St. Andrew, the “First-called,” as he’s named in the Eastern Church, is celebrated this Monday. He was the first of the apostles to follow Jesus, the one who brought his brother, Simon, to the Lord. Andrew stood by, content, when Jesus made Simon his rock, “Peter”, one of the special three disciples with James and John. Doesn’t this describe Andrew’s humility? He certainly tried to do what Jesus preached to all of them. And who would be the greatest among them? the one choosing to be the least and the servant of them all.
Every year a hand-picked delegate from the bishops of Rome, represent the Pope to greet the Patriarch of Constantinople at their celebration of Andrew, their patron saint. This began fifty years ago when Pope Paul VI and the Patriarch Athanagoras both lifted the excommunications each Church had imposed on the other over 900 years earlier in 1054. The healing which began with Pope John XXIII slowly continues–a fight among brothers, as it were, being faced. We remain the one body of Christ, but a wounded body. Pray for the healing of this body.
from announcements by Abbot Robert Barnes, 29 November, 2015
Leave a Reply