Saints Peter and Paul –a holy day

The feast day for the Apostles of Rome and early founders of the Church –Saints Peter and Paul– is on Saturday, June 29.

The Divine Liturgy will be served at 9:00 a.m. in English and Ukrainian.

The Church’s spiritual tradition has us observing the Fast of the Holy Apostles (Petrivka) as a way to deepen our relationship with the Lord and His preaching of Salvation through the ministry of Ss. Peter and Paul. The Fast has been observed from Monday after All Saints Sunday until the feast day on June 29 (or July 12 – Julian Calendar).

As a Church we honor the memory of the chief apostles by attending the Divine Liturgy. The Bishops have designated this day as a holy day of love (obligation).

In our catechism, Christ Our Pascha, we read: “The apostles, Christ’s disciples, received the Word of God and proclaimed the good news about him to the whole world. They witnessed to Christ by the word of their preaching and by the example of their lives. The mission of the apostles was taken up by their successors, the Holy Fathers of the Church, who preserved and safeguarded the unbroken continuity of Apostolic Tradition by means of the episcopal succession down to our times.”

New Martyrs of Ukraine feast

Today is the feast of the New Martyrs of Ukraine

Blessed Bishop and Martyr Vasyl Velychkovsky, and companions, pray for us.

Troparion, Tone 7:
O blessed martyrs of Ukraine! * You did not tear apart the integrity of the Body of Christ, * but handed over your bodies to torment: * you did not submit to the flattery of the enemy, nor did you renounce our unity with Peter. * From your earthly homeland of Ukraine, together with the Universal Church, * receive the gracious gift of this ancient hymn: * “O holy martyrs, * you suffered gloriously and have received your crowns; * on our behalf entreat the Lord, ** to have mercy on our souls.”

(4 of those saints are former pupils of the Pontifical Greek College, Rome)

READ this article by our parishioner, John Burger…

George Weigel speaks at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Philly

Below you will find the link to George Weigel’s presentation on June 2, 2019 at the Hall of the Ukrainian Catholic Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Philadelphia. The presentation was part of the enthronement ceremonies for Archbishop Borys Gudziak.
 
“The Catholicism of the future, whether it draws its liturgy, spirituality, and polity from the Christian West or the Christian East, will be a Catholicism that is deliberately chosen and embraced, not a Catholicism that is inherited. And Catholicism will only be chosen and embraced when it is offered and proposed. That means that this Archeparchy and its suffragans … must become once again a missionary enterprise: a Church in which everyone understands himself or herself to be a missionary disciple who was given the Great Commission at baptism; a Church in which every one of those missionary disciples understands that he or she is entering ‘mission territory’ every day—at home, at work, in the neighborhood, in our lives as citizens, and in our lives as consumers” (George Weigel).
 

Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Pagan antiquity had festivals marking the winter and summer solstices. The Christian calendar absorbed these feasts, observing the birth of Christ in December on the shortest day, and that of John the Baptist in June on the longest day. From this day on, the sun slowly sinks from its zenith for six months, and begins its ascent again at Christmas. In the eyes of the Fathers, this solar rhythm is an expression of John’s words: “He must grow greater, while I grow smaller.”

The role of the prophet and forerunner began with John’s birth which Luke narrates with the same paradoxical circumstances of barrenness bearing fruit as Old Testament figures like Sarah, Hannah, and others. The name, John, with the dramatic details of its imposition, means The Lord has shown favor. Like other heavenly bestowed names in Scripture, it underlines his prophetic role in the history of salvation, which is to prepare for the immediate coming of the Messiah. Zachary’s canticle amplifies the meaning of his son’s name and parallels the canticle of the Theotokos.

Meditation by the New Skete Monastery

Second Sunday after Pentecost

Read: Romans 2:10-16; Matthew 4:18-23

My favorite poet is a Jesuit priest who lived in the 19th century, and wrote about our faith. His name is Gerard Manley Hopkins, and though he was unknown in his lifetime, he changed English poetry. He wrote of our life in Christ:

In a flash, at a trumpet crash,
I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and
This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,
Is immortal diamond.

This is what happens in today’s Gospel. Jesus calls Peter and Andrew and John and James, ordinary fishermen, and they IMMEDIATELY follow him. They become “immortal diamond,” oh —after one weakness when they run away at Jesus’ arrest, but then finally “in a flash” by the coming of the Holy Spirit.

St. Paul witnesses: “Consider your own calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,” (1 Corinthians 1:26-27).

Today, though, especially because of mass media, the greatest fear we have is of being “ordinary.” We are unsure of ourselves, and we do not want to ever admit that we are or ever have been “ordinary.” Our problem is lack of faith. We want to become “immortal diamond” on our own terms, not from God’s calling. This is the sin of Adam and Eve, we want to “do it our way.” We have no humility, we do not trust in God’s plan.

Today’s gospel tells us differently —we don’t get the fifteen minutes of false glory that the world gives, but immortal life in Christ. Today we are Simon and Andrew and James and John, hearing the voice of Jesus, “Come, follow me.” Today we hear the Lord calling us calling us to a life like his of caring for others and proclaiming the gospel, if not by words, by our actions and lives. We cannot ignore this call. And St. Paul promises in the epistle “There will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does good, Jew first and then Greek. There is no partiality with God” (Romans 2:15-16).

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The Holy Apostle Jude

Today is the feast of The Holy Apostle Jude

“Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14:21-23).

Have we ever been mid-identified to our embarrassment? The Apostle Jude has one line in the Gospels, “Master, then what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” but in asking this question he is identified by who he is not: “Judas, not the Iscariot.” Perhaps then it is fitting that Jesus answered Judas with words of God’s love, that to those who love him by keeping his commandments, “my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

In every Liturgy, we pray that we not “give you a kiss as did Judas,” but that we not be like Judas Iscariot, but like Judas, the Lord’s faithful brother, that God may dwell in us. We must hear the words written by the disciple who did not betray Jesus, “But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.” (Jude 20-21).

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

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New Romanian martyrs

Icon of the seven newly beatified Romanian Greek-Catholic Hieromartyrs:

–Blessed Ioan Balan
–Blessed Ioan Suciu
–Blessed Vasile Aftenie
–Blessed Valeriu Traian Frentiu
–Blessed Tito Livio Chinezu
–Blessed Alexandru Rusu
–Blessed Iuliu Hoss

Holy New Martyrs of Romania, pray to God for us!

Pope Francis presided over Divine Liturgy Blaj, Romania –the heartland of the country’s Greek-Catholic Church– on Sunday, June 2, where he declared “blessed” seven of its bishops, including one cardinal. The Blesseds had died a martyr’s death in the decades following the suppression of the Eastern-rite Romanian Catholic Church in 1948.

Bishops Iuliu Hossu, who had been imprisoned in 1954 and died in hospital in 1970; Vasile Aftenie, who died in prison 1950; Ioan Balan, imprisoned 1950-54, he died in a monastery in 1959; Valeriu Traian Frentiu, who died in prison 1952; Ioan Suciu, died in prison 1953; Tito Livio Chinezu, died in prison 1955; and Alexandru Rusu, who died in prison 1963. Paul VI had made Bishop Hossu a cardinal but at his request only revealed this elevation after his death.

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-06/pope-francis-romania-beatification-7-greek-catholic-martyrs.html

All Saints

Over the last fifty-some days, we have celebrated the Paschal mystery – the central mystery of our faith, from our Lord’s crucifixion, resurrection, ascension to his sending the Holy Spirit on his followers. This Sunday, after all that has been proclaimed, we add a great “Amen!” “So be it!” This “Amen” will be great only if we make it more than just words but also actions. The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples that they might be witnesses to the Paschal mystery – our Lord’s death and resurrection, and the Greek word for “witness” is “martyr.”

This Sunday was originally called the Sunday of All Martyrs – because those who witnessed to Christ had to be ready to give their lives for him. Many Christians did and still do. This is what it means to be a saint – the readiness to give our lives for the Lord. Therefore the Lord says in today’s Gospel, “Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. (Matthew 10:32)” We should not seek to be killed for the gospel, but our priorities should be: 1) God; 2) God’s people, the “others” in our lives and 3) ourselves. Being human, and living in an individualistic society, we often reverse these priorities: 1) ourselves, no. 1; 2) others and 3) God, and putting God third is a practical atheism. We often have the misconception that to be a “saint” means only a life of misery and self-denial, but people who put their own pleasure and comfort first usually end up all “messed up.”

A saint is really someone who has their life in the right order, and so is full of the joy of the Spirit: “a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2).

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras
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All Saints Sunday

The Greek Church celebrates the great company of saints today. The Latin Church celebrates All Saints on November 1.

“The Church of Christ honors even after their death those who have lived a truly godly life. Every day of the year it commemorates the saints who departed hence on that day, leaving this mortal life. It sets the life of each of them before us for our benefit, and also shows us how each died, whether they fell asleep in peace or ended their lives in martyrdom. On this day, however, the Church gathers them all together and sends up a common hymn in their honor.”

(By St. Gregory Palamas – 1296-1358)