O Glorious St. Andrew, you were the first to recognize and follow the Son of God. With your friend, St. John, you remained with Jesus, for your entire life, and now throughout eternity.
Just as you led your brother, St Peter, to Christ and many others after him, draw us also to Him.
Teach us how to lead them, solely out of love for Jesus and dedication to His service. Help us to learn the lesson of the Cross and carry our daily crosses without complaint, so that they may carry us to God the Almighty Father. Amen.
Tag: St Andrew
St Andrew
A later tradition … tells of Andrew’s death at Patras, where he too suffered the torture of crucifixion. At that supreme moment, however, like his brother Peter, he asked to be nailed to a cross different from the Cross of Jesus. In his case it was a diagonal or X-shaped cross, which has thus come to be known as “St Andrew’s cross”.
This is what the Apostle is claimed to have said on that occasion, according to an ancient story (which dates back to the beginning of the sixth century), entitled The Passion of Andrew:
“Hail, O Cross, inaugurated by the Body of Christ and adorned with his limbs as though they were precious pearls. Before the Lord mounted you, you inspired an earthly fear. Now, instead, endowed with heavenly love, you are accepted as a gift.
“Believers know of the great joy that you possess, and of the multitude of gifts you have prepared. I come to you, therefore, confident and joyful, so that you too may receive me exultant as a disciple of the One who was hung upon you…. O blessed Cross, clothed in the majesty and beauty of the Lord’s limbs!… Take me, carry me far from men, and restore me to my Teacher, so that, through you, the one who redeemed me by you, may receive me. Hail, O Cross; yes, hail indeed!”.
Here, as can be seen, is a very profound Christian spirituality. It does not view the Cross as an instrument of torture but rather as the incomparable means for perfect configuration to the Redeemer, to the grain of wheat that fell into the earth.
Here we have a very important lesson to learn: our own crosses acquire value if we consider them and accept them as a part of the Cross of Christ, if a reflection of his light illuminates them.
It is by that Cross alone that our sufferings too are ennobled and acquire their true meaning.
The Apostle Andrew, therefore, teaches us to follow Jesus with promptness (cf. Mt 4: 20; Mk 1: 18), to speak enthusiastically about him to those we meet, and especially, to cultivate a relationship of true familiarity with him, acutely aware that in him alone can we find the ultimate meaning of our life and death.
Benedict XVI
Audience, June 14, 2006
Image: Fr. Kevin Kim’s
Pope to Patriarch: pursue fraternal relations
For decades there has been an exchange of greetings between the Pope and the Archbishop of Constantinople. This is what you may say is a traditional expectation between brothers. Rome sends a message through a delegation on the feast of Saint Andrew (today) and the Orthodox do the same on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29). This year, the feast of Saint Andrew is the first time Pope Francis is able to write to Bartholomew. You’ll note that Pope Francis is keen on working for improved fraternal relations with the Church in Constantinople. Here is a Vatican Radio report.
To His Holiness Bartholomaios I
Archbishop of Constantinople
Ecumenical Patriarch
“Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith,
from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Eph 6:23)
After welcoming with joy the delegation which Your Holiness sent to Rome for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, it is with the same joy that I convey, through this message entrusted to Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, my spiritual closeness on the feast of Saint Andrew, Peter’s brother and the patron saint of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. With the heartfelt affection reserved for beloved brothers, I offer my prayerful best wishes to Your Holiness, to the members of the Holy Synod, to the clergy, monks and all the faithful, and – together with my Catholic brothers and sisters – join your own prayer on this festive occasion.
Your Holiness, beloved brother in Christ, this is the first time that I address you on the occasion of the feast of the Apostle Andrew, the first-called. I take this opportunity to assure you of my intention to pursue fraternal relations between the Church of Rome and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It is for me a source of great reassurance to reflect on the depth and the authenticity of our existing bonds, the fruit of a grace-filled journey along which the Lord has guided our Churches since the historic encounter in Jerusalem between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, the fiftieth anniversary of which we will celebrate shortly. God, the source of all peace and love, has taught us throughout these years to regard one another as members of the same family. For indeed we have one Lord and one Saviour. We belong to him through the gift of the good news of salvation transmitted by the apostles, through the one baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity, and through the holy ministry. United in Christ, therefore, we already experience the joy of authentic brothers in Christ, while yet fully aware of not having reached the goal of full communion. In anticipation of the day in which we will finally take part together in the Eucharistic feast, Christians are duty-bound to prepare to receive this gift of God through prayer, inner conversion, renewal of life and fraternal dialogue.
Our joy in celebrating the feast of the Apostle Andrew must not make us turn our gaze from the dramatic situation of the many people who are suffering due to violence and war, hunger, poverty and grave natural disasters. I am aware that you are deeply concerned for the situation of Christians in the Middle East and for their right to remain in their homelands. Dialogue, pardon and reconciliation are the only possible means to achieve the resolution of conflict. Let us be unceasing in our prayer to the all-powerful and merciful God for peace in this region, and let us continue to work for reconciliation and the just recognition of peoples’ rights.
Your Holiness, the memory of the martyrdom of the apostle Saint Andrew also makes us think of the many Christians of all the Churches and Ecclesial Communities who in many parts of the world experience discrimination and at times pay with their own blood the price of their profession of faith. We are presently marking the 1700th anniversary of Constantine’s Edict, which put an end to religious persecution in the Roman Empire in both East and West, and opened new channels for the dissemination of the Gospel. Today, as then, Christians of East and West must give common witness so that, strengthened by the Spirit of the risen Christ, they may disseminate the message of salvation to the entire world. There is likewise an urgent need for effective and committed cooperation among Christians in order to safeguard everywhere the right to express publicly one’s faith and to be treated fairly when promoting the contribution which Christianity continues to offer to contemporary society and culture.
It is with sentiments of profound esteem and warm friendship in Christ that I invoke abundant blessings on Your Holiness and on all the faithful of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, asking the intercession of the Virgin Mother of God and of the holy apostles and martyrs Peter and Andrew. With the same sentiments I renew my best wishes and exchange with you a fraternal embrace of peace.
Saint Andrew
Dicit Andreas Simoni fratri suo:
Inveniemus Messiam,
qui diciture Christus; et adduxit eum ad Iesum.
qui diciture Christus; et adduxit eum ad Iesum.
translation
Andrew said to Simon his
brother:
brother:
We have found the Messiah!
(which is interpreted, the Christ);
and he
led him to Jesus.
led him to Jesus.
Saint Andrew, the First Called, brother of Saint Peter, at first a disciple of the Baptist, is the patron saint of many places, Constantinople, Amalfi, Scotland, Russia, among others.
Our prayer offered to Saint Andrew for his intercession is for the unity of the Christian Churches, most particularly between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Today, the Bishop of Rome sends a delegation to the Bishop of Constantinople for the celebration of today’s feast.
Let’s pray with the Church
We humbly implore your majesty, O Lord, that, just as the blessed Apostle Andrew was for your Church a preacher and pastor, so he may be for us a constant intercessor before you.
Saint Andrew: brought Peter to the Lord
Let us pray that Saint Andrew, first-called, will bring us to the Lord as he brought Saint Peter and countless others to the Lord to experience salvation.
Let us pray for concrete unity among Christians, particularly Orthodox Christians with the See of Rome.
The Church prays~
We humbly implore your majesty, O Lord, that, just as the blessed Apostle Andrew was for your Church a preacher and pastor, so he may be for us a constant intercessor before you.
Saint Andrew, the First Called, martyr
Saint Andrew, pray for us.
Ask Saint Andrew to ask the Lord for the grace to carry the cross in humility, dignity and in the face of great opposition, opposition found within ourselves and from others. May he ask the Lord to bless the Bishop of Rome, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Scotland, Russia, the Archdiocese of Amalfi and for fish mongers, old maids and singers.
Orazio Soricelli visits New Haven, honors St Andrew the Apostle
New Haven has many residents whose family hails from Amalfi, Italy. The Italian heritage society, The Saint Andrew Society of New Haven (Società di Sant’Andrea Apostolo), draws the old time Italians, most by now have only an affection of Amalfi but neither speak the Italian language nor have been to the beautiful sea-side town.
The enchanted and beautiful lush area not far from Naples. Amalfi, as you know, over the years has been the resting place of the relics of the brother of Peter, fisherman and first-called by the Lord, Saint Andrew the Apostle. His relics have been in Amalfi since the 13th century (brought to the Italian city by crusaders coming back from Constantinople). A small relic of Saint Andrew is venerated here in New Haven at The Church of St Michael. This parish is recognized as the first spiritual home of the Italian community for more than 150 years. And gratefully so for us to have one of the closest connections to Our Savior and to the Prince of the Apostles!
Continue reading Orazio Soricelli visits New Haven, honors St Andrew the Apostle
Saint Andrew, Apostle
Their sound goes forth to all the earth. And their speech to the end of the world.
We humbly beseech Thy majesty, O Lord, that as blessed Andrew the Apostle was both a preacher and ruler of Thy Church, so he may unceasingly interceded for us with Thee.
Pope Benedict’s General Audience of 14 June 2006 talks about Saint Andrew, the first called.
Today we particularly remember the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (Istanbul) on their patronal feast day as well as the Christians of Scotland and the Rus peoples. Read the Pope’s message to Patriarch Bartholomew I.
Saint Andrew
One of the two who followed the Lord was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, alleluia.
V. Their sound goes forth to all the earth.
R. And their speech to the end of the world.
We humbly beseech Thy majesty, O Lord, that blessed Andrew the Apostle was both a preacher and ruler of Thy Church, so that he may unceasingly intercede for us with Thee.
Let pray, on this feast of Saint Andrew, for the unity of the Christian Churches, for the See of Constantinople and the See of Rome!