Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This is weekly newsletter #14 of the St Ignatius Parish in Belfast.
Contents of this Newsletter:
- Message from Fr Dmitry: Beginning of the Apostles’ Fast
- News & Announcements: Online Faith & Fellowship Schedule
- Homily on Past Sunday’s Gospel: A Cloud of Witnesses
Message from Fr Dmitry: Beginning of the Apostles’ Fast
This Monday, a week after the Feast of Pentecost, we begin one of the four major fasts appointed by the Orthodox Church: the Fast of the Holy Apostles (Apostles’ Fast).
This fast always begins on the Monday following the Feast of All Saints (the Sunday after Pentecost) and ends on June 29, the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Its length varies depending on the date of Pascha. The earlier Pascha falls, the earlier Pentecost is celebrated, and the longer the Apostles’ Fast will be.
It is one of the most ancient fasts in the Church, known at least since the fourth century. We read in Book V of the Apostolic Constitutions (a fourth-century collection of Church instructions): “Therefore, after you have kept the festival of Pentecost, keep one week more festival, and after that fast; for it is reasonable to rejoice for the gift of God, and to fast after that relaxation.”
Saint Leo the Great (+461) also refers to this practice, writing: “After the long feast of Pentecost, the fast is particularly necessary, in order to cleanse our minds by self-restraint and to make us fit for the gifts of the Holy Spirit.” (Sermon 78, On the Whitsuntide Fast)
The purpose of this fast is to help us nurture the gifts of the Holy Spirit within us. At Pentecost, we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit. On the following Sunday, the Sunday of All Saints, we are reminded that each of us is called to holiness. We are called to receive and cultivate the Holy Spirit within us, allowing Him to guide us toward virtue and away from sin.
Now the time comes to put this into practice. To support us in this work, the Church gives us the fast.
It is considered a relatively lenient fast in terms of dietary rules. We abstain from meat, dairy, and eggs on all days. Fish and wine are permitted on all days except Wednesdays and Fridays, which remain stricter.
But we must also remember that abstaining from food is not an end in itself. Fasting is given to us as a tool to cultivate self-control, restraint, and discipline. It helps redirect our attention away from constant concerns about what to eat, what to wear, and what to do, and instead turn our minds toward loving God and our neighbor, seeking purity of heart, and striving to live according to the Spirit.
May this Fast help us quiet the distractions of daily life, so that we may hear more clearly the voice of Christ and respond with repentance, love, and faithfulness.
I wish you a blessed and fruitful Fast of the Holy Apostles.
News and Announcements:
- Online Faith & Fellowship Meetings – we continue with our weekly fellowship online on Wednesdays. Next meeting is on Wednesday, 18th of June, at 7:00 PM, Zoom link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/97707660214 As usual, we will begin with the Little Compline. After the prayers, we will discuss the Gospel reading for the next Sunday: https://www.antiochian.org/epistleliturgicday/4227
You are all very welcome! No preparation needed — just come as you are!
Past Sunday’s Gospel Reading and Homily
The reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew (10:32-33; 37-38; 19:27-30):
The Lord said to his disciples, “Every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny him before my Father who is in heaven. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” Then Peter said in reply, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world, when the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. But many that are first will be last, and the last first.”
Homily: A Cloud of Witnesses
This past Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost, is known as the Sunday of All Saints. After we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit, we turn to celebrate those people, known and unknown, who received this great gift and lived according to it.
But this is not only a celebration of those people. It is also a prompt and a reminder that we too are called to follow them (Matthew 5:48). The Feast of All Saints does not simply invite admiration from a distance. It invites participation. It calls us to walk the same path.
We sometimes associate holiness primarily with rejection and denial. We think of strict fasting, long prayer rules, solitude and hardship. We think of the great hermits like Saint Anthony the Great or Saint Seraphim of Sarov and imagine that sainthood is about what they gave up. That may be part of the story, but it is not the whole story.
Not all saints were hermits. Not all withdrew from the world. The one thing they all had in common is that they accepted the gift of the Holy Spirit and allowed it to bear fruit in their lives. As Saint Paul writes, the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”. (Galatians 5:22-23)
When someone has these fruits growing in their heart, the sacrifices they make are no longer seen as painful losses. They become part of a joyful way of life. It starts with faith, with proclaiming it, and then living according to it. Some give away their wealth. Some give their time. Some give their lives in service to others. What they give is different. The joy with which they give it is the same.
This is the light in which we should understand last Sunday’s Gospel. Christ calls us to bear witness to Him, not just with words but with our actions. To confess Him before others is to live by His Spirit. He does not command every one of us to abandon our father or mother or children, but if truth requires radical action, we must be ready for it. And if we live in the Spirit, we will not feel it as a terrible loss. We will recognise it as the right thing to do.
To be a saint is to bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit. With faith and those fruits, in words of St Paul read in the epistle reading for last Sunday, we can run with perseverance “the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrew 12:1-2).
All the saints who came before us, known and unknown, glorified and not yet glorified, form “a great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrew 12:1). They are our examples of holy living, and our intercessors before Christ.
May all the saints intercede for us. Amen!
Yours in Christ,
Fr Dmitry