Restless Pilgrim

I saw on Twitter a few weeks ago a Protestant minister asking her Twitter followers how they would respond to someone who doesn’t see why they should go to church on Sunday. I don’t think there’s a compelling argument that can really be given for this if one begins with “general” Protestant presuppositions. However, I wanted to put together a post of what some Saints of history have said on the matter…

St. John Chrysostom answers this question briefly when he writes:

They say: ‘We can pray at home.’ You are deceiving yourself, O man! Of course,

one can pray at home. But it is impossible to pray there as in church, where such

a multitude of hearts are uplifted to God, merging into one unanimous cry. You

will not be so quickly heard while praying to the Master by yourself, as when

praying together with your brethren, for here in church there is something

greater than in your room: Agreement, unanimity, the bond of love, and finally

here are the prayers of the priests.

The priests stand before us, then, so that the prayers of the people, being weak,

would be united to their more powerful prayers and together with them ascend to

heaven. The Apostle Peter was freed from prison, thanks to the common prayers

offered for him…. (Act 12:5-17). If the Church’s prayer was so beneficial for the

Apostle Peter and delivered such a pillar of the faith from prison, why, tell me, do

you disdain its power and what kind of justification can you have for this. Listen

to God Himself, Who says that the multitude of people who pray to him with

fervor moves Him to have mercy. He says to the Prophet Jonah: ‘Shall I not spare

Nineveh, that great city, in which dwell more than 120 thousand people.’ He did

not simply mention the multitude of people but that you might know that prayer

together has great power.

St. John Crysostom

St. John of Kronstadt adds:

Here in church is the one thing needful; here is a refuge from vanity and the

storms of life; here is the calm harbor for souls seeking salvation; here is

incorrupt food and drink for souls; here is the light, which enlightens every man

who comes into the world; here is pure spiritual air; here is the well of living water

springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14); here the gifts of the Holy Spirit are

distributed; here is the cleansing of souls. … Here in church, a man will come to

know the true nobility of his soul, the value of life and its aim or his assigned path;

here he dispels the fascination of worldly vanity and worldly passions by

acquiring sobriety in his soul; here he comes to know his destiny, both temporal

and eternal; here he comes to know his bitter, profound fall and seduction by sin;

here the Savior is to be found, particularly in His holy and life, creating Mysteries,

and His salvation; here a man comes to know his true relationship with God and

his neighbor or with his family and the society in which he lives. The church is an

earthly heaven, the place where the closest union with the Divinity occurs; it is a

heavenly school which prepares Christians for heavenly citizenship, teaching

them about the ways of heaven, about the dwellings of heaven; it is the threshold

of heaven; it is the place for common prayer, for thanksgiving, for glorifying the

Triune God, Who created and preserves everything; it is unity with the angels.

What is more precious and more honorable that the church? Nothing. During the

divine service, as on a chart, the whole destiny of the human race is depicted,

from beginning to end. The divine service is the alpha and omega of the destiny of

the world and of men.

St. John of Kronstadt

However, I think St. Ignatius of Antioch is most powerful:

For if I in this brief space of time, have enjoyed such fellowship with your bishop — I mean not of a mere human, but of a spiritual nature — how much more do I reckon you happy who are so joined to him as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is to the Father, that so all things may agree in unity! Let no man deceive himself: if any one be not within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two possesses Matthew 18:19 such power, how much more that of the bishop and the whole Church! He, therefore, that does not assemble with the Church, has even by this manifested his pride, and condemned himself. For it is written, God resists the proud. Let us be careful, then, not to set ourselves in opposition to the bishop, in order that we may be subject to God.

The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians