The present volume contains some of the lectures given to second-year students in the course on Acts. This also explains the didactic organization of the contents, an organization which – by its arid and austere element – we hope will not be an obstacle to getting to the theological and spiritual core of what is treated. It is only a beginning of the way for further studies which will be able to portray numerous other aspects of the life of the early Church, as well as a first opening offered to the reader on a scriptural book too often overlooked or minimalized in depth and importance. We have dealt only with the Sacraments of which the Book of Acts speaks explicitly, without this to imply that the early Church did not have from the beginning all the sanctifying works that it still has today.
What we wish now is for the reader to discover, by delving into some of the texts of the Book of Acts, the living fragrance of the Church’s theology, which, before it was formulated, was the life and experience of the Saints.