It is quite moving to see what the early church was primarily devoted to during the first centuries, especially as witnessed by its first bishops. Even if we interpret some of the gospel passages as attempts to placate the Roman authority from its violent oppression of the early church (e.g., casting the Sanhedran as probably far more responsible for the death of Jesus than Pilate), the heart of the early church certainly seems to have been about personal transformation through the community of grace, in which service to the poor, prayer and Holy Communion were supreme.
Some of this site below smacks of pre-Vatican obsessiveness, but the excerpts from the early chruch fathers were interesting to read.
Good link, w.c. So often even in the New Testament, we read of the early Christians gathering for prayer and "the breaking of the bread," or the "Lord's supper." It was central in the life of the Christian community from the beginning, and seems to have been an important way in which Christians come into living contact with Christ. Still is, of course.
