Praying for the victims on violence –El Paso and Dayton

Given the violence in our cities these days, and the violence recently inflicted in El Paso and Dayton, let us pray for the victims, their families and the first responders. In El Paso 20 killed and 26 injured and in Dayton 9 killed and 27 injured.

Let us pray.

O Lord Jesus Christ, our God, we ask You to accept our heartfelt prayers and forgive us our transgressions.

Remember our enemies, those who hate us and oppress us, and repay them not according to their deeds, but rather give them reason and understanding, according to Your great mercy, so that they may see that evil cannot bring good.

Deliver Your Church and Your faithful people from every evil with Your mighty hand. Help us, O God, for You were crucified and died for the salvation of all. Help us, that among us and in all the world, hatred may be replaced with love, unrest may be replaced with peace, and sorrow may be replaced with happiness, that we have a peaceful life as Your people and live as brothers and sisters with one another.

O Most Holy Mother of God, we turn to you in prayer, because you know a mother’s pain for her Son who suffered and was crucified. Comfort the anguished mothers and fathers suffering for their children who are experiencing attacks, violence and persecution. Preserve us from the hands of evil-doers and save us and them from every evil and sin.

We turn prayerfully also to you, O God-pleasing martyrs, that you who stand before God may pray to Him to preserve and protect our country and our people from injustice, violence, quarrels and disunity. In repentance we confess that we are neither hot nor cold in our zeal for the truth and justice of Your Heavenly Kingdom, because we have abandoned that first love which You had embraced.

O God of peace and love, help us to return to the path to You. Remove not the candlestick of our Church from Your sight, because You are the God of mercy, goodness and the Lover of mankind, and unto You we ascribe glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Blessed Ioan Bălan

August 4th is the feast of Blessed Ioan Bălan: Romanian Greek-Catholic priest, Protopope of Bucharest, Rector of Blaj’s Theological Academy, Eparch of Lugoj, and martyr of the Communist persecutions—who died on this day in 1959, after over a decade of imprisonment without trial.

Blessed Ioan Bălan, pray for us.

Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ

Sunday, 8th Sunday after Pentecost —The Seven Holy Youths of Ephesus
9:00 a.m. +Ann Muryn requested by Mary and Michael Muryn
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Gospel: Matthew 14:14-22, Tone 7

Monday, 8/05, The Fore-feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ; the Holy Martyr Eusignius
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Tuesday, 8/06, Transfiguration of the Lord
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish
Blessing of first fruit and honey

Wednesday, 8/07, Post-feast of the Transfiguration; the Holy Venerable-martyr Dometius
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Thursday, 8/08, Post-feast of the Transfiguration; the Holy Confessor Emilian
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Friday, 8/09, Post-feast of the Transfiguration; the Holy Apostle Matthias
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Saturday, 8/10, Post-feast of the Transfiguration; the Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Lawrence
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Sunday, 8/11, 9th Sunday after Pentecost —Post-feast of the Transfiguration; the Holy Martyr Euplus
7:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 3:9-17
Gospel: Matthew 14:22-34, Tone 8

Parish announcements this week

Christ is in our midst!

The next meeting of Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will be tomorrow, Monday, August 5, 7:00 p.m. in the Holy Name Room. All men of the parish are invited to attend.

The Gladiolus is the flower for the month of August and is said to bring luck to people born in this month. This flower derived its name from the Latin word “Gladious” which means sword, given to its sword-shaped leaves.

First Fruits: It is customary to bring a sampling of the first fruits of the harvest to Church to be blessed on the Feast of the Transfiguration. Grapes, apples, pears even bananas and honey will all be blessed at the end of the Divine Liturgy.

Irena and Constiantyn Shkapoied have their birthdays in August. Irena on August 2, Constiantyn on August 20. We invite all of you today, August 4th after the second Divine Liturgy to celebrate their birthday in our backyard under the grapes. Happy Birthday Irena and Constiantyn!

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.

The ANNUAL HOLY DORMITION PILGRIMAGE will be held on August 10-11 at the motherhouse of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in Sloatsburg. This year’s theme is “Responding with the heart as did Mary and Josaphata”. The Sisters invite all our parishioners to attend! For information call: 845-753-2840 or http://www.ssmi-us.org

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 Connecticut State Ukrainian Day Committee wishes to invite all parishioners to attend this year’s Ukrainian Day Festival to be held on Sunday, September 8. The Festival will be held on the grounds of St. Basil’s Seminary, 161 Glenbrook Rd., Stamford, CT. Advance general admission tickets are $5.00 per person, 12 and over are available from Luba Dubno. Tickets purchases at the gate will be $10.00 per person. This festival can exist if volunteers sign up during the day to help out. Please make that effort to volunteer.

Awakenings —Adult Faith Formation: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and with sin death, death thus coming to all men inasmuch as all sinned. (Rom. 5: 12)

Humankind – in the Image and Likeness of God. A human being is responsible for his or her free choice: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gn 2: 16-17). This commandment of God does not limit human freedom nor does it interfere in our choice. God gives the commandment as a gift to strengthen us in all that is good. By breaking the commandment, a human being rejects God and by this very means introduces sin into the world, and through sin death (see Rom 5: 12). By eating of the fruit of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil,” one forfeits access to the “tree of life” and loses ties to God: “Communion with God is life and light … But separation from God is death.” (Christ Our Pascha, 138)

Prayer Intention for August

Pope’s Prayer Intention for August 2019

That families, through their life of prayer and love, become ever more clearly “schools of true human growth.”

Let us be united in prayer.

The Dormition Fast

“Father,” someone once asked their priest, “I have a difficult time observing the Dormition Fast. What should I do?”

“Well,” the priest responded, “just keep the first week, and then keep second week, that should be enough.”

Is this acting a bit smart?

But there is much truth here. As we know, the Dormition Fast is just two weeks total. It’s an intense and necessary two weeks as the Church gathers together at the death bed of Mary, the ever-Virgin Mother of God.

Church teaches us that is the the gesture of those whom we love is near death: we ought to stop in our tracks and gather at their bedside. Today, we find ourselves at a nursing home, CT Hospice or even the hospital.

The Apostles and those –except Thomas– with them had been scattered across the world spreading the Gospel were miraculously gathered together at the bedside of the Church’s mother to bid her farewell from this life.

This is good spiritual advice: “We ought to keep this fast as carefully and attentively as possible because we love God’s Mother. She helps us, she loves us, and with the boldness of a mother she intercedes on our behalf to her Son and our God. It is not that Christ does not know our needs, but, because that is what a loving mother does!”

Are convinced to keep the Dormition Fast? Here are a few tips:

Go to Church. Run to Church. We will be open for business. Holy Feast of our Lord’s Transfiguration always falls in the midst of the fast.

Pray. Yes, pray. That you come to Church you will surely be praying, but, consider intensifying your daily devotions. Look in your prayer books for special prayers that you can add to God’s Mother during this season. Maybe even keep it up after the 14 days!

Fast. We got the whole way to #3 without even mentioning food. Do your best to abstain from meat and dairy as you are able. The Church provides strict directives as they always do, but, work together as a family to come up with a plan. At the least, do more than you have done in the past. Have questions or concerns, ask Father Iura.

Read. Pick up for meditation the Bible; read a few paragraphs of the Catechism, “Christ Our Pascha”, read a biography of a saint: Metropolitan Sheptytsky, St. Nectarios, St. Mary of Paris; read a spiritual book like, “How to Be a Sinner” by Peter Bouteneff; read an account of the Virgin Mary’s passing and bodily assumption to heaven: “The Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God” by Saint John Maximovitch. It is short only 70 pages.

Confess. If you have not been to the Mystery (Sacrament of) Confession in more than a month, then it is time to be confessed of your sins. This is the perfect opportunity to renew your relationship with Jesus Christ through sacramental confession.

This is a short but prayerfully intense season and our participation in it has the potential to greatly enhance our spiritual life. Do not allow this special time with God’s Mother to pass by without a thought, it is time to be with her, and to pray with her to her Son, and our God.

Familiarity with Sacred Scripture–God’s Word

Are you familiar (at the deepest possible level as able) with sacred Scripture? Daily, it is recommended, to spend time doing lectio divina.

While John Paul is addressing members in consecrated life, the teaching is fitting and prudent for the laity, too.

“As the church’s spiritual tradition teaches, meditation on God’s word, and on the mysteries of Christ in particular, gives rise to fervor in contemplation and the ardor of apostolic activity. Both in contemplative and active religious life, it has always been men and women of prayer, those who truly interpret and put into practice the will of God, who do great works.

“From familiarity with God’s word they draw the light needed for that individual and communal discernment which helps them to seek the ways of the Lord in the signs of the times. In this way they acquire a kind of supernatural intuition which allows them to avoid being conformed to the mentality of this world, but rather to be renewed in their own mind, in order to discern God’s will about what is good, perfect, and pleasing to him (see Romans 12:2).

Saint John Paul II, The Consecrated Life

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Read: Romans 15:1-7; Matthew 9:27-35

The Gospel for this Sunday can be summarized: Jesus went about doing good, healing the sick and revealing God’s love for all. St. Paul tells us the Jesus did this out of his goodness, not to please himself, not to glorify himself. From love for us, he took insults upon us upon himself. St. Paul concludes, “Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Romans 15:7). In this way, we can heal one another’s spirit. Today’s epistle and gospel, then, tell us what love for one another really is. There is a condition, though, we must be open to God’s love. What does Jesus ask the blind men? “Do you believe I can do this?” If they believed they could be healed, then they also believed they needed healing, unlike the hypocritical Pharisees, to whom Jesus says, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains” (John 9:41). They, in bitterness and unfaithfulness, hurl the insult at Jesus, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons” (Matthew 9:34).

We are blind to the image of God in the other when we “demonize” them, and in reality, makes ourselves into demons. We should, instead, heal one another and not condemn.

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras
#ByzantineCatholicNewHaven

Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ

Sunday, 7/28, 7th Sunday after Pentecost —The Holy Apostles and Deacons Prochor, Nicanor, Timon and Parmenas
9:00 a.m. +Frances Dmyterko (13th Anniv.) requested by the Family
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Romans 15:1-7
Gospel: Matthew 9:27-35, Tone 6

Monday, 7/29, The Holy Martyr Callinicus
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Tuesday, 7/30, HThe Holy Apostles Silas, Silvanus and Those with Them
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Wednesday, 7/31, The Holy and Just Eudocimus
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Thursday, 8/01, The Seven Holy Martyred Maccabees, Their Mother Solome and Their Teacher Eleazar
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Friday, 8/02, The Transfer of the Holy Relics of the First-martyr and Archdeacon Stephen
9:00 a.m. No intention for the Divine Liturgy

Saturday, 8/03, Our Venerable Father Isaac, Dalmatus and Faustus
9:00 +Ivan and Halyna Lobay requested by Maria Lobay

Sunday, 8/04, 8th Sunday after Pentecost —The Seven Holy Youths of Ephesus
9:00 a.m. +Ann Muryn requested by Mary and Michael Muryn
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Gospel: Matthew 14:14-22, Tone 7

Parish announcements this week

Christ is in our midst!

This week vigil light is offered to God’s glory by Catherine Kolesnik in memory of all deceased of Kolesnik family.

The next meeting of Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will be held on Monday August 5, 7:00 p.m. in the Holy Name Room. All men of the parish are invited to attend.

THANK YOU to the Knights of Columbus, Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Council, for your generous donation of 20 new Divine Liturgy Missals to our parish.

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.

CT STATE UKRAINIAN DAY COMMITTEE will hold its next meeting tomorrow evening, July 29, at 7:00 p.m. The meeting will be hosted by St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, 135 Wethersfield Avenue, Hartford, CT. Refreshments will be served.

The ANNUAL HOLY DORMITION PILGRIMAGE will be held on August 10-11 at the motherhouse of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in Sloatsburg. This year’s theme is “Responding with the heart as did Mary and Josaphata”. The Sisters invite all our parishioners to attend! For information call: 845-753-2840 or http://www.ssmi-us.org

The Connecticut State Ukrainian Day Committee wishes to invite all parishioners to attend this year`s Ukrainian Day Festival to be held on Sunday, September 8, 2019. The Festival will be held on the grounds of St. Basil’s Seminary, 161 Glenbrook Rd., Stamford. Advance general admission tickets are $5.00 per person, 12 and over are available from Luba Dubno. Tickets purchases at the gate will be $10.00 per person. This festival can’t exist if volunteers sign up during the day to help out. Please make that effort to volunteer.

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.

Awakenings —Adult Faith Formation: “But what is man’s lot from God above, his inheritance from the Almighty on high? Is it not calamity for the unrighteous, and woe for evildoers?” (Job 31: 2-3)

Humankind – in the Image and Likeness of God: The most profound dimension of human freedom consists in being able to freely choose God and to be with him. This is the good. Yet with this same freedom, we can also reject our relationship with God – and this is evil. To be free is to possess the capacity for unfettered self-determination. Evil, in fact, does not belong to creation; it only appears when humanity renounces the choice for good, and thus abuses its freedom. As God’s gift, freedom is strengthened through every free choice of the good. On the other hand, it is limited when humanity becomes dependent upon evil which is a consequence of its renouncing the good. (Christ Our Pascha, 137)