The Sunday Eucharist

From the very beginning the Christians kept Sunday by attending the Eucharist, the Lord’s own Service on the Lord’s own Day.  For example, when St Paul was on his third missionary journey, he stopped at a place called Troas on the Dardanelles, and stayed there a week.  He had to leave on the following Sunday, which was the second Sunday after Easter, and so that gave him the opportunity of celebrating the Sunday Eucharist there.  The Christians in Troas used to meet for the Eucharist in a private house in a room that was on the third storey.  So, late on Saturday evening, St Paul went there with the other missionaries including St Luke who, as you know was a doctor and has given us an account of what happened.

St Paul celebrates the Eucharist

There was a large number of lamps lit in the room which must have been very full, because a young man called Eutychus was sitting in the window-sill.  St Paul’s sermon that night was a very long one, and what with that and the heat of the lamps, Eutychus dropped off to sleep and fell out of the window to the ground outside.  They rushed down and found that he was dead, but St Paul put his arm round him and brought him back to life.  They put Eutychus to lie down in another room while St Paul and the rest of the Christians went back upstairs.  There, on the first day of the week St Paul celebrated the Eucharist and gave the Christians their Communion.  Then they talked until dawn and just before they left, Eutychus, feeling much better, was brought in to say goodbye (Acts 20).