Peter with the keys to heaven crossword puzzle. Keys to Heaven
Day of Peter and Paul. The end of the apostolic fast. The Russian Church began to venerate the apostles Peter and Paul after the Baptism of Rus'. Since then, every year on July 12, the Church remembers Saints Peter and Paul in order for a person to understand what he must do in life in order to fill the emptiness in his soul with God; this holiday is preceded by the Apostolic Fast.
The two pillars of faith - Peter and Paul - are two diametrically opposed characters: one is an inspired simpleton, the other is a frantic orator, but both came to the same end of the earthly path. Peter was originally called Simon. Christ himself gave him the name Cephas (Peter), meaning in Hebrew “rock, stone.” Peter is the elder brother of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, who lived in fishing. Peter, unburdened by learning and education, was a simple and sincere man, with a lively way of thinking and ardor in his character. His speech encouraged immediate action. Peter was a participant in many of the events described in the Gospel. His mother-in-law was healed by Christ - one of the first miraculous healings. Peter was also a participant in fishing, when, according to the word of Christ, the nets were so filled that they began to tear from the weight of the catch. It was at this moment that Peter recognized the Lord in Christ. The Apostle Peter witnessed the Transfiguration of Christ and suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter assured that he would not renounce Christ, and did so within a few hours. Repentance, awareness of what had been done and bitter tears then came to him. Peter is the Apostle of Christian hope, he found the strength in himself to admit betrayal and cry about it, a feeling of weakness familiar to everyone. After repentance, the Lord confirmed Peter three times in the apostolic rank.
Paul, originally Saul, which means “begged”, “begged for.” The name was given in honor of the first king of the Jews. Peter was raised by rich and famous parents in a strict religious spirit. Having matured, Paul became a Jewish “inquisitor”, persecuted everywhere and brought adherents of the new sect - Christians to Jerusalem. And suddenly the person who so fiercely resisted the spread of the teachings of Christ becomes an ardent believer. The election of Paul to the apostolic ministry is incomprehensible to the human mind. Christ Himself appeared to Paul, and Paul recognized God in him. After this, Paul testifies to a personal meeting with Christ before the people and serves as an apostle for another 30 years. Paul went on several missionary journeys, where he performed miracles and was persecuted, he founded churches and sent out his famous messages. Paul died as a martyr and was beheaded.
The veneration of Peter and Paul began after their execution. The burial place was sacred. The Church glorified the spiritual firmness of Peter and the intelligence of Paul, and in them glorifies the image of those who sinned and repented. 
Christianity spread throughout the earth through the great labors of Christ's disciples - the apostles. They traveled around countries and continents, accepted martyrdom, giving their lives for Christ, Whom they even renounced out of cowardice during their lifetime. Among them, two stand out: the apostles Peter and Paul, called the supreme ones. Let's talk about the holy Apostle Peter - a witness to the earthly life of Christ and the keeper of the keys of heaven.
Why is Apostle Peter supreme
Peter was one of the witnesses to the earthly life of Christ, his closest disciple, but during the arrest of Christ he denied Him. And Paul at first was even a persecutor of Christ - during His earthly life he did not meet Christ. However, these two apostles are the most famous, they worked for the sake of the Lord and for the enlightenment of people, and were able to ascend to the heights of holiness, despite their previous deeds.
In the Orthodox tradition, it is customary to pray to different saints in different difficulties, on different occasions. The grace to help in special areas of life is related to the miracles they performed on earth or their destiny. Likewise, the holy Apostle Peter has the grace of help in a large number of matters, because his life was varied, full of spiritual deeds and travels. His journey was longer and more extensive than that of other missionaries. It was the Apostle Peter, together with Paul, who brought Christianity to Rome and to many lands of the Roman Empire. They both ended their lives as martyrs in Rome, preaching the Cross of Christ and His teaching by their very death.
Image of the Apostle Peter
In church books there is a description of the appearance of the apostles Peter and Paul. They are almost always depicted together, but in the iconostasis of many churches there are their separate icons - in the second row of icons from the bottom they appear on both sides of Christ praying to Him. All icons of saints always have signatures with their names.
- The images of the holy apostles Peter and Paul are the image of two men slightly older than middle age.
- The Apostle Peter has a round gray beard, he usually stands on the left, the Apostle Paul has a long brown beard.
- The Apostle Peter has a blue lower robe and a yellow outer robe.
- Often the apostle is depicted on the icon at full height. Then he holds a scroll in his hands (as a sign of his writings, teachings) or a book of the Gospel.
Ministry of the Apostle Peter - Keeper of the Keys of Paradise
Saint Peter was the son of the fisherman Jonah, the brother of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. At birth he was named Simon. The Apostle Andrew, whom Christ was the first to call, announced the good news (this is how the word “Gospel” is translated, in a general sense meaning the teaching of Christ) to his elder brother Simon. According to the evangelists, he became the first person to exclaim: “We have found the Messiah, whose Name is Christ!” Andrew the First-Called brought his brother to Christ, and the Lord called him a new name: Peter, or Cephas - in Greek “stone”, explaining that on him, as on a stone, the Church would be created, which hell could not defeat.
Therefore, the Apostle Peter is also called the keeper of the keys of paradise, as if the founder of the Church.
Two simple fisherman brothers, who became the first companions of Christ on His journey, accompanied the Lord until the end of his earthly life, helped Him in preaching, protected Him from the attacks of the Jews and admired His power and miracles.
Apostle Peter - denial
Ardent in character, the Apostle Peter was eager to serve the teachings of Christ, but just as suddenly he renounced Him during his arrest. The Apostle Peter was among the chosen disciples of the Lord, whom he gathered on the Mount of Olives to talk about the Last Judgment and the future of mankind. He also accompanied Christ at the end of His earthly journey: at the Last Supper he received Communion from the hands of Christ, then, together with the other apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane, he tried to intercede for Christ, but he was frightened and, like everyone else, disappeared. Peter was asked if he had followed Christ, and he said that he did not know Jesus at all. Seeing the death of Christ, like the other apostles, being afraid to approach His Cross, he eventually repented of his betrayal of the Lord.
During the Crucifixion, the apostles, for fear of being killed, did not approach the Cross of the Lord, except for one apostle John. However, after the Resurrection of Christ, they believed in the Divine will about the Crucifixion, death and the Kingdom of the Lord, and understood this to the end.
During the Ascension of the Lord, Apostle Peter and others received from the Lord a blessing to go and teach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Holy Trinity: God the Father - Sabaoth, God the Son - Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit - the invisible Lord, visibly present in human history only in the form fire, smoke or dove. The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles Peter and his brother Andrew, the Mother of God and other apostles who were in the Upper Room of Zion - the place of the Last Supper - on Pentecost, that is, in memory of the Resurrection of Christ, they celebrated the meal on the fiftieth day after it.
Enlightenment of the Apostles by the Holy Spirit
After the Descent of the Holy Spirit on them, the apostles were enlightened by Divine knowledge. God Himself spoke in them, they instantly spoke in all the languages of the world: the Lord gave them this gift to preach the Gospel throughout the world. All the disciples of Christ, together with the Mother of God, received by lot directions and places where they were supposed to convert people to Christianity by baptizing them.
The Apostle Peter founded the church in Rome and taught many people in the faith. Traveling throughout the Empire, he converted up to five thousand people at a time to Christianity, healed the sick and even raised the dead. In the book of the Acts of the Apostles it is written that in the crowd people carried the sick to the feet of the hastily passing apostle, so that at least his shadow would fall on the sick person - this is how many people were healed.
Execution and death of the Apostle Peter
Emperor Nero ordered the capture of all Christians, and the disciples begged Peter to leave Rome. But on the Appian Way Christ Himself appeared to him... Peter asked him. “Where are you going, Lord?” (“Quo vadis, Domine?”) - and Christ replied that he was going to suffer torment again. The Apostle Peter understood that it was God’s will for him to remain with the faithful Christians to the end. He was crucified on an inverted cross by the Romans - there is a legend that this happened because the holy apostle converted the wife and concubines of the emperor himself to Christianity. This episode and the martyrdom of the apostle are described in Henryk Sienkiewicz’s novel “Quo Vadis?”
The holy apostle humbly, without grumbling, accepted his lot and the will of God about him; Praying to the Lord, even today he intercedes for the requests of all people. He understood that he had to go through the same torment that he was afraid of when his Teacher, his Friend - and after all, Christ, except the apostles and His Mother, had no loved ones - abandoned by everyone, died on the Cross. Perhaps this is why only one of the apostles who remained with Christ at the time of His death, the Apostle John the Theologian, died of old age; the rest, in order to achieve holiness, atone for their sin and sit on the throne in the Kingdom of Heaven, had to testify to their loyalty to God.
According to legend, the supreme apostles were executed on the same day (or on the same day with a difference of a year), on which today all Christians celebrate their memory - July 12 (June 31, old style, on this day their memory is celebrated by the Catholic Church).
Prayer to the Apostle Peter
On this day - July 12 - the All-Night Vigil is celebrated the day before, and on the day of remembrance of the apostles itself, the Divine Liturgy is celebrated, during which special short prayers to the saint are sung: troparia and kontakion. They can be read online or by heart, except for memorial days, also at any difficult moment in life.
Supreme Apostles, teacher of the entire Universe, Lord of all God, ask the world of the Universe to grant our souls the great mercy of God.
The prayer to Peter and Paul, in which petitions are made first to both apostles separately, and then to each of them, can also be read online:
O holy apostles Peter and Paul, do not lose heart from us, sinful servants of God (names), so that we are not forever separated from the love of God, but through your strong intercession protect and protect us, so that the Lord will have mercy on all of us through your prayers and destroy everything our sins, recorded in Heaven and in hell, and gave His Kingdom with all the saints, so that we forever glorify the Lord Christ, to whom belongs the glory, honor and gratitude of all people. Holy Supreme Apostle Peter, the rock of faith, standing firmly by your confession in Christ, The main stone of the Church! Pray to Him that we too, always tempted and suffering from the thoughts and lusts of the flesh, may always be strengthened by Christ Himself, the Stone of Life, and guided by His honor, love and election, so that by His grace we too may be transformed into spiritual temples, into a holy priesthood, to offer up the sacrifices of our prayerful labors to the Lord Jesus Christ.
O holy supreme Apostle Paul, chosen vessel of Christ, filled with the grace and glory of God! Ask the Creator Almighty, who rules all His creations, so that He will make us, His unfortunate and weak vessels, honest, sanctified and ready for good. Amen.
Glorification - that is, the glorification of the apostles in gratitude for their help:
We exalt you, the apostles of Christ Peter and Paul, who enlightened the whole world with your teaching, and brought all the ends of the world to Christ.
Petrov's fast - Petrov's fast
Before the day of remembrance of the holy supreme apostles, the Church blesses Christians to fast, celebrating the memory of the holy apostles as a great holiday for which one must carefully prepare, purifying oneself with prayer and fasting. The only other holidays that are celebrated this year are Easter, Christmas and Dormition - the greatest holidays. The fast is called Petrov, perhaps as a sign of special respect for the Apostle Peter.
Peter's Fast is considered 50 days after Easter, immediately following the Spiritual Day (Monday after the Feast of Pentecost). Ends on July 12, the day of remembrance of the holy apostles Peter and Paul (that is, July 11 is the last day of fasting).
On fasting days you can't
- Meat,
- Dairy products,
- Eggs,
- Fish.
The Church calls on people exposed to the harmful habit of smoking to give it up or limit it.
You can enter into fasting gradually, step by step, starting with at least abstaining from fasting on Wednesday and Friday. Those who thoughtlessly take on the ascetic feats of fasting and begin to fast strictly either become unhealthy, or become impatient and irritable. The main rule given by the Lord Himself: do not burden your hearts with gluttony and drunkenness. Those who wish to fast can consult with a priest, telling him about their spiritual and physical condition and, of course, during fasting they need to confess and receive communion.
Shrines of the Apostle Peter
According to the testimony of scientists, the relics of both the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul are their remains. There are a number of anatomical details that confirm that their bodies have indeed survived to this day. His relics are in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
In Russia, the apostles Peter and Paul are especially revered in St. Petersburg. The city was entrusted by Peter the Great to his heavenly patron, the Apostle Peter, and the first cathedral of the Northern capital was founded and consecrated in honor of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul. Now the remains of all the emperors from the Romanov family rest here (the remains of the last Royal family, Nicholas II, are controversial).
In Peterhof, a suburb of the capital beloved by Peter the Great, there is also the Peter and Paul Cathedral, built with the personal participation of Emperor Alexander III in a neo-Russian style, similar to St. Basil's Cathedral - with a tent, tiled domes and beautiful frescoed interiors.
What do they pray to the Apostle Peter for?
It is known that in the Orthodox tradition it is customary to pray to different saints in different difficulties, on different occasions. The grace to help in special areas of life is related to the miracles they performed on earth or their destiny. The Apostle Peter has the grace of help
- In science, studies - students and schoolchildren, understanding of the Holy Scriptures;
- In healing from ailments of body, day and spirit, deliverance from sins.
- In choosing, making an important decision.
The Apostle is known for his works, therefore, according to the testimonies of businessmen, he helps those who start their own business, showing success.
Also, the Apostle Peter is considered to be the helper of fishermen and sailors, since he himself fished a lot before his apostleship. Men named Peter turn to their patron saint for all their needs. It is known that for saints there are no unimportant prayers. The prayer to Saint Peter, if you bear that name, goes like this:
“Pray to God for me, holy Apostle of God Peter, for I diligently ask for your intercession, an assistant in everything and a prayer book for my soul.”
May the Lord protect you through the prayers of St. Peter the Apostle!
On the shore of Lake Tiberias the apostles rejoiced: “The Savior has risen! He is with us again! Amidst the general rejoicing, only one person remained despondent. It was Peter who fell away.
Peter had a grave sin on his soul - he denied Christ three times! He, who exclaimed that he loved the Teacher more than others, that he was ready to die for Him, turned out to be a pathetic coward...
Tell His disciples and Peter, - with these words the Angel called on the myrrh-bearing women to tell about the Resurrection of Christ. It was a sentence. Peter was excluded from the Savior's disciples.
And here Peter sits by the fire among the apostles and the Lord. His heart is filled with bitterness and love for God.
Finally Christ asks him three times:
Simon Ionin! Do you love Me more than they?
And each time, lowering his guilty head lower and lower, Peter answers:
Lord, you know everything; You know I love you.
And only after the third confession of love did Saint Peter hear the call he had been waiting for: Follow Me.
By forcing the Apostle Peter to confess Love, Christ taught him a great lesson in humility, and through Peter, to each of us: Love for the Lord does not tolerate pride, narcissism and envy.
Peter is forgiven. He was restored to the apostolic rank. But all the subsequent days of his earthly life his eyes did not dry out from tears - Saint Peter spent sleepless nights on his knees, crying out to God:
Sorry! Forgive my denial of You.
And the Savior teaches one more lesson to Saint Peter, and through him to us.
Yes, Peter is forgiven, but envy of one of the Lord’s favorite disciples, John, and Peter’s desire to be the best again stirred in his heart, and Peter jealously asks:
Lord, what is he?
And the Lord answered him sternly:
What do you care about this? You follow Me.
And through Peter, Christ addresses each of us: what is that to you? If someone else is better than you, more talented, you follow Me, that is, go and don’t look around, don’t look at others.
Yes, Saint Peter stumbled and fell all the time, but he had the main dignity - to rise and be reborn from the ashes of sin through repentance, therefore “it’s not scary to fall, it’s scary not to rise.”
And it was Peter who the Lord entrusted the keys to paradise, the most ardent and most unstable of His disciples: “The Lord did not entrust the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to any of the apostles who had not sinned, but gave them to Peter - and this so that when this apostle sees in some or a sinner’s contrition for sins, then he would bring to mind his own fall into sin - and would help the repentant to receive salvation.”
“Follow Me,” Jesus called upon St. Peter, who had been forgiven and restored to his apostolic rank. And this was a call to the Way of the Cross, to the feat of suffering for the human race. And Saint Peter valiantly and joyfully endured all the suffering and hardships - and crowned his earthly exploits with the highest deed - co-crucifixion with Christ!
And the Lord calls each of us: Follow Me. And “do not allow yourself to think that there is pleasure on earth, and repentance in heaven. Here seek permission from your sins, and then Saint Peter will open the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven for you...”
Lyudmila Kopysova
A rare find
If you drive north from the city of Taldoma, very soon a tall church bell tower without a cross will appear on the horizon, around which nests a village named Spas Kvashenki. In ancient times, skilled furriers lived here. They worked for Moscow and St. Petersburg, and often for distant Paris.
In the center of the village, behind a wrought iron fence, like a white swan bird, the beautiful Church of the Transfiguration shone under gilded crosses, filling the space with bell ringing on holidays. During Soviet times, the bells, of course, were thrown to the ground and sent to be melted down like worthless scrap metal, and the former temple was turned into a repair shop.
But it was here, in a large, previously prosperous village, that an extraordinary event happened. In an old peasant house, they dismantled the internal bulkheads and found church icons, each as tall as a man, under the multi-layer wallpaper. Such large icons usually made up church iconostases.
My longtime acquaintance, Gennady Aleksandrovich Nesterov, who accidentally became the main custodian of those “boards,” invited me to examine the rare find.
You see... All the faces of the saints are pierced through with nails, or even completely erased, etched with some kind of chemical solution,” Gennady said on the phone. - Some icons were even sawn into pieces... What to do?
I, in turn, notified an icon painter I knew about the find, and on the first morning train we went to the Taldom region to look at the found icons.
Along the wall, in a small room hung with paper icons of various sizes, there were some kind of shields, covered with scraps of wallpaper and yellowed newspapers, seemingly sprinkled with garbage. One shield, partially cleared of paper scraps, stood on the windowsill and in some places glowed dimly with a golden color. My friend, who grabbed a bottle of solvent, a brush and something similar to a miniature scraper from home, quickly “made a diagnosis”:
This is St. George the Victorious!
Watching how the artist operated his simple instrument, Gennady was at first worried, calling for caution, but after making sure that he was working professionally, he soon became carried away. He heated a pot of water on the electric stove and, together with me, began to steam off the many years of layers of wallpaper and paste on the icons. Gradually, in general terms, but quite recognizable, Sergius of Radonezh soon “appeared” to me. The Apostle Peter “revealed” to Gennady. True, the entire left half of his figure turned out to be sawed off, but in the surviving hand a bunch of keys was clearly visible, and it was from the keys that we realized that this was the Apostle Peter. It was Jesus Christ who gave him the keys to heaven.
Of course, none of us deluded ourselves - it was not Andrei Rublev, not Theophanes the Greek and not the famous Dionysius who decorated village churches with their creations. We didn't expect any sensations. The icons were clearly “young” - no older than two hundred years old - and, of course, they belonged to the brush of ordinary unknown bogomaz, of which there were quite a few in Rus' at all times. They could not arouse interest among connoisseurs and connoisseurs of high art. But in their own way they were priceless.
Keys to Paradise! What a miracle! - usually reserved and taciturn, Gennady admired him more than anyone else.
When, after work, we drank tea in the utility room, Gennady tried to explain how some icons could have survived. The owner of the hut in which they were found was dispossessed and exiled to Solovki. And when machine and tractor stations began to emerge, visiting specialists began to live in that hut. The house, of course, was divided into several rooms - each new resident had a room. Well, in the absence of ordinary boards, icons that did not have time to be thrown into the fire were suitable for partitions.
The visiting people, perhaps, did not know anything... Some left, others moved in, and everyone hammered in nails: to hang a clock, a shelf for dishes, a clothes hanger. Everyone nailed it wherever they wanted. No one knew that those nails pierced the eyes of St. Sergius or the chest of the Apostle Peter... Who is to blame here?
Mite to mite
Gennady Aleksandrovich Nesterov more than deserves to say a few more words about him. He grew up without a father. Although he returned from the war alive, his days were numbered; he died in 1946, when Gennady was only a month old. And Gennady and his younger brother, having received higher education, settled in Moscow. True, they did not forget the village and even started to build a wooden house together. But then, as if someone had called them loudly: all their efforts, and at the same time their salaries, began to be spent on restoring the temple.
Gennady covered the old thin roof with tin, replaced the old window frames, hung the doors, figured out the complex underground heating system down to the smallest detail and restored the air ducts... And most importantly, the cross shone again over the dome, no worse than before.
On that winter day, when my friend and I visited Gennady, another event happened. While we were working on the icons, we didn’t notice how two guests appeared on the threshold: one young, in a white sports jacket, the other a very old woman, with a face like a baked apple. In the hands of the young woman there was a heavy burden, a box of impressive size.
Here,” she said. - This is from mom... For the temple...
She put the box on the table and began to untie the twine. It was an altar Gospel in a metal frame with embossing. A royal gift.
You must be rich people? - I asked.
Not really. I just didn’t spend enough,” the old lady explained, “and that’s why I accumulated a pension.” Nowadays there is a lot of talk about popular repentance, but they don’t know how to achieve it. But for me, everything is clear. Since we have messed things up in the past and sinned, now cleave to good deeds. Let one warm an orphan. Another will donate a penny of his labor to the church. Someone else will do something good. Mite to mite! So there will be general repentance.
Mite to mite... Through an acquaintance, we managed to place the icons at the Surikov Art School; graduate students undertook to restore them as a defense for their diploma. One parishioner brought it from Sofrin and presented it with a large, two-meter-tall crucifix. And the head of the district administration promised to supply gas for heating the temple using budget funds...
At the end of last winter I was able to visit Kvashenki again. Outwardly, little has changed here. The same butcher's shop flaunts near the bus stop, the same small shops are stuck together, and a little further away sticks out the same sad bell tower without a cross... But the temple was unrecognizable from the inside. The high arches and walls, painted turquoise, seemed to breathe the open space of the field. Streams of sunlight pouring in through the windows melted on the floor, as if someone had scattered bouquets of garden flowers there... Candles were burning... And among the wall icons, two stood out in particular. One is St. George the Victorious, who struck the reptile-serpent with a spear under the hooves of a horse. And the other is Sergius of Radonezh.
Still, everyone - despite all evil and darkness - has been given the keys to heaven. If the desire to do good strikes, the main thing is not to delay execution. The call may not be repeated twice.