On Thursday, June 30, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew celebrated a solemn liturgy in the parish in honor of the twelve Holy Apostles in Istanbul.
This is reported by orthodoxia.info.
In his speech, His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew noted that this holiday “reminds us and teaches us first of all the importance that the Lord gave to plain, humble, selfless, and illiterate fishermen, and the trust with which He surrounded them, entrusting them with the preaching of the Gospel until the end of the world, and secondly, the trust and devotion of the disciples to the teacher, thanks to which they left everything behind, followed him, and endured everything, even martyrdom, in order to remain faithful to him.”
At the same time, he noted that “the apostles suffered while performing their work, were stoned, crucified, and also shed their blood for Christ, watering the newly planted tree of the Church with it.”
“Each of them suffered their own martyrdom through all kinds of suffering. But all of them remained faithful unto death and sacrificed, enduring all, and indeed laid so strong a foundation of our church and faith, that while other institutions in the course of history have disappeared from the face of the earth, the divinely ordained organization of the Church remains in place, lives one, acts, and gives grace and salvation to a thirsty person, and we all have the certainty that even the gates of hell will not overcome it.”
Patriarch Bartholomew urged not to judge what concerns the Church only through the prism of the world and human logic and limited mind.
“Beyond us, above us and independently of us is the true God, the Creator and Provider of everything, whom the Apostles preached and for whom they accepted martyrdom. Therefore, with gratitude to them, let us celebrate their holy memory today everywhere in our city, and especially in this community, around which there is only one church dedicated to the Holy Apostles. Let us follow their example, on whose behalf the Apostle Paul told us today: “Let us bless when we are disgraced, suffer when we are persecuted, and pray when we are neglected.” This is the highest example of steadfastness and Christian tolerance.”
His All-Holiness emphasized that only with “love, unity and unity will we be able to prevail and continue to remain firm and unshakable in the city of Constantine, where history and the Lord of history have appointed us as heirs and successors of the priceless treasures and traditions of our faith and our people.”
It should be recalled that Patriarch Bartholomew appealed to Ukrainians: “We are with you to pray together and ask God to stop the unjust war in Ukraine.”
