Parish announcements this week

Christ is in our midst!

VIGIL LIGHT: This week vigil light is offered to God’s glory in memory of Frances Dmyterko requested by the Family.

SESTRECHI: the next meeting will be held today after the 9:00 Divine Liturgy.

CANCELLATION: Due to scheduling conflicts, the April 8th Parish Council meeting and the KofC meeting are cancelled. The next scheduled meeting dates will be announced.

LITURGY OF THE PRESANCTIFIED GIFTS will be on Friday, April 12 at 7:00 p.m.

Our next PYROHY PROJECT will be Saturday, April 13. We need your help on Friday to peel potatoes and especially on Saturday to make Pyrohy (varynyky). Please come and help. See Walter Ushchak for more information.

Olga Iastrubchak will be offering private dance classes for children ages 3-18. Classes will be held on Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. the St Michael’s church hall. For more information please contact Olya at 203-400-4467 or email olgaiastrubchak@gmail.com

Kovbasa and Cabbage Meals: The Knights of Columbus Have available for sale a freshly cooked batch of 2 quarter pound secret, tasty recipe kovbasa and cabbage meals for $10.00 each or a 2lb. vegetable only mix for just $6.00. These meals may be purchased in the Church Hall, please see Walter Ushchak.

Knights of Columbus raffle tickets are being sold in the church hall after each Divine Liturgy. 1st Prize is $5,000.00!!! The tickets are $10.00 each. Please see Michael or Mary Muryn to purchase your tickets.

SVIACHENE: The traditional Easter parish “SVIACHENE” will be held on May 5, following the one (1) Divine Liturgy. We will celebrate only One Divine Liturgy at 10:30 a.m. We will be running a raffle. If you would like to donate any items to be raffled, please bring them to our church hall on Sundays before our “Sviachene” or on Sunday, May 5. Tickets are $25.00 for adults, $10.00 for youth from 12 to 18. Free for altar boys, and under 12. Also we ask you to donate cakes for desert. We trust that all parishioners will join this parish gathering and through their presence attest to cherishing in our hearts a love for one another which builds our PARISH FAMILY.

Blessed Josaphata Hordashewska 100th anniversary

The Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Catholic Church have designated April 7, 2019 – April 7, 2020 as a special Jubilee Year marking the 100th Anniversary of the passing into eternal life of Blessed Josaphata Hordashewska, the co-foundress of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate.

The official opening of the Jubilee Year for Blessed Josaphata will take place on Sunday, April 7, in Lviv.

For more information, visit the website of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate.

George Weigel to speak in New Haven

A lecture will be given this Monday, April 8 at 7:00 pm by author George Weigel from the Ethics and Public Policy Center, on his new book The Fragility of Order, Catholic Reflections on Turbulent Times (2018). This includes Ukraine as part of the lecture. This event will take place at St. Mary’s Parish, 5 Hillhouse Parish, New Haven. A reception will follow.

You may register at the Thomistic Institute.

George Weigel has been a great advocate for the work and life of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Recently, he wrote an appreciative essay on Archbishop Borys Gudziak that can be read here.

All meetings at the Parish on this day have been canceled to allow parishioners to take advantage of this unusual opportunity.

Helping the poor-a work of charity

Helping the poor —The Director of the St. Vincent DePaul Homeless Shelter in Waterbury wrote to us requesting assistance in collecting bath soap, tooth brushes, tooth paste, deodorant, Q-tips, men’s underwear for the ministry to the homeless. We will have this collection for the poor through Pentecost (June 9).

These items can be put in the basket at the entrance of the church in the marked box.

Can we follow the example of the Lord who exhorted us to care for the poor? Let us follow the holy example of the Venerable Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky who heroically lived a life of Christian virtue with his commitment to the poor. Pray to Venerable Metropolitan Sheptytsky for guidance in living a holy life.

Paul Zalonski (of our parish) will drive the donations to St. Vincent DePaul Mission of Waterbury Homeless Shelter in Waterbury (www.svdpmission.org).

From Evangelicalism to Byzantine Christianity

A recent online interview about a family of Evangelical Christians who came to Byzantine Christianity through a relationship with the pastor of a Kyivan Church in Richmond, British Colombia. Thanks to God’s Grace and the great work of Jesuit Father Richard Soo the parish is growing (with a large number of Chinese people).

The article: “Bridging Protestantism and Eastern Catholic Orthodoxy.”

May the Holy Theotokos and all the saints continue to move hearts and minds to be in relation with Jesus Christ and His Church.

Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ

Sunday, 3/31, 4th Sunday of Lent —St John Climacus —Parish Mission
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish
10:30 a.m. +Bohdana requested by Lubomyr Chermak

Epistle: Hebrews 6:13-20
Gospel: Mark 9:17-31, Tone 4

Monday, 4/01, Our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt

Tuesday, 4/02, Our Venerable Wonderworker Titus
9:00 +Ivan and Halyna Lobay requested by Maria Lobay

Wednesday, 4/03, Our Venerable Confessor Nicetas

Thursday, 4/04, Our Venerable Fathers Joseph the hymnographer and George

Friday, 4/05, Holy Martyr Theodulus
7:00 p.m. Divine Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts

Saturday, 4/06, Our Holy Father Eutychius
9:00 a.m. +Valentyna Kulish (Pan.) requested by Halia Lodynsky

Sunday, 3/07, 5th Sunday of Lent —Our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt
9:00 Special Intention
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Hebrews 9:11-14
Gospel: Mark 10:32-45, Tone 5

Parish announcements this week

Christ is in our midst!

This week the vigil light is offered to God’s glory in memory of all deceased of Waselik family. by members of the family.

The Divine Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts (compiled by St Gregory the Great) will be celebrated on Friday, April 5 at 7:00 p.m. Please come and join in this beautiful tradition of our Church.

Sestrechi will next meet on Sunday, April 7, after the 9:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy. The meeting will be held in the church hall Classroom 1.

The next Parish Council meeting will be held on Monday, April 8, at 6:00 p.m. in the Holy Name Room. All council members, organization representatives and interested parishioners are invited.

The next meeting of Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will be held on Monday, April 8, 7:00 p.m. in the Holy Name Room. All men of the parish are invited to attend.

The traditional Easter parish “SVIACHENE” will be held on May 5, following the Divine Liturgy. We will celebrate only one (1) Divine Liturgy at 10:30 a.m. We will be running a raffle. If you would like to donate any items to be raffled, please bring them to our church hall on Sundays before our “Sviachene” or on Sunday, May 5. Tickets are $25.00 for adults, $10.00 for youth from 12 to 18. Free for altar boys, and under 12. Also, we ask you to donate homemade cakes for desert. We trust that all parishioners will join this parish gathering and through their presence attest to cherishing in our hearts a love for one another which builds our parish family.

Our next PYROHY PROJECT will be Saturday, April 13. We need your help on Friday to peel potatoes and especially on Saturday to make pyrohy (varynyky). Please come and help. See Walter Ushchak for more information.

The Knights of Columbus Have available for sale a freshly cooked batch of 2 1/4 lb. secret, tasty recipe Kovbasa and Cabbage meals for $10.00 each or a 2 lb. vegetable only mix for just $6.00. These meals may be purchased in the church hall, please see Walter Ushchak

Presanctified Liturgy TONIGHT

Today, Friday, March 29, at 7:00 p.m. Father Iura will serve the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, in English and Ukrainian.

This is our weekly Lenten devotion. Join us in prayer and the reception of the Eucharist. Bring a friend.

Liturgy for the Annunciation TODAY

Today is the feast of the Annunciation of Mary, the Mother of God. It is a Holy Day of Obligation
 
The Divine Liturgy for today:
 
Monday, March 25, Annunciation of the Theotokos
 
8:45 a.m. Litija and Blessing of Bread
9:00 a.m. God’s blessing and health for children, grandchildren requested by Stephanie Tsitaridis
~Myrovann
 
AND
 
7:00 p.m. For the People of the parish
~Anointing

The Feast of the Annunciation

Today the Church celebrates summit of our salvation.

The Annunciation of Gabriel to Mary that she would be the Theotokos almost always falls during the Great Fast. (*) According to the liturgical norms, it is celebrated on whatever day it falls, and the Divine Liturgy is celebrated, even on Good Friday. (**) The meaning of the Annunciation, however, is in conformity with the meaning of the Great Fast. The Great Fast is a journey from the sin of Adam and Eve to the Resurrection of our Lord. It is a passage from human pride to fidelity to God’s plan of salvation. The sin of Eve, which became the fundamental sin of the whole human race was to choose one’s own plan for salvation over God’s. It’s result, though, was death. Jesus in the resurrection, takes the power of death and twists it into life, as St. Paul said, “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

Jesus was able to do this because he became a human being in the womb of Mary, who replaced Eve’s disobedience with obedience to God, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word. (Luke 1:38)” Thus, God “condescended” (that is, he came down to be with us) so that the plan of God could be lifted up. “Though he was in the form of God, [Christ] did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, 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” (Philippians 2:6-8). Therefore, the Annunciation is a part of Pascha, as Melito of Sardis explained in his Paschal Homily: “And indeed there were many other things proclaimed by numerous prophets concerning the mystery of the passover, which is Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.”

When this one came from heaven to earth for the sake of the one who suffers, and had clothed himself with that very one through the womb of a virgin, and having come forth as man, he accepted the sufferings of the sufferer through his body which was capable of suffering. And he destroyed those human sufferings by his spirit which was incapable of dying. He killed death which had put man to death” (65-66). We sing, “Today is the summit of our salvation.” (Troparion)