Marking Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year

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Mark i ng T ime : Formi ng Sp i r i tua l i t y through the Chr i s t i an Year

2. This finding included all the Law’s stipulations, including the Sabbath, the new moons and the other chief Feasts.

3. With the Temple’s destruction (AD 70), and growing divide between Christian and non-Christian Jews of that period, Jewish Christians adopted in the main Gentile Christian practices (with a more literal law observance practiced in sectarian groups only, e.g., Ebionites, Nazaraeans).

4. From that time, in early Christian practice in Palestine, the Christian calendar consisted only of Christian holy days.

a. The earliest was the Lord’s Day, Sunday, which both the NT and Apostolic Fathers cite.

b. In early Christian practice around 100 AD, we know of the fasts on Wednesday and Friday enjoined in Didache 8 circa.

c. Note: these fast days were no doubt set over against the Jewish fasts on Monday and Thursday (cf. Luke 18.12).

5. Whereas the Jewish spiritual tradition was rooted in the Temple sacrifice and worship, early Christian faith embraced the story of Jesus of Nazareth as its center and ground.

C. Spiritual formation linked to remembrance of and participation with God’s acts in history: the concepts of salvation history, called community, and biblical story.