SESTRECHI: The next monthly meeting of the Sestrechi will be held on March 10. The meeting will be held in Classroom 1 after the 9:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy.

Sorokousty (All Souls’ Saturdays) will next be celebrated on March 16, March 23, March 30, and June 8. Please take a book found in the entrance of the church, fill it out, place it in envelope, and drop it in the collection basket.

The organizational meeting of the newly formed Facilities Maintenance Team of St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church took place on Friday evening, January 18. The schedule of work sessions was also established 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. There will be occasions when it is necessary to work later than 9:30 to complete some of the projects.

All parishioners who would like to become part of the team should leave your contact information with Fr. Iura after the Divine Liturgy. Forms for providing your contact information can be found in the vestibule of the church.

Awakenings —Adult Faith Formation: “Heaven is the heaven of the Lord, but the earth he has given to the children of men” (Psalms 115:16)

The Goodness of the Creation

Conceived by God as Paradise, the world is God’s gift to humankind and the sphere of our relationship with God, with others, and with nature. For this reason, human beings cannot take a consumerist attitude towards the world, a world that is filled with love and attention of the Giver. The Christian attitude towards the world is to see it as a gift of God. Growing in faith, Christians ascend in their understanding from the gifts to the Person of the Giver. Regarding the world as God’s gift allows one to avoid two extremes: the reduction of its value (since the world is God’s creation), or turning it into an absolute (since the world is not God). (Christ Our Pascha, 110)