Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Glory to Jesus Christ

Sunday, 2/27, Cheese-fare Sunday
9:00 a.m. God’s blessing of Ukraine requested by the parish
10:30 a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Romans 13:11-14:4
Gospel: Matthew 6:14-21, Tone 7

Monday, 2/28, Our Father Basil, confessor
9:00 a.m. No Divine Liturgy —First Day of Great Lent
6:00 p.m. Moleben to the Mother of God for Peace in Ukraine

Tuesday, 3/01, Our Venerable-martyr Eudoxia
9:00 a.m. +Myroslaw Trojan (6th Anniv., Pan.) requested by Maria Lobay
6:00 p.m. Moleben to the Mother of God for Peace in Ukraine

Wednesday, 3/02, Holy Hieromartyr Theodotus
9:00 a.m. No scheduled intention for the Divine Liturgy
6:00 p.m. Moleben to the Mother of God for Peace in Ukraine

Thursday, 3/03, Martyrs Eutropius and Cleonicus
9:00 a.m. +Ivan Lobay (6th Anniv., Pan) requested by Maria Lobay
6:00 p.m. Moleben to the Mother of God for Peace in Ukraine

Friday, 3/04, Our Venerable Gerasimus
6:00 p.m. Moleben to the Mother of God for Peace in Ukraine

Saturday, 3/05, Holy Martyr Conon
9:00 a.m. No scheduled intention for the Divine Liturgy

Sunday, 3/06, 1st Sunday of Lent
9:00 a.m. God’s blessings for Ukraine
10:30a.m. For the people of the parish

Epistle: Hebrews 11:24-26, 32-12:2
Gospel: John 1:43-51, Tone 8

Parish announcements

Christ is among us!

This week vigil light is offered by Family in memory of all members of Waselik family.

The Great Fast/Lent begins Sunday evening with Forgiveness Vespers, or Monday when we begin with prayer and fasting.

Our Church, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church traditionally prescribes abstention from meat and dairy products for the entire duration of the Great Fast and Holy Week and this rule is still kept in monasteries. The following are the minimal Lenten regulations today, but the lay faithful are encouraged to live according to this historic rule of abstention as much as they can physically and spiritually. Hence, you are invited to follow the tradition as you are physically able given your age and health and work situation.

First Day of the Great Fast (Clean Monday) – Abstention from meat and dairy and foods that contain these ingredients is obligatory. Fasting is obligatory.

First Week of the Great Fast – Abstention from meat and foods that contain these ingredients is obligatory. Abstention from dairy and foods that contain these ingredients is encouraged.

Wednesdays and Fridays of the Great Fast – Abstention from meat and foods that contain these ingredients is obligatory. Abstention from dairy and foods that contain these ingredients is encouraged. Abstention from meat and dairy and foods that contain these ingredients is encouraged on Mondays during Lent as well.

Fasting regulations of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church —Definitions

Abstinence means that we do not eat a certain type of food or any other foods that have that as an ingredient.

Fasting means that we eat fewer food items. A general rule is that for a day of fast, we eat no more than one full meal and two smaller meals (snacks) that put together do not equal a full meal.

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, etc. Meat gravy or soup made from meat is included in this prohibition.

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Donating to help people in Ukraine

You can donate on the Philadelphia Archdiocese’s website www.ukrarcheparchy.us, and click on Donate through PAYPAL and select “WAR VICTIMS AND HUMANITARIAN CRISIS IN UKRAINE”.

Write a check to the “Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia” and send it to the office at 810 North Franklin Street, Philadelphia PA 19123. Please write on the check “Humanitarian Aid Fund for Ukraine”.

There are no small or large donations. But your donation can change someone’s life for the better. The Lord God will repay the happy donor a hundredfold. Pray for the people of the war victims! May the Lord bless you and our brothers and sisters in Ukraine!

Let us keep each other in prayer as well as Ukraine.

Great Lent 2022 begins

Great Lent, or the Great Fast, begins tonight with Forgiveness Vespers. What is Forgiveness Vespers? It is the praying of the psalms and other Scripture passages assigned for the evening before Lent at the conclusion everybody asks to be forgiven by God and the community and often with the anointing with holy oil at the conclusion.

As Eastern Christians, we do not initiate this important penitential season preparing for Holy Pascha with the blessing and imposition of ashes on the forehead as done in the Latin Catholic Church. Many Eastern Catholic parishes will chant the 3rd part of the Great Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete with prostrations for the first week of Lent and then on Wednesdays a prayer service offered to the Mother of God.

On Fridays during Great Lent at 7:00 p.m. we will pray the Liturgy of the Pre-sanctified Gifts which is a vespers service with the reception of Holy Communion that was consecrated at a previous Divine Liturgy.

Our pre-Lent period included Meat-fare and Cheese-fare Sundays when the Church like a good mother and teacher eases her children into preparing for Lent by saying good-by first meat and the cheese in the diet. Thus, we begin fasting, which is what we call abstaining, from meat and dairy, having begun abstaining for meat a week prior.

Community gathered today in support of Ukraine

The community gathered in the church hall to support Ukraine in her current suffering. Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians alike. The rally started with praying Psalm 31 and concluded with a prayer offered by Fr Iura Godenciuc.

We we were honored by the Senator Richard Blumenthal, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Governor Ned Lamont and Mayor Justin Elicker.

Praying Psalm 31 for Ukraine

The Chief Rabbi of Ukraine has asked for Christians to recite Psalm 31 aloud.

Psalm 31:21-24

21 Praise be to the Lord,
for he showed me the wonders of his love
when I was in a city under siege.
22 In my alarm I said,
“I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help.
23 Love the Lord, all his faithful people!
The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
but the proud he repays in full.
24 Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the Lord.

Rallies in Connecticut today

Hartford, CT -Ukrainian National Home of Hartford, 961 Wethersfield Avenue, Hartford, CT -1:00pm

New Haven, CT -St Michael Ukrainian Catholic church hall, 569 George Street, New Haven, CT -11:30am

New Haven, CT -Yale Ukrainian Student Club-Sterling Memorial Library High Street, New Haven, CT -2:00pm

Good-by to cheese brings new life at Pascha!

This weekend we are even closer to the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is not found because we give up meat and cheese and follow the prescriptions of the Great Fast like a robot. No, we enter into the Kingdom of God as a result of our being in good relationship with God and our neighbor. Recall Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness, unity, the Our Father, Prodigal Son, and more.

We say good-by to cheese for a period of time to open our hearts and minds and bodies to what the Lord wants to give us: new life. Eating cheese is like eating death in that we eat milk transformed into something new, exciting, robots for the whole of the body, mind and soul. But the Christian is asked to make a 40 day sacrifice of dairy products like cheese so that we can prepare ourselves for glory. God wants us to be a new creation in Him. And sin prevents us from this fact. Corporate sin and personal sin.

Reflecting on the place of forgiveness for the Christian, St Silouan the Athonite tells us that “We have such a law: If you forgive, it means that God has forgiven you; but if you do not forgive your brother, it means that your sin remains with you.”

Below please find link for all the resources prepared for you for the Sunday of Cheese-Fare (also known as the Sunday of Forgiveness!). Listen especially to the Gospel reflection.

Included among this week’s resources is “Great Lent at Home,” with reflections and activities for every day of the Great Fast, beginning with “Clean Monday,” the day following Cheese-Fare Sunday. We hope you will find it helpful as we journey together towards Pascha!

The Sunday of Cheese-Fare