Ukrainian National Association Branch 414 to meet
The Annual Meeting of the Ukrainian National Association Branch 414 will be held on Sunday, February 25, 2018, at 12:00 noon in St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church Hall.
All members are invited to attend in order to elect a delegate to attend the convention in May of 2018.
The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution, Book Talk with Marci Shore
The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution, Book Talk with Marci Shore
Friday, February 16, 2018 – 12:30pm
The presentation and discussion will take place at Henry R. Luce Hall (LUCE), room 202, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511
Discussion with author Marci Shore, associate professor of History at Yale University.
While the world watched the uprising in Ukraine during the winter of 2013-14 as an episode in geopolitics, the author contends, those in that country lived the revolution as an existential transformation: the blurring of night and day, the loss of a sense of time, the sudden disappearance of fear, the imperative to make choices.
In this book, Marci Shore evokes the human face of the Ukrainian Revolution. Grounded in the true stories of activists and soldiers, parents and children, Shore blends a narrative of choices with a historian’s reflections on what revolution is and what it means. She sets her portraits of individual revolutionaries against the past as they understand it — and the future as they hope to make it. In so doing, she strives to provide a lesson about human solidarity in a world where the boundary between reality and fiction is ever more effaced.
Marci Shore, associate professor of History at Yale University. A brief biography of Dr. Shore may be found here.
Wednesday of the First Week
For our prayer today…
Matins:
By fasting let us subdue the passions of our mind, and let us put on the wings of the spirit, so that overcoming the tempest raised by the enemy, we may be worthy to adore the Cross of the Son of God. He willed to be sacrificed for the world and we now spiritually keep the feast of his Resurrection from the dead. Let us ascend the mountain with the apostles to glorify the Son of the Father who loves all of us, and to whom all power is now given.
Vespers:
O faithful, while fasting bodily, let us also fast in spirit. Let us loosen every bond of injustice; let us tear apart the strong chains of violence; let us rip up all unjust assertions; let us give bread to the hungry and welcome the poor and homeless to our houses, that we may receive from Christ our God his great mercy.
Reflection:
I listened to this sticheron and was moved deeply in soul. It is a condemnation of me, for the fast really is about justice and charity toward one another. Who, indeed, rises to these challenges? Do we just sing this in our churches without effect? Does it really change our lives. God created a paradise for us and invites us back if only we are not deaf to his words.
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras
Spiritual Reading for Lent 2018
We are at the beginning the season of Great Lent. May I commend to you these titles for your spiritual reading and meditation (listed in no particular order):
Alexander Schmemann, Great Lent
Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross
Flannery O’Connor, A Prayer Journal
John Behr, Becoming Human
Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God
Jean-Pierre de Caussade, The Sacrament of the Present Moment
Frederica Mathewes-Green, The Illumined Heart
Frank Sheed, Theology for Beginners
Peter Kreeft, Your Questions, God’s Answers
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Pope Benedict XVI, Holy Days: Meditations on the Feasts, Fasts, and Other Solemnities of the Church
Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem To The Resurrection
Which books would you recommend for Lent?
Beginning Lent, again…
Archpriest David Petras reviews some hallmarks of the liturgical observance and prayer.In the Great Fast, the days follow the more ancient system of the Roman Empire, running from midnight to midnight. In the oldest stratum of the Proper texts for the Great Fast, there is a “samohlasen,” (Slavonic term) or “idiomelon” (Greek term) for the morning service (Orthros/Matins) and for the evening service (Vespers) that gives the keynote for each day of the Fast. These hymns are sung twice, usually at the apostichera, to accent their importance.
Cheesefare Sunday:
Matins:
Behold, this is the time of spiritual struggle and the victory over demons. The armor of temperance is the splendor of the angels and the assurance of closeness to God. By it Moses became a confidant of the Creator, and was able to hear his voice in invisible revelations. By it, grant us also in your goodness, O Lord to adore your Passion and your holy Resurrection.
Vespers:
The light of your grace has shone upon our souls, O Lord. Behold, this is the favorable time, the season of conversion. Let us turn away from the works of darkness, and let us clothe ourselves with the armor of light, so that, crossing the ocean of the Fast, we may come to the harbor of the Resurrection on the third day with our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of our souls.
Monday of the First Week:
Matins:
The holy Fast has arrived; it denounces sin and defends repentance. It is the time of temperance. It brings salvation close to us, and makes us share the life of angels. O faithful, let us cry out with full voice: Lord have mercy on us.
Vespers:
Let us offer a fast acceptable to the Lord, for the true fast is the estrangement from sin: no more idle chatter, no more wrath; no more evil desires, no insults; no more lying, no false oaths. If we abstain from all this, we shall keep a fast that is indeed acceptable to the Lord.
Divine Liturgy for the coming week
Glory to Jesus Christ
Sunday, 2/11/18 Sunday of the Cheesefare —The Holy Priest-Martyr Blaise, Bishop of Sebastea
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish
10:30 a.m. +Dario Aponte requests by the Czabala and Aponte Families
Epistle: Romans 13:11-14:4
Gospel: Matthew 6:14-21, Tone 3
Monday, 2/12/18 Our Holy Father Meletius, Archbishop of Antioch
All weekdays of Lent are aliturgical. On Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is to be celebrated (See Dolnytskyj Typikon p. 349).
Today is a day of abstinence from both meat and dairy products.
Tuesday, 2/13/18 Our Venerable Father Martinian
Wednesday, 2/14/18 The Repose of Our Venerable Father Constantine the Philosopher, in the Monastic Life, Cyril, Teacher of the Slavs
Thursday, 2/15/18 The Holy Apostle Onesimus
Friday, 2/16/18 The Holy Martyrs Pamphilius the Priest and Porphyrius and Companions
Saturday, 2/17/18 Commemoration of the Miracle the Great Martyr Theodor the Recruit
9:00 a.m. +Anna Lipcan (9th Anniv., Pan) requested by Patrick and Barbara Bagley
Sunday, 2/18/18 First Sunday of Lent —The Sunday of Orthodoxy —Our Holy Father Leo, Pope of Rome
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish
10:30 a.m. +Ivan Kyzyk (100 years from birth) requested by the Kyzyk Family
Epistle: Hebrews 11:24-26; 32-12-2
Gospel: John 1:43-51, Tone 4
Parish announcements this week
Christ is among us!
This week vigil light is offered to God’s glory by Barbara and Patrick Bagley in memory of +Anna Lipcan.
Dear parishioners and guests, after each Divine Liturgy, coffee and hard rolls are available in the church hall.
The Rectory Office will be closed from Monday, February 12, 2018 until Friday, February 16, 2018. Father Iura will be in New York State for Clergy Days.
Sorokousty (All Souls’ Remembrance) will be celebrated on Sunday after All Souls Saturdays: February 25, March 4 and 11, and May 19. Please take a book found in the entrance of the church, fill it out, place it in envelope and drop it in the collection basket. Let us remember all our loved ones who have gone to their heavenly reward. Eternal Memory!
Great Lent
By the threefold discipline of fasting, prayer and almsgiving the Church keeps the Great Fast/Lent from Monday, February 12, after the Cheesefare Sunday (February 11) to the day before Easter, Holy Saturday, March 31. The following regulations apply, in general to all Ukrainian Catholics of the Stamford Eparchy between ages 21 to 60: Abstinence from meat and dairy products on the first day of the Great Fast, February 12, and Good Friday, March 30. The following regulations apply, in general, to all Ukrainians Catholics of the Stamford Eparchy between ages 14 to 60: Abstinence from meat is to be observed on all Fridays of the Great Fast. Abstinence from meat is suggested and encouraged on all Wednesdays of the Great Fast. The following are exempt from abstinence: 1. The poor who live on alms; 2. The sick and the frail; 3. Convalescents who are returning to their strength; 4. Pregnant women, and women who are nursing their children; and 5. Persons who perform hard labor. Meat is to be understood as including not only the flesh, but also those parts of warm-blooded animals that cannot be rendered, i. e., melted down, e.g., the liver, lungs, blood, etc. meat gravy or soup made from meat is included in this prohibition. Dairy products are to be understood as comprising products derived from mammals and birds, but not regarded as meat, e. g., cheese, lard, butter, milk, eggs, etc. Eucharistic Fast: A fast of one hour from food (prior to service begging time) should be kept by those receiving the Eucharist at the evening celebration of the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, as well as, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and St. Basil the Great.
Great Lent approaching
Friday of Cheesefare Week
One of the images for the Great Fast is that of a journey. Since the Fast lasts 40 days, the 40 year journey of the Israelites through the desert to the Promised Land is a particularly powerful image. The Israelites were fed on manna in the desert, but in our journey we are fed by the Body of Christ in the Presanctified Liturgy. Jesus said: “I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world” (John 6:48-51).
The readings from Zechariah tell us of another journey: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am going to rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun. I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem … Many peoples and strong nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to implore the favor of the Lord” (Zechariah 8:7-8.22). Jerusalem is our goal. There our Lord died and there he gave us life. Our Lord said, “Yet I must continue on my way today, tomorrow, and the following day, for it is impossible that a prophet should die outside of Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33).
We are invited to follow him in our hearts to the heavenly Jerusalem where all glory will be fulfilled.
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras