In anticipation of the feast we offer you some excerpts from the epistles of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul. Practical suggestions said with love and care for our salvation turn these words into the source of favoring and consoling for all believers.

Saint Peter

Holy Apostle Peter

“As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.” (1Pet 1:14,15)

“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently” (1Pet 1:22)

“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1Pet 2:5)

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1Pet 2:9)

“Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.” (1Pet 2:17)

"For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully." (1Pet 2:19)

"Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear." (1Pet 3:1,2)

"Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." (1Pet 3:3,4)

"Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." (1Pet 3:7)

"Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing." (1Pet 3:8,9)

"For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it." (1Pet 3:10,11)

"Use hospitality one to another without grudging." (1Pet 4:9)

"As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." (1Pet 4:10)

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." (1Pet 3:15)

"The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." (1Pet 5:1-3)

"God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." (1Pet 5:5)

Holy Apostle Peter

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1Pet 5:6,7)

"Add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity." (2Pet 1:5-7)

St.Paul

St. Paul

"Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." (Romans 2:1)

Holy Apostle Paul

"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."(Romans 5:5)

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

"But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." (1 Cor 6:17)

Holy Apostle Paul

"Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency." (1Cor 7:2-5)

"But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." (1Cor 11:3)

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1Cor 13:1-3)

"Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." (1Cor 13:4-8)

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity." (1Cor 13:13)

"Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity." (1Cor 16:13,14)

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2Cor 5:1)

"Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. (2Cor 9:7)

But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith." (Gal 3:11)

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." (Gal 5:22-25)

"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." (Gal 6:2)

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." (Gal 6:9)

"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband." (Eph 5:31-33)

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:10)

"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation." (1Thes 5:8)

"Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well." (1Tim 3:11,12)

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works." (Hebrews 10:24)

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Saint Apostles Peter and Paul have been honored since the day of their execution. The place where they were buried was sacred for the first Christians. In the IV century Saint equal-to-the-apostles Constantine the Great erected monasteries in the honor of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome and Constantinople. Their common feast was widespread even during the early centuries of Christianity. On this day the Orthodox Church glorifies the strength of Saint Peter’s spirit and Saint Paul’s wisdom, and praises the image of sinners who managed to reform. Saint Peter’s image represents a person who rejected God but repented, and the image of Saint Paul is the image of a person who resisted God’s will but finally accepted Him.

The Russian Church honors the apostles since the moment of the Christianization of Rus. According to the story, Saint Prince Vladimir had brought the icon of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul from Korsun, which was later gifted to the Cathedral of Saint Sofia in Novgorod. This cathedral has several IX century frescos of Saint Apostle Peter. In the Cathedral of Saint Sofia in Kiev there are some wall paintings of the apostles as well, but they are dated back to the XI-XII centuries. The first monastery in honor of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul was built in Novgorod in 1185. Around the same time the Monastery of Saint Peter in Rostov was constructed. Also, Saint Peter and Paul Monastery existed in the XIII century in Bryansk. The most famous icons of apostles Peter and Paul were painted by Andrew Rublev, a famous Russian icon-painter. To commemorate their feast days here are the maps of the apostles’ travels, during which they converted and guided many of the first and early Christians:

Apostle Paul's Missionary Journey Map

Paul traveled over 10,000 miles proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. His journeys on land and sea took him primarily through present day Israel, Syria, Turkey, and Greece. Paul walked the roads built by the Romans to facilitate their control over their Empire. Travelers took to the roads in as large a group as they could find. There was constant danger of bandits. They hurried to get to the next wayside inn for shelter and whatever food might be available.

Traveling by sea was not comfortable. There were no cabins for travelers. They had to find a place on the deck exposed to sun, winds, and rain. Paul’s trade as a tentmaker probably held him in good stead, as he could fashion shelter for himself and his companions on the deck.

In 2 Corinthians Chapter 11: Paul describes some of the dangers of traveling:

"… three times I was shipwrecked, I passed a night and a day on the deep;", "on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own race, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea", "in toil in hardship, through many sleepless nights, through hunger and thirst, through frequent fastings, through cold and exposure."

In response to a call of the Holy Spirit, the church in Antioch chose Barnabas and Paul to proclaim the gospel. They first traveled to Cyprus, then to Antioch in Pisidia, a city in present day west central Turkey. They then went to Iconium, Lystra and Derba. They then returned through Perga to Antioch. When they stopped in each city, they went to the synagogues to preach the coming of Jesus Christ, the messiah as the fulfillment of the promises made in the Old Testament.

Barnabas and Paul separated over a disagreement (Acts 15: 36 – 40). Barnabas returned to Cyprus. From Jerusalem Paul went overland to revisit the churches in Lystra and Iconium. On this trip Paul had a dream calling him to bring the gospel to Macedonia. He crossed the Aegean Sea to present day Greece. He traveled down the east coast of Greece. Stopping in Athens, Paul attempted to proclaim the gospel in Athens, where he was met with polite indifference (Acts 17: 16 – 32). He then went to Corinth where he established a church that would give him both great joy and pain (see 1 and 2 Corinthians).

Traveling back through Ephesus where his successful teaching won many to Christ to the annoyance of the local charm dealers (Acts 19: 21 – 40). Paul returned to Antioch by way of Jerusalem.

On his third and longest journey Paul went overland through present day Turkey then across the Aegean Sea to Greece. This was a pastoral journey revisiting the churches he had founded to strengthen them and give them further instruction. While in Ephesus Paul heard a prophecy that should he return to Jerusalem he would be imprisoned. The churches he visited pleaded to him not to go. But Paul felt called by Christ to continue to meet whatever God willed for him.

In Jerusalem Paul was arrested and accused of violating the sacred grounds of the Temple (Acts 21: 27 – 36). He was saved from being beaten to death when the Roman tribune intervened and brought him to the barracks. In defending himself Paul claimed his right as a Roman citizen to appeal his case to the Emperor. He was then sent to Rome to have his case resolved.

Luke ends the Acts of the Apostles with Paul’s arrival in Rome. From Rome the gospel would be proclaimed throughout the world.

Apostle Peter's Missionary Journey Map

Peter spreads the Good News in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost in 30AD. Three thousand who hear his message become believers (Acts 2:14-41).

Peter heals a lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. He and John are arrested by the temple guards and told not to preach (Acts 3:1-4:22).

As the leader of the church in Jerusalem over the next few years, Peter rebukes Ananias and Sapphira when they lie about the money they have received from selling some land (Acts 5:1-16).

Peter is the spokesperson when he and another apostle are arrested in Jerusalem (Acts 5:17-42).

Peter and John go to Sebaste in Samaria in 35AD and pray for the new Samaritan believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-24).

They return to Jerusalem, sharing their message en route in many villages in Samaria (Acts 8:25).

Later in the year, Peter visits the believers in Lydda (called Lod in the Old Testament) (Acts 9:32-35). He heals Aeneas who has been bedridden for eight years. Lod, today, is the site of Tel Aviv’s international airport.

Peter is called to the port of Joppa where Tabitha (‘Dorcas’ in Greek, meaning a ‘gazelle’), one of the believers, has died. Peter prays for her, and the dead woman comes back to life (Acts 9:36-43).

Cornelius – a Gentile God-fearing centurion belonging to the Italian Cohort (an auxiliary unit of archers) based at the Roman administrative centre in Caesarea – has a vision of an angel who tells him to send for Peter in Joppa (Acts 10:1-8).

Peter – praying on the flat roof of Simon the Tanner’s house in Joppa – also has a vision in which he is told not to call anything ‘unclean’ that God has made ‘clean’ (Acts 10:9-23).

Shortly after this, Cornelius’s two Gentile servants and his attendant arrive at Joppa. Peter invites them into the house to be his guests although Jews would not normally eat with Gentiles because they were regarded as ritually ‘unclean’ and eating with them would make a Jew ‘unclean’.

Peter in Caesarea and Jerusalem

Peter travels to Caesarea towards the end of 35 AD and shares the Good News of Jesus’s death and resurrection with Cornelius’s Gentile family and friends. The Holy Spirit falls on all present and the six Jewish believers from Joppa are amazed that God has poured out his Spirit on the Gentiles – as they “heard them speaking in different languages and praising God” .

The new Gentile believers are baptised as “They have received the Holy Spirit just as we did!”. Peter stays in the Gentiles’ house at Caesarea for several days (Acts 10:23-48).

Peter reports back to the Jewish believers in Jerusalem (Acts 11:1-18).

Sources:

1) http://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney1/7-journeys-of-jesuss-followers/peters-journeys/

2) http://www.loyolapress.com/pauls-journeys.htm

Love means responsibility

Marriage and love require huge responsibility from a person. Love requires a response. We used to think it does not. As if love is something you can easily use, or something that brings pleasure, or even something you can order in a restaurant. Unfortunately, in Russian language the word “love” is used in relation to people, animals, furniture, nature, and food.

That is why when a person says “I love” he can mean the same feeling as if he wanted to say “I like spaghetti”. A person treats the other as a delicious meal, which provokes certain emotions and appetite. So he wants to consume it, to glut himself with it. And when the plate is empty, he needs nothing more.

People treat each other like this. They want to consume each other and “possess” each other. People use this verb really often while they are speaking about love: “I want to possess someone”. This means they want to use and to consume this person. I want to get as much as possible from him. But that doesn’t mean I will give myself to the same extent. A person looks at another person and thinks: “What a nice person. What a marvelous, beautiful, clever, simple and rich human being he is. How much can I get from him”. So people use their youth, their beauty, charm, and everything what the nature granted them to get what they want.

But all these things are not eternal. In heat a glass of water is drunk rather quickly. You quench your thirst with this glass, but you see there is nothing at the bottom. But you are still thirsty. You want to consume this beautiful human nature, and to drink all this beauty. If the glass is empty, you need to find another one to consume even more.

People split up, love ends and family relationships break, and this is the only reason: people “love” each other just as they love pasta. When a religious marriage falls apart, it is really painful and scary. Because a marriage cannot be dissolved due to its nature. When God says He joins two people into one He means the most important thing – the mysterious nature of human relationships “And they shall be one flesh” (Genesis, 2:24); “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew, 19:6).

The nature of love is so great that people cannot comprehend it and cannot be dissolved. It is impossible to separate a person from God’s love. Apostle Paul once said: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us”. (Romans, 8:35-37) Nothing on earth can separate us from His love! It is the nature of love, which cannot be dissolved.

Give up your life for love

If a person tells someone, “I love you” or think he loves, he should be sure he can give up his life for this person. That means we should open our hearts and let another person to enter into your life. You have to give up yourself to the other person whithout holding anything back. Give your life to him, give it up for him, open your soul for him and bring him there. How can you destroy such love? There is no way you can!

It is difficult to reach such love. We cannot get it at once, when we are in love, and at the beginning of family relationships. We cannot say such love is something what has the beginning and the end. It has the beginning, but then it continues, and then it comes up after decades of marriage. Not for the first year, not for the second one, but when people have lived many years together and know how to hear each other, listen to each other and obey each other, to forgive and to support each other, so that they cannot image how else it could be. They do not exist separately even if they are separated from each other by some circumstances and live in different corners of the world.

Love cannot be dissolved

It cannot be dissolved. It can be killed, destroyed and trampled by peoples’ selfishness, by the desire to command and do everything for themselves.

It does not matter whether the marriage is religious or not, because matrimony itself has never saved any marriage. As an act or a mystical power, it has never helped those people, who do not live by the Gospel.

If a person lives by these laws and understands what love is, then God blesses this marriage during matrimony and uplifts it.

The exerpt from Gospel that is read during the ceremony has a profound meaning. The episode, in which Christ comes to the marriage in Cana. We see that Christ blesses the marriage by His presence. It tells us about the mysterious nature of marriage and the essence of love. We see how peoples’ nature can be uplifted by love and become something really marvelous. There is little wine at this wedding, just like there is lack of something sensitive in our lives. And then the wine runs out. So does sensibility of a person. The sense is not limitless too. And patience runs out as well. And at that wedding something important runs out – wine, which amuses the guests, because people have come to this marriage for joy and happiness. So why there is little wine? Shame and disgrace.

And Christ turns water into wine. A single tasteless and colorless substance is turned into wine. The same happens to our love and relationships. They are simple and natural human needs: to be loved and to share your life, house and bed with someone else, to be covered by someone. These needs are absolutely normal, and they are simple just like water. Eventually, they are tasteless and colorless.

But Christ shows us, that love can be different, that it can be turned into a mysterious substance. Water is different from wine: so the simple human relationships and the love in marriage are different as well. This love is different by its nature. And if a person has not get such grace, if this has not happened to him, then the marriage can be saved by the common garden of children. But it will be destroyed. There is no marriage if there is no love.

But there is one more thing we know. We take wine during the Holy Communion. This wine can be turned into the blood of Christ, into the blood which He has spilled for us and which proves that He loves us. Now you see, how great human love can be!

People ask: “What are the reasons for divorce?” “Because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew, 19:6). Because of the hardness of your hearts you may divorce, because you do not love and the marriage does not mean love to you. The purpose and nature of marriage are always the same. In the Old Testament the purpose was different. Today people say that the purpose of marriage is childbearing. This is not true. Childbearing is a natural consequence, but not the aim. The aim of marriage in Islam is reproduction, and that is why people there do not think about love between spouses. It may appear, but at the beginning a man choses his future wife without seeing her face and knowing anything about her. It is hard to say, what they think about love. The situation in old testament was the same.

But Christian marriage is the union of love. The aim is love itself. It is the essence, the realization and the aim which Christ has set at the marriage in Cana – to turn water into wine. And that is why we say a Christian family is a small church. Why? Because if there is love in this family, then the gates of hell won’t prevail over it. As it was said: “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew, 16:18). The same is said about a family in which people love each other. Hell cannot prevail over love. And a family is the source of real love. Not the love for pasta, but the love which joins two people into one.

Translated from: http://www.kiev-orthodox.org/site/family/2498/

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Teachings of the Apostles: Quotes from the Epistles of St. Paul and St. Peter

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