Council of the Glorious and All-Valuable 12 Apostles

The Orthodox Church is called “apostolic” for a reason - it was the apostles who transmitted the knowledge of Jesus Christ to people We celebrate the Council of the glorious and all-praised 12 Apostles on July 13th The word “apostle” itself is translated as “servant” or “messenger” The 12 apostles were God's messengers and servants of Christ, his disciples and followers These people were closest to the Savior, becoming his faithful companions and listeners Thanks to the 12 apostles, people who were far from Jesus and did not have the opportunity to listen to his sermons learned that the main human sin - original sin, because of which all suffering was sent to us, was atoned for The fact that we now have the opportunity to read about Christ and know about all the events that happened in Jerusalem is also the merit of some of the 12 apostles, who compiled written testimonies about the life and deeds of the Savior These records, which began with the first sermon of Jesus, are already 2000 years old They are the ones who help people gain information that supports our faith in the Lord The apostles were chosen by Christ from ordinary mortals 3 years before his crucifixion All of them were representatives of non-noble and poor families Jesus endowed these people with miraculous power so that the apostles would serve the human race until their death After the call to the apostleship, all 12 of Christ’s disciples left their homes and went after the Teacher to preach, to bring people the light of new Knowledge, while sharing all the sufferings and deprivations of Christ himself The call to the apostleship of all 12 disciples did not take place at the same time; it happened over a long period of time Andrew, John, James and Simon (who was later named Peter) were honored to become the first followers and disciples of Jesus Following them, Nathanael and Phillip received the apostolic title For some time, the students continued to do their usual activities However, after these people witnessed the miracles performed by Christ, after listening to the sermons of their Teacher, they left everything they had and followed him Poor fishermen, who fed their families thanks to their meager catch, themselves became “fishers of men” - those who gave knowledge, directed, revealed the truth and showed the way to salvation The apostles, called by the Savior to serve, did not overnight become his devoted followers For some time, Christ had to, every now and then, strengthen their faith, support them in their conviction of the truth of their chosen path of serving the Lord The apostles still did not understand the words and deeds of Christ, they asked many questions about the Kingdom of God and wanted to know what human privileges they were entitled to for serving Jesus At some moments the weakness of the faith of the apostles was such that they renounced their Teacher The Apostle Peter himself denied Christ three times And even when the miraculous resurrection of the Son of God occurred, many disciples continued to doubt their faith They interpreted the evidence of the Kingdom of God in an earthly way, confirming with their actions the Holy Scripture, which speaks of the weakness and imperfection of human nature The apostles still managed to acquire the knowledge of God thanks to the help of the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit They overcame their true sinful nature to become devout followers of Christ, serving him until the end of their days Only one of the apostles, John the Theologian, quietly and calmly passed into another world, having endured a lot of suffering during his life All the other disciples of Christ suffered martyrdom Now the 12 apostles surround God’s throne in heaven, so that at the hour of the Last Judgment, together with the Lord himself, they pronounce judgment on people ever born on Earth