Worship and Daily Life

The Lord's Day

From the beginning, Christians gathered on the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection, which they called "the Lord's Day." Sunday was an ordinary working day in the Roman world. So Christians met early, before dawn, or in the evening after work.

Around 155, Justin Martyr gave the emperor a description of a Sunday service in Rome, the earliest detailed account we have:

1. Christians from town and countryside gather in one place.
2. The "memoirs of the apostles" (Gospels) or the writings of the prophets are read "as long as time permits."
3. The president (the bishop) preaches, urging people to imitate these good things.
4. All stand and pray.
5. Bread and wine mixed with water are brought. The president offers prayers and thanksgiving, and the people answer "Amen."
6. Deacons distribute the bread and wine to those present and take them to those absent.
7. Those who are well off give what they wish. The collection supports orphans, widows, the sick, prisoners and strangers.

The pattern is easy to recognize. A service of the Word (readings and sermon) is followed by a service of the Table (the Eucharist). Catholic Masses, Orthodox Divine Liturgies, and Anglican and Lutheran Communion services still follow this two-part shape.

The Eucharist

The Eucharist (Greek for "thanksgiving") re-enacted Jesus' Last Supper. At first it was part of a full communal meal, the agape or "love feast." Paul complained that in Corinth the rich ate and drank their fill while the poor went hungry. Over time the sacred meal was separated from the ordinary supper.

Early Christians spoke of the bread and wine in strongly realistic terms. Ignatius called the Eucharist "the medicine of immortality" and said heretics who denied Christ came in the flesh stayed away from it because they did not confess it to be "the flesh of our Savior." Justin said the food is "the flesh and blood of the incarnate Jesus." They also called it a "sacrifice," the pure offering foretold by the prophet Malachi. How exactly Christ is present was not yet defined. That question would split Christians bitterly in the Reformation.

Becoming a Christian

Joining the church was a serious business. You could not simply walk in. The Apostolic Tradition (early 200s) describes a demanding process:

• Inquiry: Newcomers were brought by a sponsor, who vouched for them. Their jobs were examined. Actors, gladiators, idol-makers, astrologers and pimps had to quit. Soldiers were told not to kill. Magistrates were expected to resign.
• The catechumenate: As catechumens ("those being instructed"), they attended the Word part of worship but were dismissed before the Eucharist. Instruction could last up to three years.
• Final preparation: In the weeks before Easter (the origin of Lent), they fasted, prayed and received exorcisms, and learned the creed.
• Baptism: At the Easter vigil, at cock-crow, they renounced Satan, stripped, and were immersed three times as they professed faith in Father, Son and Spirit. They were anointed with oil, dressed in white, and led into the assembly to share the Eucharist for the first time, along with milk and honey, symbols of the promised land.

Baptism was believed to wash away all past sins. Because of this, some people (including, later, the emperor Constantine) delayed baptism until their deathbed to be sure of dying sinless. Infants were baptized in some places by about 200. Tertullian argued against it and Origen called it apostolic tradition, which shows the practice was known and debated.

The road to baptism (c. 215, from the Apostolic Tradition)

Stage	Length	What happened	Could attend…
1. Inquiry	Weeks	Brought by a sponsor; motives, lifestyle and job examined	—
2. Catechumenate	Up to 3 years	Instruction in Scripture and Christian living; moral life watched	Readings & sermon; dismissed before the Eucharist
3. Election	Lent (c. 40 days)	Fasting, daily exorcism, learning the creed and the Lord's Prayer	Same
4. Baptism	Easter vigil, at dawn	Renounce Satan, triple immersion, anointing, white robe	Full Eucharist for the first time (with milk & honey)
5. Mystagogy	Easter week	Bishop explains the meaning of the sacraments ("mysteries")	Everything

Where they met

For two centuries Christians worshiped mostly in homes. Wealthy members opened their houses, and the dining room became the place of worship. By the 200s some houses were remodeled for church use. The best surviving example is at Dura-Europos, a frontier town on the Euphrates in Syria. Its house church, decorated around 232, had a meeting room and a baptistery painted with scenes of the Good Shepherd, Adam and Eve, the healing of the paralytic, and women approaching Christ's tomb. The town was destroyed in 256, which preserved it.

In Rome, Christians buried their dead in catacombs, underground galleries dug into the soft rock outside the city. Romans usually cremated their dead, but Christians, believing in bodily resurrection, preferred burial. Catacombs were not secret hideouts, as legend has it. They were cemeteries, where Christians held funeral meals and honored the martyrs.

The first Christian art

The earliest Christian art, from around 200 onward, is found on catacomb walls and sarcophagi. It was simple and symbolic:

• The fish (Greek ichthys), whose letters form an acronym for "Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior."
• The Good Shepherd carrying a lamb, the most common image of Christ.
• Orants: figures praying with arms raised.
• Bible scenes of rescue: Jonah and the whale, Daniel in the lions' den, Noah's ark, the raising of Lazarus.
• The anchor, dove and chi-rho (the first two Greek letters of "Christ").

Notice what is absent: the crucifixion. Early Christians rarely, if ever, depicted Christ on the cross. It was still too shameful and too real a form of execution. Crucifixion scenes became common only centuries after Constantine abolished the penalty.

A different way of life

Outsiders who visited Christian communities were often struck less by their doctrines than by their behavior. An anonymous second-century writer, in the Letter to Diognetus, said Christians live in their own countries "as sojourners," obey the laws but surpass them in their lives, and "love all, and are persecuted by all."

• Charity: Churches supported widows, orphans, the sick, prisoners and travelers. During plagues in the 250s, Christians in Carthage and Alexandria nursed the sick, pagans as well as Christians, while many others fled. The sociologist Rodney Stark has argued that this care helped Christianity grow.
• Infants: Romans routinely "exposed" unwanted babies, especially girls, leaving them to die. Christians condemned this and abortion, and sometimes rescued abandoned infants.
• Sexual ethics: Christians demanded faithfulness from husbands as well as wives, a radical idea in a society that allowed men great freedom. Many valued lifelong virginity as a special calling.
• Mixed community: Slaves and masters, rich and poor, men and women shared one meal and called each other brother and sister. A former slave, Callistus, became bishop of Rome.

Christians fasted on Wednesdays and Fridays and prayed at set hours. They made the sign of the cross on their foreheads in everyday life, a habit Tertullian describes.

The Christian year begins

The center of the year was Easter (in Greek and Latin Pascha, from Passover), celebrating Christ's death and resurrection, followed by fifty days ending in Pentecost. Churches argued about the date. Some in Asia Minor kept it on the Jewish date of Passover, while Rome kept it on the following Sunday. Christmas came later, first attested in Rome in 336, and the full church calendar developed over the following centuries.