May the Lord grant Patriarch Sviatoslav many blessed years. His 48th birthday is today.
Divine Liturgy for the coming week
Christ is risen!
Sunday, 5/06/18 Sixth Sunday of Easter —Sunday of the Man Born Blind
9:00 +David Schwartz (1st Anniv.,) requested by Barbara Schwartz
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish
Epistle: Acts 16:16-34
Gospel: John 9:1-38, Tone 5
Monday, 5/07/18 Holy Martyr Acacius
Tuesday, 5/08/18 Holy Apostle and Evangelization John the Beloved Disciples (the Theologian)
Wednesday, 5/09/18 Holy Apostle Simeon the Zealot
Thursday, 5/10/18 Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish
7:00 p.m. +Pauline Kurylo (40 days, Pan.) requested by Margaret and Stuart Maybury
Friday, 5/11/18 Cyril and Methodius Apostles to the Slavs
Saturday, 5/12/18 Holy Epiphanius and Germanus
9:00 a.m. +Yaroslava Kalynec (40 days, Pan.) requested by the Sokhan Family
Sunday, 5/13/18 Seventh Sunday of Easter —Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council
8:30 a.m. Moleben to the Mother of God
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish
Epistle: Acts. 20:16-18; 28-38
Gospel: John 17:1-13, Tone 6
Parish announcements this week
Christ is risen!
WELCOME NEW PARISHIONERS! New parishioners are always welcomed in our parish. If someone wants to register with our parish please contact Fathe Iura Godenciuc at (203) 865-0388 or our financial secretary Natalia Chermak.
AFTER DIVINE LITURGY: 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 given to God’s glory and is offered by Stuart and Margaret Maybury in memory of Helen Brezicki.
ASLEEP IN THE LORD: Please remember +Peter Struck in your prayers. ETERNAL MEMORY!
Our next Pyrohy Project Saturday will be May 19. Please place an order, and come and help. We have great fun. Let others know about our delicious Pyrohy. Call your order in by Tusday: Larissa Swartwout (203) 248-9767; Anna Smigelski (860) 302-2176; Anya Rohmer-Hanson (475) 655-2141.
You may also email your pyrohy (pierogi) order: orderpyrohynh@gmail.com
***please include your name, phone number and quantity of pyrohy (pierogi).More information can be read here: https://stmichaelukrainian.org/pierogies/
We have frozen pyrohy for sale while supplies last.
KOVBASA: The Knights of Columbus Parish Council will be making Fresh ¾ kovbasa and fried with 1 (one) pound of fresh cooked cabbage with a vegetable mix. A good meal for two people. The meals will cost $10.00. Please preorder to ensure that we make enough for everyone. Please call (203) 789-9554 only and leave a message with your order.
MOTHER’S DAY BREAKFAST: The parish Traditional Mother`s Day Breakfast will be held on May 13 after the 9:00 a.m. Divine Liturgy (note: only one (1) Divine Liturgy) in our church hall. All women of our parish are invited. The breakfast is hosted, sponsored and served by the Knights of Columbus parish council. We look forward to seeing you.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: The Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will hold its next regular meeting on Monday, May 7, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. in the Church Hall. All men of parish are invited to attend to see what the Knights are all about and what they do and what you can do with them for your parish.
May prayer intention of Pope Francis
The May prayer intention of the Pope reads:
“That the lay faithful may fulfill their specific mission, by responding with creativity to the challenges that face the world today.”
Join in prayer with Pope Francis and many others around the world for this intention.
The Samaritan Woman
The theme of baptism continues in this Sunday’s Gospel, re-affirming that Pascha is a feast of resurrection and of baptism, being born into eternal life. The center of Jesus’ conversation with this unnamed woman (the Church later gave her the name Photine, the “enlightened woman”) is about water. They met at Jacob’s well, a place of great tradition, a sign and a promise of God’s love and mercy for his people. Jacob’s well provided the riches of water to a desert place, the sign that God would always provide for and bless his people. However, the encounter with the woman reveals something more: Jesus is the Messiah to come, he is greater than the Patriarch Jacob. The water of Jacob’s well is only for this world, Jesus would give “the water that would become a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). This clearly refers to our baptisms, as it comes immediately after the comparison of Jesus with John the Baptist, and the baptisms done by Jesus’ disciples. We renew our baptism every time we receive Communion, and they are for life, for eternal life, from God, the giver of life.
A couple of observations: as for Nathaniel, Jesus signs his ministry with intimate knowledge of the people he meets. He sees Nathaniel under the fig tree, and he tells the woman about her five husbands. In both cases, they become his disciple because of his knowledge of him. This is a theme of John’s Gospel, the shepherd knows his sheep and his sheep know him. Second, it should be to our wonder that Jesus always comes to the most underprivileged. To whom does he reveal the mystery of eternal life in baptism: to the paralytic who had no friends, to the woman who had led a shameful life, and came to the well at noon who no one else would be there, and to the blind man suspected of sin because of his blindness. And the disciples marvel that Jesus speaks to a woman! Not just any woman, but a heretical, decadent Samaritan woman! Are we humble enough to accept Jesus as our Messiah?
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras
Divine Liturgy for Deceased UNA-414 members
On Sunday, April 29, the 10:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy will be offered for the deceased members of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) Branch 414.
We gather to pray to God for these, our friends, and their eternal memory.
Join in prayer.
The Ukrainian National Association (UNA) was started in 1894 in Shamokin, PA, by a Ukrainian Catholic priest as a fraternal benefit society responding to a familial and societal crisis as many Ukrainian men were dying in the coal mines leaving women with children destitute. As a fraternal organization it was established to help families bury the dead and to provide basic income for the family. Today, the UNA is present in 16 states with a portfolio of modern financial products including permanent and term life insurance, annuities, IRAs and financial planning.
The UNA publishes two weekly newspapers —the Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly. There is also the The Ukrainian National Foundation, Inc. (UNF), to support youth and senior citizen initiatives which promote artistic and cultural exchanges (including Soyuzivka Heritage Center). More information may be read here: http://ukrainiannationalassociation.org
Divine Liturgy for the coming week
Christ is risen!
Sunday, 4/22/18 Fourth Sunday of Easter — Sunday of the Paralytic
9:00 a.m. Special Intention
10:30 a.m. For people of the parish
Epistle: Acts . 9:32-42
Gospel: John 5:1-15, Tone 3
Monday, 4/23/18 The Holy and Glorious Great Martyr, Victory-bearer and Wonderworker George
Tuesday, 4/24/18 The Holy Martyr Sabbas Stratelates
Wednesday, 4/25/18 The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Mark
Thursday, 4/26/18 The Holy Priest-Martyr Basil, Bishop of Amasia
Friday, 4/27/18 The Holy Priest-Martyr Simeon, Relative of Lord, Our Venerable Father Stephen, Bishop of Volodymyr in Volhynia
Saturday, 4/28/18 The Holy Apostles Jason and Sosipater; The Holy Martyrs Dadas, Maximus and Quintilianus (286-305); Our Father among the Saints Cyril, Bishop of Turau
Sunday, 4/29/18 Fifth Sunday of Easter —Sunday of the Samaritan Woman
9:00 a.m. For people of the parish
10:30 a.m. All deceased members of UNA Branch 414 requested by UNA branch 414
Epistle: Acts. 11:19-26, 29-30
Gospel: John 4:5-42, Tone 4
Parish announcements this week
Christ is risen!
AFTER DIVINE LITURGY: 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 family in memory of +Frances Dmyterko.
Ukrainian Women`s League of America-New Haven #108 is hosting a book review by Fr. Bohdan Prach, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Fr. Prach will provide a Ukrainian –language presentation of his new book “The Clergy of the Peremyshl Eparchy and the Apostolic Administration of Lemkivshchyna” on Tuesday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m. in St. Michael’s church hall, 569 George St., New Haven.
KOVBASA: The Knights of Columbus Parish Council made fresh ¾ Kovbasa and fried with 1 (one) pound of fresh cooked cabbage with a vegetable mix. They were made on April 21. A good meal for two people. These meals are available today. The meals will cost $10.00.
MOTHER’S DAY BREAKFAST: The parish Traditional Mother’s Day Breakfast will be held on May 13, 2018 after the 9:00 Divine Liturgy (only one Divine Liturgy) in our church hall. All women of our parish are invited. The breakfast is hosted, sponsored and served by the Knights of Columbus Parish council. We look forward to seeing you.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS: The Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will hold its next regular meeting on Monday, May 7, at 7:00 p.m. in the Church Hall. All men of parish are invited to attend to see what the Knights are all about and what they do and what you can do with them for your parish.
Sunday of the Paralytic Man
There are six Sundays in the forty day celebration of the Resurrection (corresponding to the forty days until the Ascension as recorded in the Gospel of Luke). The first three Sundays have a gospel of the Resurrection and the second three a gospel with a baptismal theme. Sadly, in our day the baptismal theme of the Feast of Pascha has sometimes been eclipsed, But Paul’s Letter to the Romans makes that connection: “Or are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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 6:3-4)” This Sunday, we see this is the story of the Paralytic Man. He was without friends, paralyzed for thirty-eight years and unable to get into the pool when the angel touched the waters. However, he finds a friend in our Lord, who asks, “Do you want to be well?” This gospel affirms the sacramental mystery of baptism: it is not the water touched by an angel that cures the man, but the ultimate power of healing comes from the Lord, in the waters of baptism touched by the Holy Spirit sent by the Lord.
The Gospel of John is truly a proclamation of the Son of God who sends the Spirit. It also affirms the meaning of baptism, which is the rejection of evil and the commitment to Christ. “Do you want to be well?” Jesus asks, and then the healed man proclaims Jesus as his Healer. Some of the liturgical meaning is lost in some modern Bibles who relegate verse 4 about the angel touching the water to a footnote, as a passage not found in the earliest versions.
“O Christ, cure my soul as you once cured the paralytic man, for it is under the influence of evil and sin. Guide me that I may walk in your paths.” (Ode 5, Matins)
“From time to time an angel of the Lord came to stir up the waters of the pool of the Sheepgate. One man recovered his health, but now an infinite number are saved by Christ through baptism.” (Ode 4, Matins)
Who were the Myrrh-Bearing Women?
