Today, the virgin gives birth to one beyond all created essences, and the earth presents a cave to this God beyond our reach. All heaven’s angels join with the shepherds to sing his praises, and men of learning make their way to him with a star. For God eternal comes for all mankind as a newborn child. (Kondakion)
Merry Christmas!
The blessing of homes following the Theophany and Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (January 6) is a sacred and time-honored tradition of our Ukrainian Christian faith.
Please let Father Iura know if you want him to visit your home by giving him your name, address and phone number. He will schedule a time to visit.
Call Father Iura: 203-865-0388
Email Father Iura: stmichaels@snet.net
You are invited to attend the St. Nicholas Play to be held on Sunday, December 23, 2018, 12 noon, in the church hall.
We worship first, and the play follows the Divine Liturgy.
The Ukrainian Ridna Skhola (School) students will be performing at this traditional event. St. Nicholas will make a presentation for all the good children.
Please support the school and bring your children/grandchildren to this event. This is a great opportunity to learn an aspect of our Faith and share life in community. We also need an audience!
(Parents can bring gifts to the kitchen for distribution later by St. Nicholas. It’s a secret for the children.)
We are a small school presently, but we are still keeping traditions.
Christ is born!
Sunday, 12/23, Sunday of the Holy Fathers —Fore-feast of the Nativity of Christ
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 1:1-24, Tone 6
Monday, 12/24, The Holy Venerable Martyr Eugenia
Today is a day of abstinence (meat may not be eaten)
Tuesday, 12/25, The Nativity in the Flesh of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ
9:30 a.m. Great Compline (God with us)
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish
~Anointing – Myrovann
Wednesday, 12/26, Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ; Synaxis of the Most Holy Mother of God
9:00 a.m. +Bohdana Chermak (Pan) requested by Lubomyr Chermak
Thursday, 12/27, Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ; the Holy Apostle, First Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen
9:00 a.m. +Michael Docknevich (Pan.) requested by Martin Docknevich
Friday, 12/28, Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ; the Two Thousand Martyrs Burned in Nicomedia
Saturday, 12/29, Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ; The Holy Children, Who Were Murdered by Herod in Bethlehem
Sunday, 12/30, Commemoration of the Holy and Just Joseph, King David; James. Brother of the Lord according to the Flesh; Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ;
9:00 a.m. +Nicholas Krenta requested by Alicja Krenta
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish
Epistle: Galatians 1:11-19
Gospel: Matthew 2:13-23, Tone 7
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.
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).
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
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
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.
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)