Parish announcements this week

Christ is in our midst!

This week the vigil light is offered to God’s glory by Chris Komondy in memory of all deceased members of the family.

On June 23rd, there will be only one (1) Divine Liturgy at 10:30 in both languages English and Ukrainian.

For Panachyda service at other cemeteries, please call the rectory (203) 865-0388.

We have for sale frozen borscht for $5.00; cabbage and sausage (kapusta and kovbasa) for $10.00 and pyrohy (varenyky) in 2 dozen packages for $14.00. You can buy pyrohy after each Divine Liturgy or during the week if you call the rectory.

STAMFORD CHARITIES APPEAL

REMINDER: Please don’t forget to donate for Charities Appeal. The forms are designed for each family of our parish. Attached to the form is an envelope into which you can place your contribution. The form along with your contribution, we ask you enclose in the envelope and place it in the collection basket during church services. Please make check payable to the Byzantine Rite Eparchy of Stamford. DO NOT MAIL THIS FORM TO THE CHANCERY OFFICE. We sincerely ask all parishioners to make generous contributions.

The newly formed Facilities Maintenance Team of St. Michael’s schedules of work sessions for the entire year so that plans can be developed for doing all the projects and arrangements made for the purchase of required supplies and equipment. The usual time frame for the work sessions will run from 6:30 to about 9:30 p.m. All parishioners are invited to be a part of the team. Call Fr. Iura with your contact information.

Awakenings —Adult Faith Formation: “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him.” (Genesis 1: 27)

Humankind – in the Image and Likeness of God: As the Book of Genesis tells us, God created the human being out of the “dust of the earth” –matter– breathing into us the “breath of life,” by virtue of which the human being becomes a “living being” (Gn 2:7). Holy Scripture portrays the Creator with the image of a potter, who moulds humankind according to his Image from the clay.  This Image (see Gn:1:27) is the incarnate Son of God: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15). Humankind is created in the image of the Son. (Christ Our Pascha, 128)

Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Note: There is no fasting this week.

Sunday, 6/09, Holy and Glorious Pentecost; Our Holy Father Cyril
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish
Moleben to Jesus Christ

10:30 a.m. All deceased of Zinych and Musij family requested by Ulana and Walter Zinych
Moleben to Jesus Christ

Epistle: Acts of the Apostles 2:1-11
Gospel: John 7:37-52 and 8:12, Tone 7

Monday, 6/10, Monday of the Holy Spirit; The Holy Priest-Martyr Timothy
9:00 a.m. +Mykola Tatsyuk (Pan.) requested by the Chermak Family

Tuesday, 6/11, Post-feast of Pentecost; The Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Wednesday, 6/12, Post-feast of Pentecost; Our Venerable Father Onuphrius the Great and Our Venerable Father Peter of Athos
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Thursday, 6/13, Post-feast of Pentecost; The Holy Martyr Aquilina
9:00 a.m. +Bohdana Tretiakova (Pan.) requested by the Chermak family

Friday, 6/14, Post-feast of Pentecost; The Holy Prophet Elisha and Our Father among the Saints, Methodius
9:00 a.m. +Joseph J. Levitzky (Pan.) requested by Joseph Levitzky

Saturday, 6/15, Leave-Taking of Pentecost; The Holy Prophet Amos
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Sunday, 6/16, Sunday of All Saints
9:00 a.m. +Hildegard Komondy (36th Anniv.) requested Chris Komondy
Moleben to Jesus Christ –for all fathers of the Parish requested by Sestretsi

10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish
Moleben to Jesus Christ

Epistle: Hebrews 11:32—12:2a
Gospel: Matthew 10:32-33; 37-38 and 9:27-30, Tone 8

Parish announcements this week

Christ is risen!

Blessed Holy Pentecost!

Fell Asleep in the Lord  — Jerry Luciw and Christoforo Schiano. Please remember them in your prayers. Eternal Memory!

This week the vigil light is offered to God’s glory by Chris Komondy in memory of all deceased members of the Komondy family.

The rectory office will be closed from Monday, June 10 until June 13. Fr. Iura Godenciuc will be away for clergy days.

On June 23rd there will be only one (1) Divine Liturgy at 10:30 a.m. in English and Ukrainian.

Helping the poor – a work of charity: The Director of the St. Vincent DePaul Homeless Shelter in Waterbury wrote to us requesting assistance in collecting bath soap, tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, Q-tips, men’s underwear, for the ministry to the homeless. We will have this collection for the poor through TODAY, Pentecost (June 9). These items can be put in the basket at the entrance of the church in the marked box. Paul Zalonski (of our parish) will drive the donations to the Homeless Shelter in Waterbury.

The next Sestrechi meeting will be held TODAY, Sunday, June 9 after the 9:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy. The meeting will be held in the Church Hall Classroom 1.

The Panachyda service at the gravesites will take place TODAY, June 9 at 12:30 p.m. at St. Lawrence Cemetery. For Panachyda service at other cemeteries please call the rectory 203-865-0388.

We will be making pyrohy on Saturday, June 15. We need your help because will be more orders before vacation (July and August). Please come and help also on Friday, June 14 to peel potatoes and Saturday to make pyrohy. See Walter Ushchak –Manager of the Pyrohy Project.

We have for sale frozen borscht for $5.00; cabbage and sausage (kapusta and kovbasa) for $10.00 and pyrohy (varenyky) in 2 dozen packages for $14.00. You can buy pyrohy after each Divine Liturgy or during the week if you call the rectory.

STAMFORD CHARITIES APPEAL

REMINDER: Please don’t forget to donate for Charities Appeal. The forms are designed for each family of our parish. Attached to the form is an envelope into which you can place your contribution. The form along with your contribution, we ask you enclose in the envelope and place it in the collection basket during church services. Please make check payable to the Byzantine Rite Eparchy of Stamford. DO NOT MAIL THIS FORM TO THE CHANCERY OFFICE. We sincerely ask all parishioners to make generous contributions.

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Helping the poor – a work of charity

Helping the poor – a work of charity

For the Pascha season we have been collecting some personal care items for the poor at the request of The Director of the St. Vincent DePaul Homeless Shelter in Waterbury. This is a ministry for the ministry to the homeless.

Our final day for taking up the collection is TOMORROW, Pentecost Sunday (June 9).

Would you consider donating to this work of charity? We are looking for: soap, tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, Q-tips, men’s underwear. These items can be put in the basket at the entrance of the church in the marked box.

Paul Zalonski (of our parish) will drive the donations to the Homeless Shelter in Waterbury.

The Soul Saturday before Holy Pentecost

***Nota Bene: Divine Liturgy this morning at 9:00 a.m.

****Father will be praying for the souls (blessing the graves) this weekend at the cemeteries: All Saints this morning beginning at 11am and tomorrow at St Lawrence at 12:30pm.

On this day, the Saturday before Holy Pentecost, we celebrate a memorial for all those who have fallen asleep since the ages in true worship and in the hope of everlasting life. The Holy Fathers established that on this Saturday that precedes Holy Pentecost, we observe the memory of all people who throughout the centuries died in the right faith, just as they ordered that this be observed on the Saturday before Meatfare Sunday. They did this moved by their love for mankind, so that all who for whatever reason did not have the usual benefit of individual memorial services might be included in this common memorial. According to tradition, the Fathers of the Church received this injunction concerning the memorial services from the Apostles, who themselves taught that the memorials performed on behalf of the reposed bring great benefit to those who have fallen asleep. (See Apostolic Injunctions, 8.42)

The Holy Fathers specified that we perform them today, because tomorrow we shall welcome the All-Holy Spirit and shall fervently be entreating the Lord for ourselves, that He send us His All-Holy Spirit to illumine us and strengthen us in the fear of God and in keeping the commandments and to guide us in obtaining eternal life. We shall also be praying for the deceased, that He give them rest in His lovely and longed-for dwellings. In praying for the dead, on the one hand, we show our love for our deceased fathers and brothers, and, on the other hand, we become more keenly aware of the vanity of this world, and thus we receive great benefit to our souls.

For nothing rouses the slothful to repentance better than the recollection of death. And nothing else brings us the recollection of death as well as the memory of our loved ones who have slept the eternal sleep. O Master Christ, grant repose in the dwelling places of the righteous to the souls of those who have preceded us in slumber, and have mercy on us and save us, for You alone love mankind. Amen. (Synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion and Pentecostarion, edited by Fr. David (Kidd) and Mother Gabriella (Ursache), HDM Press, River Junction, Michigan, 1999, pp. 228-229.)

This may have been a “Christianization” of a pagan custom. Spring was a time of release of the souls of children or maidens who had committed suicide or met a violent death. During rusalki these spirits were treated with pity and wreaths of flowers were offered to them. This feast was called rosalia in Latin and anthesteria in Greek and became associated with Pentecost because it was a spring feast. (George P. Fedotov, The Russian Religious Mind, Vol. I (Belmont, Massachusetts: Nordland Publishing Co.,1985), 18.)

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Helping Kostyantyn and Iryna.

We have a mission given to us by Jesus: to heal and visit the sick (Matthew 25). The Myrrh-bearing women come to mind.

Here is some information on the help that many parishioners and friends of St Michael the Ukrainian Catholic Church (New Haven) is giving to Kostyantyn Shkapoed and his wife Iryna.

Kostyantyn, a wounded Ukrainian veteran, is receiving medical treatment in New Haven through the assistance of many parishioners and several others spearheading treatment from other places.

Will you be a Myrrh-bearer for Kostyantyn and Iryna?

Click to enlarge the flyer.

Sunday of the First Ecumenical Council: The Gospel of Unity

“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are. (John 17:11)”

After the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to his followers for forty days. He did not live with them on a day to day basis, as he did before his crucifixion and death, but he rose now into glory, giving us also the hope of resurrection to eternal life. His appearances had a particular goal, as he explained later in the Gospel of John, but in the same discourse we have heard today, “As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. (John 17:18): The Gospel today begins, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you, just as you gave him authority over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all you gave him” (John 17:1-2). In the Gospel of St. Matthew, as Jesus leaves his followers, he give them this commission, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:18-19). After his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus is glorified, he has all power and authority, and he passes on his mission to us by giving us the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Some of the Fathers of the Church have asked the question: “Why didn’t our Lord stay with us in his risen glory and give us clear guidance in the building up of his kingdom? Why did he leave us and return to the Father, where as God he reigns with the Father eternally, and now sits at his right now also in the human nature that he took for our salvation?” We might muse – it certainly would make it easier for us if Jesus stayed visibly with us and would be the power of our faith in the world. He left us, though because of God’s wisdom. If he stayed with us, we might perceive him as a tyrant, but his whole earthly mission was exactly NOT to establish an earthly political kingdom, but to establish the Kingdom of God, which can exist only in an atmosphere of complete human freedom. In other words, it is now up to us, by loving God and our neighbor freely, by freely doing the will of God to build up this kingdom. At the same time, God did not leave us entirely on our own. He promised, I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7)” We have received the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, in our baptisms. The priest has anointed us with chrism, saying, “The gift of the Holy Spirit.” Again, St. John teaches, “As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him” (1 John 2:27). We cannot build up God’s kingdom by our own human strength, but only by the power of the Holy Spirit given to us.

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SingCon 2019

We are pleased to announce that registration for SingCon 2019 is now open!

Registration LINK is here.

We look forward seeing you at St. Basils’s Seminary in Stamford, Connecticut, from Thursday, September 26 (registration opens at 4:00 pm), to Sunday, September 29 (concluding after lunch, approx. 1:00 pm). This Year Registration is available either for Thursday-Sunday or Friday-Sunday.

SingCon is a weekend of lectures, workshops, rehearsals, discussions, and liturgical services (Matins, Vespers, Vigil, and Divine Liturgy) for cantors, choir directors, singers, and anyone interested in church singing, regardless of background or ability.

The full schedule, workshop details, music, and liturgical texts will be posted on here in July.

See you in September in Stamford!

Pope’s June prayer intention 2019

The June prayer intention by which we join with Pope Francis, is for the The Mode of Life of Priests.

That priests, through the modesty and humility of their lives, commit themselves actively to a solidarity with those who are most poor.

June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus the King. Let us pray for our priests, especially the newly ordained.

Parish Easter egg hunt

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Children 13 and younger participated in the 16th annual Easter Egg Hunt on April 21 on the rectory lawn of St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church. The annual event, sponsored by UNA Branch 414, invited children to create Easter cards for parish shut-ins, craftwork, games and the hunt for Easter eggs and candy hidden on the lawn. The top winners in three categories received a large chocolate bunny. Each participant received a bag filled with candy and gifts prepared by the UNA branch.

The Ukrainian Weekly
1 June 2019