Allan Yursha falls asleep in the Lord

Allan Yursha, 82, of Wallingford, died peacefully at home March 4, 2018. He was the beloved husband of Mary Ann (Herceg) Yursha.

He was born in McAdoo, PA, July 23, 1935, a son of the late William and Mary (Suhena) Yursha and was a U.S. Air Force Korean War Veteran. He worked as a design draftsman at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft until his retirement in 1992 and then worked at the Wallingford Public Library until 2001. He was an active member of St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church in New Haven where he served as Past Treasurer and as Past President of St. Michael’s Holy Name Society. He was awarded the Papal recognition in 2005.

In addition to his wife Mary Ann, he is survived by his three daughters, and sons-in-law, Ann E. and Paul Lehr, Mary L. Johnston and Hans Hanson, and Juliann M. and Neil Bukowski; his three grandchildren, Jessica M. Sanchez (David), Neil “Rob” Bukowski (Mariah Franco), and Alexis S. Bukowski; his great granddaughter, Delanney Luz Sanchez; Bernandine Elko; his sister-in-law, Betty Jane Yursha; and many nieces and nephews.  He was predeceased by his siblings, Vladimir Yursha, Eugene Yursha, and Dorothy Yursha. Allan loved his family very much and his family always came first.

His family will receive relatives and friends in The Wallingford Funeral Home, 809 N. Main Street Ext., Wallingford, on Friday, March 9, from 4 to 7 p.m. The Panahyda service of prayer will be at 6:00 p.m. at the Funeral Home.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Saturday at 10 a.m. directly at St. Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church, 569 George St., New Haven. Interment will be private in the State Veterans’ Cemetery in Middletown. In lieu of flowers, gifts in his memory may be sent to Masonicare Hospice, 33 N. Plains Industrial Rd., Wallingford, CT 06492.

Third Sunday of the Great Fast

The first half of the Great Fast tells us the stories of Adam and Eve and their children, and the flood of Noah. It is a story of the creation of a perfect world and how that has been marred by human sin. It tells of the end of paradise, “The Lord God therefore banished him from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he had been taken. He expelled the man, stationing the cherubim and the fiery revolving sword east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:23-24).

Today, however, begins a new story, and we sing, “No longer does the flaming sword guard the gates of Eden, for the tree of the cross has come to quench it wondrously. The sting of death and the victory of Hades have been driven out. For you, O my Savior, stood and called out to those in Hades: Enter again into paradise.”

The tree of life, which Adam and Eve attempted to seize against the will of God, is the tree of the cross. And the fruit of this tree is the Body of Christ, which we receive in Holy Communion “for the forgiveness of sins and life everlasting.” We receive it together with his Holy Blood, “shed of the life of the world,” for today’s Gospel tells us, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34). Today we understand the words of our Lord,  “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you” (John 6:53).

The Romans crucified thousands of people, many of whom were innocent. Yet of all these people, only our Lord Jesus Christ is remembered. This is because it is not the method of torture, or the gruesome of his death that matters, but the infinite love that shone forth from his sacrifice on the cross. This is what is important for us, we may not have to die in such a painful or unjust way, but we do have to be united in the love that God shows forth on the cross. This is what it means “to take up the cross.” I personally think that for each and every one of us, it means denying for ourselves something that we crave very earnestly, a painful self-denial, if you will, for the sake of true deifying love for God and for others. This is why the cross, originally an instrument of torture and shame, has become for us the trophy of salvation. The joy of the Fast is that through God’s love we come to the fullness of life.

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Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Sunday, 3/04/18  Third Sunday of Lent — Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross
9:00 a.m.  +Mary Plaskonos (1st Anniv.) requested by the Family
10:00 a.m. All Souls Remembrance — Sorokousty
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Hebrews 4:14-5:6
Gospel: Mark 8:34-9:1, Tone 6

Monday, 3/05/18 The Holy Martyr Conon
9:00 a.m. +Helen Wasylyk requested by Sestrethi

Tuesday, 3/06/18 The Holy Forty Martyrs of Ammorium
9:00 a.m. God’s blessing and health for Mary Ann Yursha requested by Sestretsi

Wednesday,  3/07/18 The Holy Priest-Martyrs and Bishops of Cherson Basil, Ephrem, Capiton, Eugene, Etherius and companions; Passing into Eternal Life of Blessed Leonid Feodorov, Exarch of the Russian Catholic Church, and Martyr in 1935

Thursday, 3/08/18 Our Venerable Father and Confessor Theophylactus
9:00 a.m. +Catherine Levitzky (Pan.) requested by Joseph Levitzky

Friday, 3/09/18 The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
7:00 p.m. Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

Saturday, 3/10/18 The Holy Martyr Condratus and Those with Him

Sunday, 3/11/18 Fourth Sunday of Lent —Commemoration of Saint John of the Ladder (Climacus)
9:00 a.m. For the people of the parish
10:00 a.m. All Souls Remembrance — Sorokousty
10:30 a.m. +God’s blessing and health for Brandon and Andre requested by the Czabala family

Epistle: Hebrews 6:13-20
Gospel: Mark 9:17-31, Tone 7

Parish announcements this week

Christ is among us!

VIGIL LIGHT: This week vigil light is offered by Halya Lodynsky for God’s blessing and health for Stefan Yurchak.

SOROKOUSTY (All Souls): will be celebrated on every TODAY. The next All Soul’s Remembrance will March 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!

PYSANKA — Ukrainian Easter Egg Workshop will be held TODAY in the church hall from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. It is open to youth and adults, but children must be accompanied by an adult. Bring your children and grandchildren to learn their beautiful heritage. Free to parish youth and Ridna Shkola students. Sponsored by UNWLA branch 108, the Heritage Center and the CT Ukrainian-American Historical Society.

PARISH MISSION:  Mission in our parish will be on Sunday, March 18th and March 25th. Father Albert Forlano will be giving Mission in our parish. Father Albert is going to be in confessional half an hour before AND during both Divine Liturgies. For confession in Ukrainian language Father Stepan Yanovski will be in confessional each Sunday during Lent.

Father Bohdan Prach, Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, will be giving a Ukrainian-language presentation of his new book on April 20th in Stamford and on April 21st in New York. Father Prach will give a book presentation on The Clergy of the Peremyshl Eparchy and the Apostolic Administration of Lemkivshchyna.

Christ Our Pascha, the Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, is now available online in English, http://catechism.royaldoors.net

By the threefold discipline of fasting, prayer and almsgiving the Church keeps the Great Fast/Lent from Monday, February 12, after the Cheesefare Sunday 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.

Prayer intention for March

The prayer intention for Pope Francis, March 2018

That the Church may appreciate the urgency of formation in spiritual discernment, both on the personal and communitarian levels.

Let us keep this intention in our morning offering, and our other daily prayers before the Lord.

The Flood and Baptism

One the key parts of the Great Fast is attending to Baptism. Do we realize the import of Baptism and its roots?

St. John Damascene lists eight baptisms:
1) the Flood, which was the eradication of sin;
2) the sea and the cloud, the baptism of Moses;
3) the baptism of the Law, in which every unclean person washed himself with water (Leviticus 14:8);
4) the baptism of John;
5) the baptism of our Lord;
6) the baptism of repentance and tears;
7) martyrdom, the baptism of blood;
8) the last baptism in hell, which is not saving, but which destroys the soul.

One common theme in all of this is that baptism is a fire, a death, a purification, as we say in the Creed, “I profess one baptism for the remission of sins.”

In this third week of the Great Fast, we remember the first of these, the flood. We are reminded that the Great Fast is a journey, but also a preparation for baptism. It is our weakness today that we do not evangelize people to come into the faith. We no longer see the connection between baptism and the passion and resurrection, as St. Paul did, and which is proclaimed in the Great Paschal Vigil, “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). Our goal in Pascha is to renew our baptisms, renouncing the evil of Satan and committing ourselves again to Christ, so that “We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. (Romans 6:6)”

The flood is a foretelling of the true baptism of our Lord. In both the power of sin is destroyed. The ark represents the loving providence of God; it represents the strength of his grace, working in our human weakness; it represents our faith that life is found in God’s creative wisdom. We must hear last Sunday’s reading, “we must attend all the more to what we have heard, so that we may not be carried away. For if the word announced through angels proved firm, and every transgression and disobedience received its just recompense, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:1-3)

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Third Week of the Great Fast

During this week, at Vespers, we read the story of the flood and the salvation of the righteous man Noah and his family. At first, this might seem to be the dark side of God, and on Friday, we heard: “When the Lord saw how great the wickedness of human beings was on earth, and how every desire that their heart conceived was always nothing but evil, the Lord regretted making human beings on the earth, and his heart was grieved. So the Lord said: I will wipe out from the earth the human beings I have created, and not only the human beings, but also the animals and the crawling things and the birds of the air, for I regret that I made them.” The story of the flood may have some historical basis, as a great flood in the Mediterranean basin in pre-history, but the story is iconic. (Noah could not have brought all the animal species on the ark.) The story tells us that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Christian faith has seen a positive image in the flood: it is the waters of baptism, which wipes out all sin (pride and rebellion against the divine plan) from the earth. It is these waters which carry us to salvation. On the third Friday, then, we hear: “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar. When the Lord smelled the sweet odor, the Lord said to himself: Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings, since the desires of the human heart are evil from youth; nor will I ever again strike down every living being, as I have done,” and on Tuesday of the fourth week, the day before Mid-lent, “This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” The Great Fast is the coming of the Redeemer.

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras

Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Sunday, 2/25/18  Second Sunday of Lent — Commemoration of St. Gregory Palamas

9:00 a.m. +Gregory Dubno requested by Luba Dubno
10:00 a.m. All Souls Remembrance — Sorokousty
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish; +Joseph Slipyj —Panachyda

Epistle: Hebrews 1:10-2:3
Gospel: Mark 2:1-12, Tone 5

Monday, 2/26/18 Our Holy Father Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza
9:00 a.m. +Myroslaw Trojan (Pan.) requested by Nadia Trojan

Tuesday, 2/27/18 Our Venerable Father and Confessor Procopius of Decapolitan
9:00 a.m.  God’s blessing and health for Viorica and Iuliu

Wednesday, 2/28/18 Our Venerable Father and Confessor Basil, Ascetical Companion of Procopius

Thursday, 3/01/18 The Holy Venerable-Martyr Eudocia
9:00 a.m. +Vira Kudla (40 days, Pan.) requested by Emilia Iwaniw

Friday, 3/02/18 The Holy Priest-Martyr Theodotus
7:00 p.m. Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts

Saturday, 3/03/18 The Holy Martyrs Eutropius and His Companions Cleonicus and Basiliscus
9:00 a.m. +Ivan and Halyna Lobay (Pan.) requested by Maria Lobay

Sunday, 3/04/18 Third Sunday of Lent —Veneration of the Holy Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ —Our Venerable Father Gerasimus of the Jordan

9:00 a.m.  +Helen Wasylyk requested by Sestrichi
10:00 a.m. All Souls Remembrance — Sorokousty
10:30 a.m.  For the people of the parish

Epistle: Hebrews 4:14-5:6
Gospel: Mark 8:34-9:1, Tone 6

Parish announcements this week

Christ is among us!

1. VIGIL LIGHT: This week vigil light is offered by Halya Lodynsky for God’s blessing and health for Stefan Yurchak.

2. AFTER DIVINE LITURGY: Dear parishioners and guests, after each Divine Liturgy, coffee and hard rolls are available in the church hall.

3. SOROKOUSTY (All Souls): will be celebrated on every TODAY. The next All Soul’s Remembrance will  March 4 and 11, 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!

4. The Annual Meeting of the Ukrainian National Association Br. 414 will be held on Sunday, February 25, 2018, at 12:00 noon in St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church Hall. All members are invited to attend in order to elect a delegate to attend the convention in May of 2018.

5. PYSANKA — Ukrainian Easter Egg Workshop will be held on Sunday, March 4, 2018 in the church hall from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. It is open to youth and adults, but children must be accompanied by an adult. Bring your children and grandchildren to learn their beautiful heritage. Free to parish youth and Ridna Shkola students. Sponsored by UNWLA branch 108, the Heritage Center and the CT Ukrainian-American Historical Society.

6. Replica of the Shroud of Turin will be displayed in St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in NYC until TODAY. Father Emilian Dorosh invites all faithful to take opportunity to venerate God by praying by the Shroud of Turin.

7. Living the Great Fast (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 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.

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