The Seventh Sunday of Pascha

This is the Sunday of our great and venerable Fathers in Christ of the 1st Ecumenical Council. These 318 bishops from every part of the Christian world gathered in the first large universal meeting since the earliest days of the Church. They came to faithfully pass on the fullness of agreed tradition with which they had been entrusted by those who went before them – all the way back to the apostles. This council did not come to invent theology, but to faithfully pass on and record that which had been given to us the Church from the beginning, and which will stay as our guiding principles and boundaries.

In this prayer we hear, (John 17: 21-23) “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. That they may be one, as You Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they may also be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ‘And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

This is mind blowing stuff! Christ is saying that He will be present and united with us, His followers here at St. Aidan’s– “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word.” – That’s us! As much as we are in Christ, allowing our wills to be united with His, we are all one with Christ and His Father.