Father Dallman preaches at Saint Paul's Church in Pekin, Illinois during their service for the First Evensong of Pentecost 2019. He seeks to explain the experience of the early Church as one of "mystagogy," that is, "being led into the mystery of our participation in Christ." The Eastertide mystagogy of "How is Jesus alive?" has after the Ascension of Jesus shifted to a mystagogy of ecclesiology: "How are we the Church?" And this mystery was encountered in its fullness in the Upper Room during the nine days the 120 members of the first parish church "with one accord devoted themselves to prayer": the Eleven then Twelve along with "the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren" (Acts 1:14). This sermon, then, is a presentation of what Father Dallman has come to call "Upper Room Mystagogy."
"Upper Room Mystagogy"