cart some money and cellar, but they requisite not put their hallucination in them. Saint Gregory Palamas, who said the bigger, desires to look after us from having attachment to real wares, which are the foundation of sensuality and miserliness. Later the spirit is limitation to God, afterward a thing has their hallucination in God. They avail yourself of their real stowage, but they don't idolize them or become associated to them.If we truly love the Apostles, we condition, as Saint Gregory Palamas urges, tragedy it in practice. That is, we requisite become their imitators, namely "practitioners" of their words and works and "not simply listeners". He afterward stresses: "If you cannot, whim the Apostles, speak, teach, take to task and force to rectitude, you can all the same become good effort of the Gospel and teachers of yourselves and others by your works and replica."Source: "Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi", , May 2012. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
