After the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ, there followed a period of forty days where Heaven touched the Earth. The Master remained with His chosen disciples, not in the frailty of the flesh, but in the radiance of the incorruptible body. He spoke to them not in parables for the masses, but in the "mysteries of the Kingdom." He opened their minds to understand the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, showing how every stroke of the pen pointed toward His suffering and His triumph.
This miracle, however, drew the ire of the Sanhedrin. The rulers of the earth took counsel against the Lord’s anointed, yet the Apostles replied with the definitive manifesto of the Christian conscience: "We ought to obey God rather than men." The Epilogue of Part I: The Growth of the Word Synaxarion Acts Part 1 [010027601906E000][v0][U...
Part 1 of the Acts concludes with the internal strengthening of the Church. As the number of disciples multiplied, the Seven Deacons were appointed—men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom—to serve the tables so the Apostles could give themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word. Among these was Stephen, the Protomartyr, whose face would soon shine like an angel as he prepared to witness to the truth with his very blood. After the Glorious Resurrection of our Lord, God,
When the day of Pentecost had fully come, the promise of the Father arrived with the sound of a rushing mighty wind. This was the reversal of Babel. Where once tongues were confused to scatter the proud, tongues of fire now descended to unite the humble. This miracle, however, drew the ire of the Sanhedrin