Category: Byzantine Liturgy

Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ

Sunday, 9/17/17 Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross
9:00 a.m. +Hryhorij Dubno requested by the Family
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Galatians 2:16-20
Gospel: Mark 8:34-9:1,Tone 6

Monday, 9/18/17 Venerable Father Eumenes, Bishop of Gortyna, Wonderworker
8:00 a.m.   no special intention for the Divine Liturgy

Tuesday, 9/19/17 Holy Martyrs Trophimus, Sabbatius, and Dorymedontus
9:00 a.m. Special Intention

Wednesday, 9/20/17 Holy Great-Martyr Eustathius and companions
9:00 a.m. +Aniela Gerula requested by Kateryna Szymkiw

Thursday, 9/21/17 Leave-taking of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross
9:00 a.m.   no special intention for the Divine Liturgy

Friday, 9/22/17 Holy Priest-Martyr Phocas, Bishop of Sinope
5:00PM God’s blessing for Brooks Patrick Converse and  Alicia Maria Wasynczuk

Saturday, 9/23/17 Conception of the Honorable and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John
10:00 a.m. For God’s blessing and health for teachers and students of Ridna Shkola

Sunday, 9/24/17 16th Sunday after Pentecost
9:00 a.m. +Walter, Mary, Lillian John requested by Kathy Kolesnik
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 6:1:10
Gospel: Luke 5:1-11, Tone 7

Sunday after the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Galatians 2:16-20; Mark 8:34-9:1

The first sticheron of the Feast of the Holy Cross tells us, “By this Cross …. In his mercy (Christ) clothed us with beauty and made us worthy of heaven.” This is confirmed in the Hymn of Light from Matins: “The Cross is the beauty of the Church.” How can this be? For the Cross is ugly torture, and the Prophet Isaiah foretells of the Messiah:

“See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted. Even as many were amazed at him— so marred were his features, beyond that of mortals his appearance, beyond that of human beings. He had no majestic bearing to catch our eye, no beauty to draw us to him. He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain, like one from whom you turn your face, spurned, and we held him in no esteem. (Isaiah 52:13-14; 53:2-3)”

One is reminded of St. Paul, “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)”  We might re-phrase: “In his ugliness, we have all been made beautiful.” Where is the beauty of the Cross? It is in the holiness of Jesus, who died that the Kingdom of God – life, love, mercy, wisdom – might be established in the world. We are called to “take up the cross,” which means uniting ourselves with Christ in love that the truth and wisdom and the glory of God might shine forth.

Today, therefore, St. Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me. (Galatians 2:19-20)”

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

The Easier, Lighter Way of the Cross

 

Today’s meditation is done by Sr. Vassa Larin

“Then Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur; they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, ‘What shall we drink?’ And he cried to the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.” (Ex 15: 22-25a)

This passage is from the first reading at Vespers on the great feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, celebrated this Thursday (NC). What does this passage have to do with the feast? The “tree” that Moses throws into bitter water, and that makes the water sweet, is traditionally seen as an image of the “life-giving” Cross.

Water itself, essential for our biological life, is an image of life. But our life, in merely biological terms, devoid of Christ and His cross-carrying journey, can be bitter. The small and great pains through which we inevitably journey, as we transition from one life-situation to another, can be pure bitterness for us, outside of the Cross. Because from a Christ-less, Cross-less perspective, they are meaningless. And meaninglessness, as Carl Jung noted, is one of the biggest traumas of the modern-day psyche: Today we tend to fear, said Jung, that our lives are meaningless.

But in light of the com-passionate, co-suffering with us of the God-Man, Who walked through all our suffering and darkness, even unto death on a cross and descent into our hell, we are given new meaning and new purpose in our New Companion, our primary cross-carrier and Lord Jesus Christ, Who brings us new life through His death. Admittedly, He doesn’t explain to us the “meaning” of all our suffering. Instead He, Who is the eternal Logos, Meaning itself, takes on, in our shoes, all our darkness and suffering, by walking through it in His humanity, and then overcomes it in His divinity, trampling death “by death.” In communion with Him, we go forward His way, of walking through things, according to our responsibilities, rather than avoiding them. And then He does the rest, by His grace, overcoming in us our merely-human anxieties and discouragement, into which we easily slip when on our own, in self-reliance, trying to carry all the ups and downs of the world on our own shoulders. In Him, I discover the “ease” and “light” of His Way, if I just try it; if I try His “how,” rather than ask my “why,” and connect with Him today. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden,” He says to me today, “and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Mt 11: 28-30) So let me try Him today, and find rest for my soul.

Holy Day Liturgies September 14

On Thursday, September 14th, we will celebrate the great feast of The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross (known, simply as the Exaltation of the Holy Cross). By the Cross of Jesus Christ we are saved!
It is also a day of abstinence. We may not eat meat. (See Statutes, c. 476 2:4).
 
The Divine Liturgy will be offered at 9:00 a.m. (in Ukrainian) and again at 7:00 p.m. (in English).
 
Please come and pray, and bring a friend.

Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross

Galatians 6:11-16; John 3:13-17

The Gospel today refers back to a story of Moses from the Old Testament:

“The Lord sent among the people seraph serpents, which bite the people so that many of the Israelites died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses: Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover. Accordingly Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever the serpent bit someone, the person looked at the bronze serpent and recovered. (Numbers 21:6-9)”

This is a very unusual story, almost magical where a representation of a serpent is a healing talisman. However, for the Christian believer the full meaning is revealed only in our Lord Jesus Christ. St. John tells us that just as Moses raised the serpent in the desert, so Jesus was raised on the Cross so that anyone who looked upon him was healed of their sins. The serpent in the desert was not the serpent Eve saw in the tree in Eden, who brought death into the world through sin through his lie, but it was a serpent of life, who brought healing through the truth of faithfulness to God. But this was only a foreshadowing of Jesus. Of our Lord, St. Paul said, “For our sake God made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)” The serpent in the desert was bronze, yet brought salvation from the fatal bites of serpents. Jesus is truly God and truly a man, and brings the salvation of freedom from sin and death. Yes, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (John 3:16) ” That is why in this great feast we celebrate this week, “We bow to your Cross and glorify your holy resurrection.”

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Sunday, 9/10/17    Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross
9:00 a.m. +Michael Waselik (32th Anniv.) requestd by the Family
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Galatians 6: 14-18
Gospel: John 3: 13-17, Tone 5

Monday, 9/11/17    Our Venerable Mother Theodora of Alexandria
8:00 a.m.   no special intention for the Divine Liturgy

Tuesday, 9/12/17    The Holy Priest-Martyr Autonomus
8:00 a.m.   no special intention for the Divine Liturgy

Wednesday, 9/13/17    The Holy Priest-Martyr Cornelius the Centurion
8:00 a.m.   no special intention for the Divine Liturgy

Thursday, 9/14/17    The Universal Exaltation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross
9:00 a.m. +Petro and Maria Makarenko, Clementina and Stepan Lobay (Pan.) requested by M. Lobay

7:00 p.m.  For the people of the parish

Friday, 9/15/17    The Holy Great-Martyr Nicetas
9:00 a.m. +Petro and Anastazia Malyk requested by Kateryna Szymkiw

Saturday,  9/16/17    The Holy, Great Woman-Martyr Euphemia the All-Praised
9:00 a.m. +Luba Malyk requested by Kateryna Szymkiw

Sunday, 9/17/17    Sunday after the Exaltation of the Cross
9:00 a.m. +Hryhorij Dubno requested by the Family
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Galatians 2: 16:20
Gospel: Mark 8: 34-9:1, Tone 6

The Miracle of the Archangel Michael

On the Byzantine liturgical calendar, today, September 6, we have the commemoration of the miracle of the holy archangel Michael at Colossae in Chionia.

Given that our heavenly patron is the Archangel Michael, it is good for us to spend a little time on the place of Michael in the spiritual life.

It seems that we can deepen our desire for God by knowing more and more of how He works in this saints and angels.

The Divine Liturgy speaks of the Archangel Michael in this manner:

O Commander of the Heavenly Hosts,
We who are unworthy beseech you
That by your prayers you will encompass us
Beneath the wings of your immaterial glory
And protect us who fall down and cry:
Deliver us all from harm,
For you are the commander of the powers on High. (Troparion, Tone 4)

The biographers say,

In  Phrygia, not far from the city of Hieropolis, in a place called Cheretopos, there was a church named for the Archangel Michael, built over a miraculous spring.

This church was built by a  certain inhabitant of the city of Laodicia in gratitude to God for  healing his mute daughter. The holy Chief Commander Michael appeared to this man in a dream and revealed to him that his daughter would receive the gift of speech after drinking from the water of the spring. The girl actually did receive healing and began to speak. After this miracle,  the father and his daughter and all their family were baptized. In  fervent gratitude, the father built the church in honor of the holy Chief Commander Michael. Not only did Christians begin to come to the  spring for healing, but also pagans [unbelievers]. In so doing, many of the pagans  turned from their idols and were converted to the faith in Christ.

At  this church of the holy Chief Commander Michael, a certain pious man by  the name of Archippus served for sixty years as church custodian. By  his preaching and by the example of his saintly life he brought many  pagans to faith in Christ. With the general malice of that time towards Christians, and especially against Archippus, the pagans thought to  destroy the church in order to prevent people from coming to that holy  place of healing, and at the same time kill Archippus.

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Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Sunday, 9/03/17   13th Sunday after Pentecost
9:00 a.m. Special Intention
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: 1 Corinthians 16:13-24
Gospel: Matthew 21:33-42, Tone 4

Monday, 9/04/17    Holy Priest-Martyr Babylas, Bishop of Antioch; the Holy Prophet Moses who saw God
8:00 a.m.   no special intention for the Divine Liturgy

Tuesday, 9/05/17    Holy Prophet Zachary and Elizabeth, Parents of John the Baptist
8:00 a.m.   no special intention for the Divine Liturgy

Wednesday, 9/06/17 Commemoration of the Miracle Performed at Colossus in Chone by the Archangel Michael
8:00 a.m.   no special intention for the Divine Liturgy

Thursday, 9/07/17    Holy Martyr Sozon
8:00 a.m.   no special intention for the Divine Liturgy

Friday, 9/08/17    Nativity of the Holy Mother of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish

Saturday, 9/09/17    Post-feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God; the Holy and Righteous Forebears of God Joachim and Anna
9:00 a.m. +Dario Aponte (9th Anniv., Pan.) requested by the Family

Sunday, 9/10/17    14th Sunday after Pentecost —Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross
9:00 a.m. +Michael Waselik (32nd Anniv., Pan.) requested by the Family
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Galatians 6:14:18
Gospel: John 3:13-17, Tone 5

Petitions for the victims of Hurricane Harvey

Special Petitions for the Victims of Hurricane Harvey at Divine Liturgy.  You may take one or several of these petitions in the ektenia after the Gospel.

For those who experienced the destructive forces of Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent flooding and now endure the anguish and suffering from personal injury and the loss of property, we pray You, hear us and have mercy.

Lord, have mercy! (3 x)

For those called home to the Lord during this natural disaster of Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent flooding, may they be granted rest in the bosom of Abraham and numbered among the saints and may their grieving loved ones be comforted by Your divine grace, we pray You, hear us and have mercy.

Lord, have mercy! (3 x)

For all those involved in serving their neighbor during this time including the first responders and those assisting in the continuing relief efforts of the victims of Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent flooding, strengthen them in mind, body and soul and inspire all of us to be charitable with our generosity to our brothers and sisters in their time of need, we pray You, hear us and have mercy.

Lord, have mercy! (3 x)

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

The Sacred Scripture for today’s Liturgy: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Matthew 19:16-26
 
Jesus never praised riches. Today he tells the people who have just seen a rich young man refuse the Lord’s invitation to follow him, “it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is repeated often in the scriptures. Jesus teaches, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3)” But the rich in spirit cannot love God more than themselves, and it is a simple reality that if they cannot love God, they cannot love their neighbors, created by God. Mary therefore declares, “The hungry he has filled with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. (Luke 1:53) And Abraham tells the rich man in hell, “you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented. (Luke 16:25) And James admonishes his flock, who honored a rich man, “Are not the rich oppressing you? And do they themselves not haul you off to court? Is it not they who blaspheme the noble name that was invoked over you? (James 2:6-7)”
 
To be able to turn one’s back on riches is what it means to be human. As transcending the world, we should be able to see infinite and eternal realities. There is nothing wrong or bad about the material creation God has given us, but it has the power to blind us to greater riches. God does not simply take away riches, but he gives us spiritual riches beyond our understanding. This Sunday I am marking fifty years as a priest. I was not raised in a rich family, though today the poorest among us have more than the richest people at the time of Jesus. This is why it is so much more important to be able to see spiritual realities.
 
The rich young man was unable to follow Jesus’ call, but in humility I hope that I have answered the call to serve God and to see the image of God in all people, not only those I hope I have served. The gospel today, however, tells us one more thing, when describing how difficult it is for a rich man to be saved – easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eyes – Jesus says “for God all things are possible.” Everything that I may have accomplished in my fifty years as a priest was not due to my own talents or merits, but only to the grace of God. I hope to remain, though unworthy, in this calling, so that I may be “as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things. (2 Corinthians 6:10)”
 
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras