Each of us is connected to every other human that has ever lived. We share a common biology, creator and experience that deeply bonds us in solidarity with one another.
Likewise, one of the neat things about being a Christian is our unique connection with all of the other Christians who have ever lived. We share a common relationship — one that bridges time and space, life and death — with the same Divine Person: Jesus.
And this connectedness has been made most practically tangible for us and been passed down to us by way of that most familiar of historical conduits: Tradition. And, in particular, the Tradition of Jesus’ and His Apostles.
That’s why it is so comforting to look back at what the first Christians did to practice their faith and to find the familiar Mass our family is blessed to participate in every Sunday. It’s quite the connection indeed, and it’s amazing to think about the billions of folks who have done this very same thing for 2000 years and will continue to do so until the end.
The following video recounts a letter from St. Justin Martyr to the Emperor Antoninus Pius in 155 AD explaining very specifically what Christians back then (only a generation or two after the Apostles) did to worship. Cool stuff.
“And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. […]
“And this food is called among us Εὐχαριστία [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.”
St. Justin Martyr 155 A.D. (The First Apology – 66, 67)