Parish announcements this week

Christ is born!

WELCOME NEW PARISHIONERS! New parishioners are always welcomed in our parish. If someone wants to register with our parish please contact Father Iura Godenciuc at (203) 865-0388 or our financial secretary Natalia Chermak.

PARISH COFFEE HOUR: Dear parishioners and guests, after each Divine Liturgy, coffee and hard rolls are available in the church hall.

VIGIL LIGHT: This week vigil light is offered to God’s greater glory by Luba Kopylec for a special intention.

From the Pastor

With the upcoming Holidays of Christmas, New Year and Epiphany our best wishes to our bishop, His Excellency Bishop Paul Chomnycky our Parishioners, Trustees, Choir Director  and members of the church choir, Altar Boys, Knights of Columbus members, Sestretsi members, all Ukrainian and American Organizations in our parish, all benefactors and  members of our parish that every day donate their time, work and money for good of our Church. May the new born Jesus Christ Bless our Parish.

Fr. Iura Godenciuc and Family

All donations and contributions must be received by Sunday, December 30, 2018 to be recorded on the annual statement for the year 2018.

If someone would like to buy a frozen pierogies (varenyky) during the week please call the rectory at (203) 865-0388.

PHILIP’S FAST, ПИЛИПІВКА, the period of spiritual preparation for the celebration of the Nativity/Theophany continues until Monday evening. Christmas eve is a day of abstinence (meat may not be eaten).

The annual St. Nicholas pageant will be held on TODAY (12/23) after the 2nd Divine Liturgy. All children are invited to meet with St. Nicholas on this joyous occasion.

Schedule for New Year, Holy Theophany and Christmas (Julian Calendar)

~New Year’s Day, January 1: 11:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy
~Holy Theophany, January 6: 9:00 a.m. Great Compline, 10:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy; 11:15 a.m. Great Sanctification of Water
~Christmas (Julian Calendar), January 7: 9:30 a.m. Great Compline 10:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy

The Ukrainian National Women’s League of America Branch 108 New Haven and St. Michael Parish will be preparing a Prosphora —a traditional Ukrainian Christmas meal— on Sunday, January 20, 2019 after the only one (1) Divine Liturgy at 10:30. Tickets are $20.00 for adults, free for students Ridna Shkola and altar boys. Tickets are on sale in the church hall every Sunday after both Divine Liturgies. Please buy tickets in advance.

STAMFORD CHARITIES APPEAL REMINDER: Please don’t forget to donate for the Charities Appeal. Please make your check payable to the BYZANTINE RITE DIOCESE OF STAMFORD. DO NOT MAIL THE FORM TO THE CHANCERY OFFICE IN STAMFORD. We sincerely ask all parishioners to make generous contributions.

MEETINGS

SESTRECHI: we will be enjoying our winter recess during the months of January and February 2019. The next regularly scheduled monthly meeting will resume on March 10, 2019. The meeting will be held in the Church Hall classroom after the 9:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy.

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: we will be enjoying our winter recess during the month of January. The next meeting of Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will resume on February 4, 2019, 7:00 p.m. in the Holy Name Room. All men of the parish are invited to attend.

UKRAINIAN AMERICAN VETERANS: The next meeting of the UAV Post 33 will be held on January 20, 2019. The meeting will be held in Classroom 2.

OTHER INFO

BULLETIN UPDATES: Dear parishioners, as you may have noticed there have been some changes and improvements to our parish bulletin. In a continuing effort to make the bulletin more parishioner friendly, I call upon you to let me know what else you would like to see and or change. As always I appreciate the various informational materials that you have provided and I am looking forward to your continued responses.  Father Iura.

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The Three Holy Children

The Byzantine liturgical calendar of the Ukrainian Church has given us today the feast of The Three Holy Children. The feast day commemorates a most fascinating event (experience) of people of faith in the face of evil.

“You did not worship the image circumscribed by hands (χειρόγραφον εἰκόνα), / O thrice-blessed ones, / but armed with the uncircumscribed Essence (ἀγράφῳ οὐσίᾳ), / you were glorified in a trial by fire. / From the midst of unbearable flames you called on God, crying: / Hasten, O compassionate One! / Speedily come to our aid, / for You are merciful and able to do as You will.” (Sunday of the Forefathers, Kontakion-Hymn)

The “thrice-blessed ones” are the Three Holy Children, Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego, kinsmen of the Prophet Daniel in the tribe of Judah, led away together with him and other Jews into Babylonian Captivity. King Nebuchadnezzar had the three youths thrown into a fiery furnace, (in which they famously remained unharmed), after they refused to worship a golden image of Nebuchadnezzar, which he had constructed and ordered the people to worship (Dan. 3).

Why does this story receive so much “press” in our Church’s liturgical tradition, and especially in the weeks preceding Christmas? Because it signifies the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, on several levels. First, it reflects Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Dan 2: 31-35), in which a statue made of expensive metals was destroyed by “a rock hewn from a mountain, not by human hands.” The Church understands this “Rock” to signify Jesus Christ, called in our Church’s hymnography the “Rock Hewn Not-by-Hands” (λίθος ἀχειρότμητος / камень нерукосечный), from the “Mountain“ that signifies the Holy Virgin. The power of His coming to us in the flesh destroys the “power” of false deities, “circumscribed by hands.” The faith of the Three Youths, in the True God, overcomes the “power” and fiery flames of Nebuchadnezzar’s falsehood, prefiguring the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ, our death-trampling Lord. And second, the fiery furnace, in which the Three Children remain unharmed, signifies the Virgin Birth, because the Theotokos’s virginity remained intact, and she –unharmed, even though she received, and gave birth to, the “consuming fire” Who is God Himself (Deut. 4: 24).

As we continue to head toward Bethlehem, on this journey of the Nativity Fast, I say Thank You, Lord. I thank You for coming to us, as a Child amongst Your children; entering the “fiery furnace” of our world, and making it safe and even salvific for us. “Speedily come to our aid, for You are merciful and able to do as You will.”

Meditation by Sister Vassa Larin

Sunday of the Forefathers

In Colossians 3:4 we read: “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

This first phrase from today’s Epistle as the Church begins it’s celebration of the birth of our Lord really tells us what Christmas is all about. This is the announcement of the feast. The Word of God, appearing in our world, is the glory of the believer. He appears in humble surroundings, but invites all to the feast! The gospel (Luke 14:16-24) tells us that those who are well off refuse the invitation, but it is “the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind,” who come, it is those in “the highways and hedges” who are “compelled to come.” Mary probably realized this when she prophesied, “He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly” (Luke 1:52). The angels appear to the shepherds in the fields, and they are invited to the house of the Lord. The glory of the Lord is his humility, and our glory is our humility. 

For all that, everyone is invited to the banquet, and the wise and the rich from Persia come with expensive gifts, though they too are outsiders, and the epistle tells us “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:11). Those who welcome Christ will put aside “anger, wrath, malice …” (Colossians 3:8). The first sticheron at Christmas chants, “let us proclaim the present mystery by which the partition has been broken and the flaming sword withheld. Now the Cherubim shall let us all come to the Tree of Life.” This is putting Christ back into Christmas!

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Sunday, 12/16, Sunday of the Forefathers; The Holy Prophet Haggai
9:00 a.m. +Sophie Waselik requested by the Family
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Colossians 3:4-11
Gospel: Luke 14:16-24, Tone 5

Monday, 12/17, The Holy Prophet Daniel; the Three Holy Youths Ananiah, Azaraih and Mishael
9:00 a.m. +Warwara Bodnar (Pan.) requested by Maria Wysowskyj

Tuesday, 12/18, The Holy Martyr Sebastian and His Companions
9:00 a.m. + Jenny Patrylak(40 days, Pan.) requested by the Family

Wednesday, 12/19, The Holy Martyr Boniface
9:00 a.m. +Wasyl Dobrianskyj requested by Kataryna Szymkiw

Thursday, 12/20, Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ; The Holy Priest-Martyr Ignatius the Godbearer

Friday, 12/21, Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ; the Holy Martyr Juliana of Nicomedia
9:00 a.m. +Mychajlo and Anna Szymkiw requested by Kataryna Szymkiw

Saturday, 12/22, Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ; the Holy Great-Martyr Anastasia

Sunday, 12/23, Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ; the Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish
10:30 a.m.  +Evhen Koziupa requested by Lydia Koziupa

Epistle: Hebrews 11:9-10 and 32-40
Gospel: Matthew 1:1-25, Tone 6

Parish announcements this week

Christ is in our midst!

PARISH COFFEE HOUR: Dear parishioners and guests, after each Divine Liturgy, coffee and hard rolls are available in the church hall.

VIGIL LIGHT: This week vigil light is offered for God’s greater glory by Chris Komondy for the all deceased of Komondy family.

PHILIP’S FAST, ПИЛИПІВКА: the pre-Christmas fast which began on November 15 – the day after the feast of St. Philip – is a 40 day period of spiritual preparation for the celebration of the Nativity/Theophany cycle of the church year. It was once a period of strict fasting which has now been changed to a period of voluntary fasting and works of penance and charity.

The annual St. Nicholas pageant will be held on Sunday, December 23 after the 2nd Divine Liturgy.  All children are invited to meet with St. Nicholas on this joyous occasion.

From the Ukrainian Heritage Center(New Haven) 2018 Christmas Bazaar: The Ukrainian Heritage Center’s Christmas Bazaar will be held on Saturday, December 8, Sunday December 9, Saturday, December 15 and Sunday, December 16 in the Heritage Center Gift Shop from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. This offers you an excellent opportunity to purchase, at very reasonable prices, the Ukrainian gifts and cards(for Christmas and other special occasions) that you would like to give to family members, friends, co-workers or teachers of your children. On Sundays only, please enter the Heritage Center through the front door of the building.

Update on parish property repairs: the parking lot between the Heritage Center and the church has been regraded for better drainage of water. The French curtain drain has been expanded an additional six feet and the roof drain in the back of the Heritage Center has been redirected into the expanded French curtain drain. This will help eliminate water in the Heritage Center basement. Finally, the parking lot has been painted with parking lines and no parking signs for everyone’s usage. This parking lot has four handicapped spaces assigned, one space customized for van access. Additional paving on the edge by the fence and new car stops are planned for the next summer. 

SESTRECHI: we will be enjoying our winter recess during the months of January and February 2019. The next regularly scheduled monthly meeting will resume on March 10, 2019. The meeting will be held in the church hall classroom after the 9:00 Divine Liturgy.

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: we will be enjoying our winter recess during the month of January. The next meeting of Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will resume on February 4, 2019, 7:00 p.m. in the Holy Name Room. All men of the parish are invited to attend.

UKRAINIAN AMERICAN VETERANS: the next meeting of the UAV Post 33 will be held on December 16, 2018. The meeting will be held in Classroom 2.

STUFFED CABBAGE: will be available for Christmas by calling the rectory at 203-865-0388 and placing your order for either buckwheat, meat or mushroom stuffed cabbage. Please see Fr. Iura for details.

BULLETIN UPDATES: Dear parishioners, as you may have noticed there have been some changes and improvements to our parish bulletin. In a continuing effort to make the bulletin more “parishioner friendly,” I call upon you to let me know what else you would like to see and or change. As always I appreciate the various informational materials that you have provided and I am looking forward to your continued responses. Father Iura.

ST. GIANNA CENTER OF NEW HAVEN: The parish is collecting diapers, seats, strollers and gift cards to be given to the St. Gianna Center of New Haven (www.giannacenter.org). Useful diapers sizes: 3, 4, 5. Gift cards are needed from Walmart or Target. Please place the gift card in an envelope marked “St. Gianna Center” and give it to directly Fr. Iura. Also, NEW car seats/strollers are needed (sorry, old car seats/strollers can’t be accepted due to legislation.) Items can be placed in the labeled box at the entrance of the Church. The St. Gianna Center is a ministry of Catholics in New Haven helping at-risk pregnant women and their children. Thank you for your generosity!

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The Schedule for Christmas

Christmas, December 25

9:30 a.m. God with Us
(in English and Ukrainian)
10:30 a.m. The Divine Liturgy
(in English and Ukrainian)

New Years Day January 1, 2019

11:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy of St Basil the Great (in English and Ukrainian)

Holy Theophany, January 6

9:00 a.m. God with Us Lytija and the Blessing of Bread (in English and Ukrainian)
10:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy (in English and Ukrainian)
With the Great Sanctification of Water (in English and Ukrainian)

Christmas on the Julian Calendar, January 7

9:30 a.m. God with Us (in Ukrainian)
10:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy (in Ukrainian)

Twenty-Ninth Sunday after Pentecost 2018

Read: Colossians 3:12-16; Luke 17:12-19

“And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:15).

“And one of them, realizing he had been healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. He was a Samaritan. Jesus said in reply, “Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” (Luke 17:15-18).

This Sunday comes between two great feasts: thanksgiving and Christmas. On Thanksgiving we feed ourselves with the bounties of God’s creation, and, hopefully, thank him for these blessings, because, as we pray in the common Ambon Prayer, “you are the giver of every perfect gift.” On the coming feast of Christmas, we are already thinking of what gifts we can give to each other, and parents will teach their children to give thanks to everyone who gives them a gift. The word for gift in Greek is “eucharist,” which means “to really show favor to another.” If someone shows favor to us, it is humanly natural and normal for us to show favor in return according to our means. Jesus comments the even sinners do good to those who do good to them (Luke 6:33). Of course, sometimes that doesn’t happen and we call that a betrayal. On Christmas, God is the one who shows the greatest favor, as the angels sang at his birth, ““Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14). This gift is God’s only Son, whom the Father gave to the world “so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (John 3:16).

This is so important that we repeat this passage from Scripture in every Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. This gift is also the gift of peace, for St. Paul tells us that Christ is the peace of God, “For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace” (Ephesians 2:14-15). For this, like the healed leper, we must give thanks to God. But if God shows us this great favor, “what,” as the psalmist says, “can I return to the Lord for all he has given me?” (Psalm 115:3). God has no need of anything that we can give him. What we can give him is our sacrifice of praise, our words of glorification. We are like the little drummer boy in the popular Christmas sing, “I played my best for him.” Precisely in receiving God’s gift of love and peace, we are ourselves transformed into God’s love and peace, so that St. Paul tells us in today’s epistle,. “let the peace of Christ control your hearts,” so that we can “put on then, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another” (Colossians 3:12-13). To do this would be our Christmas thanksgiving.

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

2018 Christmas Bazaar opens

The 2018 Christmas Bazaar Ukrainian Heritage Center

The Ukrainian Heritage Center’s Christmas Bazaar will be held on Saturday December 8, Sunday December 9, Saturday December 15 and Sunday December 16 in the Heritage Center Gift Shop from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. This offers you an excellent opportunity to purchase, at very reasonable prices, the Ukrainian gifts and cards (for Christmas and other special occasions) that you would like to give to family members, friends, co-workers or the teachers of your children.

On Sundays only, please enter the Heritage Center through the front door of the building.

Chrystos Razhdayetsya!

Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Sunday, 12/09, 29th Sunday after Pentecost —Our Venerable Father Patapius
9:00 a.m. +Wasyl Jurecko requested by Cathy Kolesnik
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Colossians 3:12-16
Gospel: Luke 17:12-19, Tone 4

Monday, 12/10, The Holy Martyrs Menas, Hermogenes and Eugraphus

Tuesday, 12/11, Our Venerable Father Daniel the Stylite
9:00 a.m. God’s blessings and health for all members of the family requested by Stefaniya Tsitaridis

Wednesday, 12/12, Our Venerable Father Spiridon the Wonderworker

Thursday, 12/13, The Holy Martyrs Eustratios, Auxentius, Eugenius, Mardarius and Orestes

Friday, 12/14, The Holy Martyrs Thyrsus, Leucius, Philemon, Apollonius and Callinicus

Saturday, 12/15,The Holy Priest-Martyr Eleutherius
9:00 a.m. +Anna Yarmolenko (1st Anniv., Pan.) requested by Larysa and Michael Kernycnyj

Sunday, 12/16, 30th Sunday after Pentecost —The Holy Prophet Haggai
9:00 a.m. +Sophie Waselik requested by the Family
10:30 a.m.For the people of the parish

Epistle: Colossians 3:4-11
Gospel: Luke 14:16-24, Tone 5

Parish announcements this week

Christ is in our midst!

WELCOME NEW PARISHIONERS! New parishioners are always welcomed in our parish. If someone wants to register with our parish please contact Father Iura Godenciuc at (203) 865-0388 or our financial secretary Natalia Chermak.

PARISH COFFEE HOUR: Dear parishioners and guests, after each Divine Liturgy, coffee and hard rolls are available in the church hall.

VIGIL LIGHT: This week vigil light is offered to God’s glory by the Czabala Family for God’s blessing and health for Brandon and Andrue Aponte.

Asleep in the Lord: +Wasyl Jureczko, please remember him in your prayers. Eternal Memory!

PHILIP’S FAST, ПИЛИПІВКА, the pre-Christmas fast which began on November 15 – the day after the feast of St. Philip – is a 40 day period of spiritual preparation for the celebration of the Nativity/Theophany cycle of the church year. It was once a period of strict fasting which has now been changed to a period of voluntary fasting and works of penance and charity.

Pyrohy Project: We will make Pyrohy on Saturday, December 15, 2018. We need your help to peel potatoes on Friday and to make Pyrohy on Saturday. Please come and help. See Walter Ushchak for more information.

If someone would like to buy a frozen pierogies (varenyky) during the week please call the rectory at (203) 865-0388.

STUFFED CABBAGE will be available for Christmas by calling the rectory at 203-865-0388 and placing your order for either buckwheat, meat or mushroom stuffed cabbage. Please see Fr. Iura for details.

Parish Council meeting was held on Monday, December 3, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. Updates were given concerning the various ongoing projects in our parish. A round table discussion followed. The next meeting will be held on February 4, 2019. All parishioners are invited.

From the Ukrainian Heritage Center (New Haven) 2018 Christmas Bazaar:

The Ukrainian Heritage Center’s Christmas Bazaar will be held on Saturday, December 8, Sunday, December 9, Saturday, December 15 and Sunday December 16 in the Heritage Center Gift Shop from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. This offers you an excellent opportunity to purchase, at very reasonable prices, the Ukrainian gifts and cards (for Christmas and other special occasions) that you would like to give to family members, friends, co-workers or teachers of your children. On Sundays only, please enter the Heritage Center through the front door of the building.

Ukrainian Women’s League of New Haven Branch 108 will be holding their annual Christmas Bazaar on Sunday December 9, Saturday December 15 and Sunday December 16, after each Divine Liturgy between 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Pshenytsia (wheat) for kutia will be available. On December 16th and 17th we will also have baked goods. Donations of Ukrainian or holiday items would be greatly welcome. (Please bring to church hall.) For more information, contact Anna Salemme (203) 934-6520 or Larissa S. (203) 248-9767.

UKRAINIAN AMERICAN VETERANS:  The next meeting of the UAV Post 33 will be held on December 16, 2018. The meeting will be held in Classroom 2.

SESTRECHI will be enjoying our winter recess during the months of January and February 2019. The next regularly scheduled monthly meeting will resume on March 10, 2019. The meeting will be held in the church hall classroom after the 9:00 Divine Liturgy.

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS will be enjoying our winter recess during the month of January. The next meeting of Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will resume on February 4, 2019, 7:00 p.m. in the Holy Name Room. All men of the parish are invited to attend.

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