Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee how much less this house that I have builded? Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O Lord my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer, which thy servant prayeth before thee today: that thine eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place. Let us recall the moving prayer of King Solomon: O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath. The Old Testament tabernacle-a moveable temple-was built according to a plan shown by God to Moses. They forget that God Himself, through His prophets Moses, David, and Solomon instituted the temple and the divine. One hymn of the Church speaks of this: Now the powers of heaven invisibly serve with us.Ĭertain people call themselves Aspiritual Christians and vainly insist that the Church is unnecessary, that they have a temple in their souls. According to the teaching of the Church, the prayers of the angels and the saints are joined to the prayers of the faithful standing in church. Common prayer in church makes individual prayer easier when alone because the Holy Spirit and the unison prayers of other people intensify the power of individual prayer in church. According to the unerring word of the Savior, if two or three are gathered together in His name, He is there in the midst of them. Fulfillment of most social obligations take place in the world, but the obligations of Church life involve communion with God and service to Him. Therefore, all Sundays and feast days see the Liturgy done in churches.Įach person must take part in the like of the Church just as each person is social, and takes part in the life of other persons in familial, communal, and civil life. The foremost sign of our undivided love for God and fellow man is our Sabbath participation in the Eucharist, in the mystery of Holy Communion, which grants us the strength to do good. The Lord's day is Sunday: the Christian's day of prayer, a day for learning God's Word, and a day for Communion in the Eucharist, a day as well for good and charitable deeds.Ĭhrist demonstrated the inseparability of love for God and love for man by healing the sick on God's day, on the Sabbath. It was also the image of His internal divine life, and the image of the higher spiritual, contemplative life of man, which the Sabbath rest summons to and schools us in. The Old Testament Sabbath was the image of God's resting after His creation of the world. Our main concern must be to follow the path toward God, away from Whom we can find no rest. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
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