Every Home a Small Church

During a weekly audience in February, Pope Benedict reflected on the lives of a married couple who lived at the time of St. Paul the Apostle. Aquila and Priscilla, among the early Christians, moved to Corinth (present-day Greece) from Rome in the year 50 A.D. and invited Paul to stay with them.

In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks of the most important role the couple had in the early Church: they opened their home to the Christian community whenever it gathered to listen to the Word of God and celebrate the Eucharist. “In the home of Aquila and Priscilla, the Church came together ... And so we see the actual birth of the reality of the Church in the homes of the faithful ... Paul explicitly recognizes in them two valid and important co-workers for his apostolate,” said the pope.

Pope Benedict also recalled how Christianity came down to our generation “not only thanks to the Apostles, who announced it, but also thanks to the commitment of these families, married couples, these Christian communities of lay faithful who provided the ground for the growth of the faith. “It is always and only in this way that the Church grows.”

He continued, “Every home can become a small church. This couple was an example of married life responsibly involved in serving the whole Christian community ... they are a pattern for the Church, the family of God in every epoch."

—C. Z.