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The Didache - The Complete Text 1 There Are Two Ways 1:1 There are two ways, one of life and one of death! and there is a great difference between the two ways. 1:2 The way of life is this: First, you shall love God who made you. And second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. 1:3 The meaning of these sayings is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what reward is there...

(LiveActionNews) — A common narrative in our society is that, by opposing abortion and infanticide, Christians are conducting a “war on women.” However, in a fascinating study entitled “The Rise of Christianity,” published by Princeton University Press, sociologist Rodney Stark argues that the phenomenal growth of “the obscure, marginal Jesus movement” was due in large part to women. Stark argues that early Christianity was “especially attractive to women” because “within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did women in the Greco-Roman world at large.”Furthermore, Stark argues that the Christian opposition to abortion and infanticide was one of...

The recent indignity by which the Obama administration wants to mandate everyone, including all Catholic institutions or their insurers, to pay for contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, has raised the issue of Catholic teaching on these issues. Some commentators have mistakenly asserted that the Catholic ban on these practices only goes back to Humanae Vitae (On the Regulation of Birth), by Pope Paul VI in 1968, or as far back as Casti Connubii (Of Chaste Wedlock), by Pope Pius XI in 1931. The latter encyclical was written in response to the change of moral doctrine by the Anglican Church, which...

Excerpt from: The Didache (The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the NationsChapter 9. The Eucharist. Now concerning the Eucharist, give thanks this way. First, concerning the cup: We thank thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David Thy servant, which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever. And concerning the broken bread: We thank Thee, our Father, for the life and knowledge which You madest known to us through Jesus Thy Servant; to Thee be the glory for ever. Even as this...

Of course, Jesus offers forgiveness of all those who repent from their wickedness, and devote their lives to following him. So, to those women suffering the after-effects of abortion, please accept the forgiveness of Christ, rather than allow this to add to your earthly dismay. But for the sake of putting the lie to the diabolical assertion that the Church only recently forbade abortion, read what the Apostle Peter said: And I saw the murderers and those who conspired with them, cast into a certain strait place, full of evil snakes, and smitten by those beasts, and thus turning to...

Church History: The Didache By Sal Ciresi Herald Columnist (From the issue of 8/22/02) 8/22/02 Historical research has spurred the discovery of many documents that are related to Christianity. Several writings of this kind have given precious insights into the epochs before and after the founding of the Catholic Church. One particular writing, part of the Patristic corpus (i.e. writings of the Church Fathers), has shed valuable light on Catholicism: "The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," better known as The Didache.A Greek copy of The Didache was first discovered in 1873; a text that was part of an 11th century...

June 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This article presents the Christian attitude toward abortion before the first ecumenical council, that is, until A.D. 325. Because the New Testament does not comment on the morality of abortion, this article considers the writings of the first generations of Christians after the apostles, for they indicate that opposition to abortion (1) was shared at a time when the writers — or Christians not many generations earlier — personally knew the apostles or their first disciples and thus benefited from their unwritten teachings and interpretations of Scripture, (2) comes from a date so early that...

It’s a commonplace notion of the Catholic faith that revelation closed with the death of the last apostle. To us, it’s commonplace. But to the early Christians, it was a most urgent matter. As the apostles went to their martyrdom, one by one, the flock they left behind saw vanishing the only eyewitnesses to Jesus’ teaching — the only guarantors of Christian orthodoxy. It was then, in the first century, that the Christian community produced what we might call its first “catechism,” a book that bears the title “The Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles Through the Twelve Apostles”...

The Didache is the oldest Christain document in existance other than the books of the New Testament. Scholars say it was written between 50 - 150 AD. Its importance is that it gives us a glimpse of how the early church enacted the teachings of Christ and the Apostles. It is best to read this a bit at a time and meditate on it comparing it with the bible and what you were taught. The DidacheCHAPTER 1 1 There are two Ways, one of Life and one of Death, and there is a great difference between the two Ways. 2...

The DidacheThe Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations. Chapter 1. The Two Ways and the First Commandment. There are two ways, one of life and one of death, but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbor as yourself, and do not do to another what you would not want done to you. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For...