Category: Catechesis

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Wisdom has built her house, she has set up her seven columns …. she calls from the heights out over the city: “Let whoever is naive turn in here; to any who lack sense I say, Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed! Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.”

When the priest elevates the Holy Cross on this feast, the first word he says is “Wisdom!” This is more than just a ritual instruction. We say “Wisdom” before a reading of Holy Scripture, before the words of God and before our profession of faith. It tells us: “Here is the true meaning of our faith, here is the understanding beyond comprehension of God’s creative love.”

In the Letter to the Corinthians read today, St. Paul tells us what God’s wisdom is: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God …. we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1:18.25) With our human minds and powers we say that wisdom is in smarts, power is in strength, glory belongs to the strong. But to stand before the Cross in faith is to become aware of what fools we are.

God delights in true wisdom, in divine weakness and foolishness. St. James tells us, “But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without inconstancy or insincerity. (James 3:17)”

Again, to the Philippians St. Paul says: “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus … he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. (Philippians 2:5-9)”

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The new year of faith formation begins

The 2024-2025 Catechetical Year which begins Catechetical Sunday, September 15!

The theme for this year’s Catechetical Year is: We Are Stewards of God’s Creation God enthroned in glory above creation has entrusted humanity – made in His image and likeness – with His gifts of creation, reflecting His wisdom, truth, beauty, and goodness as our Creator!

Christian, remember your dignity –Merry Christmas

From a sermon of Saint Leo the Great, pope
Christian, remember your dignity

Dearly beloved, today our Saviour is born; let us rejoice. Sadness should have no place on the birthday of life. The fear of death has been swallowed up; life brings us joy with the promise of eternal happiness.

No one is shut out from this joy; all share the same reason for rejoicing. Our Lord, victor over sin and death, finding no man free from sin, came to free us all. Let the saint rejoice as he sees the palm of victory at hand. Let the sinner be glad as he receives the offer of forgiveness. Let the pagan take courage as he is summoned to life.

In the fullness of time, chosen in the unfathomable depths of God’s wisdom, the Son of God took for himself our common humanity in order to reconcile it with its creator. He came to overthrow the devil, the origin of death, in that very nature by which he had overthrown mankind.

And so at the birth of our Lord the angels sing in joy: Glory to God in the highest, and they proclaim peace to men of good will as they see the heavenly Jerusalem being built from all the nations of the world. When the angels on high are so exultant at this marvellous work of God’s goodness, what joy should it not bring to the lowly hearts of men?

Beloved, let us give thanks to God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit, because in his great love for us he took pity on us, and when we were dead in our sins he brought us to life with Christ, so that in him we might be a new creation. Let us throw off our old nature and all its ways and, as we have come to birth in Christ, let us renounce the works of the flesh.

Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God’s kingdom.

Through the sacrament of baptism you have become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do not drive away so great a guest by evil conduct and become again a slave to the devil, for your liberty was bought by the blood of Christ.

A new liturgical year begins today, a new year of grace

“The beginning of the New Ecclesiastical Year urges us to sanctify the time of our earthly life as a time of salvation.”
– Patriarch Daniel

September 1st is known as the first day of the New Liturgical Year for those who follow the Byzantine Church. It’s an observance we had since the 4th century. Here is Father David Petras’ brief explanation:

We call this the “Church” New Year, but it was, of course, the civil New Year of the Byzantine Emperor. The book, Mapping Time, by E. G. Richards, says, “In AD 312 Constantine had instituted a 15-year cycle of indications (censuses of people’s ability to pay taxes). These started on 1 September …. The Byzantine year started on 1 September and this system was used by the supreme tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire until it was abolished by Napoleon in 1806.” The ancient Roman Empire began the year on January 1, and therefore September was the seventh month (from the Latin word for seven, “septem”). Of course, it is now the ninth month (!) Because of the interpolation of July (for Julius Caesar) and August (for August Caesar). Many seriously advocate making September 1 the New Year again, because, after all, this is the beginning of the school year and fall programs. It would also enable people to get home on dry roads rather than on snow and ice.

In any case, the gospel today has the blessing of our Lord on the New Year, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).

Blessings for a New Church Year, which we start today in our Greek Catholic Church!

Saints Peter and Paul Fast 2023

Today, Monday, June 5, we begin the Fast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (ending on June 28). As with all major feasts there’s a period of spiritual preparation through the gestures of prayer, fasting and alms giving; all three deepen our conversion and discipleship with the Lord.

This Apostles’ Fast can be observed in different ways, traditionally it is a Monday-Wednesday-Friday Fast, with a lighter Fast on the other days. This Fast is not compulsory, but optional in the Byzantine Catholic Church.

The Church, in her wisdom, invites us to participate in some way as we prepare for the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Consider doing all or some preparation for the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul.

We have ancient witnesses to doing fast of the holy Apostles, some the sources demonstrate that St. Athanasius the Great is oldest of the advocates of the Apostles’ Fast, and we have the words of St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Leo the Great and Theodoret of Cyrrhus supporting the practice and tradition.

You won’t regret doing the fast, especially if you can do it with others. The fast opens us up to receiving the Gifts of the Holy Spirit!