👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽A Holy Exhortation on #Sene #Tsome: The #Apostles’ #Fast
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, beloved children of the Holy Orthodox faith, followers of the divine teachings of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Today, with the help of God, we are gathered under the shadow of the Apostolic tradition to contemplate and be instructed in the June Fast, known among the saints as Sene Tsome or The Fast of the Apostles. O listener, give ear to this sacred teaching, open your heart to receive this gift, and do not forsake the ancient paths walked by the saints and crowned with glory.
I. The Origin and Sacred Memory of the June Fast
Behold, this fast is not of human invention nor crafted by ecclesiastical policy, but rooted in the very acts and life of the Holy Apostles. It is rightly called the Fast of the Apostles, for it was fasted by those pillars of the Church Peter and Paul, Andrew and John, and all their holy companions after they had received the Holy Spirit, and before they set forth into the world to proclaim the good news of salvation.
It is for this reason that the faithful have come to call it the June Fast, for it typically falls within the month of Sene (June), according to the Ethiopian calendar. And know this: it is one of the seven great fasts recognized and revered in our Holy Tradition. It is not optional. It is not ceremonial. It is apostolic, bearing the weight of sacred precedent and divine command.
II. The Sacred Sequence: From Ascension to Pentecost to Fasting
When the Lord, having triumphed over death, rose from the grave, He did not abandon His disciples at once. For forty days He appeared among them, comforting their hearts, instructing them in the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. And on the fortieth day, He led them like a shepherd His sheep up the Mount of Olives, that towering summit full of trees, crowned in silence, kissed by heaven.
And as they stood there, looking upon His divine face, He was taken up into heaven. A luminous cloud received Him white, shining, full of glory and the disciples were left in astonishment, gazing upward, their hearts clinging to the One who had ascended.
Two holy angels appeared in white raiment and spoke, saying:
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will return in the same way as you have seen Him go.” (Acts 1:8)
Thus, pierced with sorrow but girded with hope, the apostles returned to Jerusalem, not to rest in comfort but to enter into spiritual battle through prayer and fasting. There, in the upper room, with the Blessed Virgin Mary among them, they waited, as the Lord had commanded, for the coming of the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit.
And after Pentecost, having been clothed with power from on high, they fasted again this time not to wait, but to prepare. To prepare their hearts, their minds, and their bodies for the mission that lay ahead: the preaching of the gospel to the ends of the earth.
III. The Lord’s Prophecy Concerning This Fast
Let no man be deceived, for the Lord Himself foretold this fast.
When John’s disciples approached Him and asked:
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” (Matthew 9:14)
He responded with divine clarity:
“Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” (Matthew 9:15)
Behold, those days have come! He, the Bridegroom, has ascended. The feast has turned to labor, the banquet to warfare. Now is the time for fasting not in sorrow without hope, but in holy yearning, to be filled with divine strength, even as the apostles were filled.
Had the Lord not ascended, had the Holy Spirit not descended, the disciples could not have fasted. For they would not yet have been made new. Fasting without the Spirit is powerless. But now, by the Spirit, it is a weapon, a fire, a force of resurrection.
Continues 👇🏽