Bernadette Gawron Aitro, died suddenly on Saturday, December 28th, 2019. She was 56 years old.
The Funeral Liturgy with panachyda will be celebrated on Saturday, January 4th, 2020 at 11:00 a.m.
Reception to follow at Mrs. Jeanne Arsenault’s home, 15 Carriage Dr., Woodbridge, CT 06525.
An obituary will be published on Thursday in the Register.
Please remember her in your prayers.
Eternal memory.
Be informed about the Greek Liturgy we pray each Sunday.
The introduction is given by Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, Eparch of New Westminster for Ukrainian Catholics in British Columbia.
The video is worth the time watching.
Today we the Church “celebrate the memory of three particular saints who are closely related to our Lord, David the King, Joseph the Betrothed, and James the Brother of the Lord.
The prophet and King David is the source of the royal line of the Hebrews from which both the Virgin Mary and the righteous Joseph were descended. Because of this lineage, Jesus Christ could properly be called, “King of the Jews” for in the flesh, He is of royal lineage. Of course, because He is also God, the maker and ruler of all creation and was therefore not only King of the Jews but King of all that is.
James, the Brother of the Lord, was the first bishop of the Church in Jerusalem. He presided over the first apostolic council and was finally martyred for his confession of Jesus Christ.
Joseph, the betrothed of the Virgin Mary, was chosen by God to be the guardian of Jesus Christ and his holy Mother, a task which he performed with great humility and diligence.
(St Nicholas parish, Victoria)
Christ is born!
Sunday, 12/29, Sunday after Christmas —Commemoration of the Holy and Just Joseph, King David; James, Brother of the Lord according to the Flesh
9:00 a.m. +Michael Waselik (18th Anniv.) requested by Family
10:30 a.m. For our parishioners
Epistle: Galatians 1:11-19
Matthew 2:13-23, Tone 4
Note: No fasting on Wednesdays and Fridays until the Leave-taking of Holy Theophany (January 14, 2020).
Monday, 12/30, Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ; The Holy Martyr Anysia
9:00 a.m. +Nicholas Krenta (Pan. ) requested by Alicja Krenta
Tuesday, 12/31, The Leave-taking of the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, Christmas; Our Venerable Mother Melania the Roman
9:00 a.m. +Michael Lipcan Sr. (10th Anniv.,Pan) requested by Barbara and Patrick Bagley
Wednesday, 1/01, The Circumcision of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ; Our Father Among the Saints Basil the Great —New Year’s Day 2020
9:45 a.m. Lytija and the Blessing of Bread
10:00 a.m. 10:30 a.m. For our parishioners
Anointing * Myrovann
Thursday, 1/02, Fore-feast of Theophany; Our Holy Father Sylvester
9:00 a.m. +Teodor, Olena, Teodor, Pelahia, Teodozia, Nadia requested by Stefania Tisaridis
Friday, 1/03, Fore-feast of Theophany; The Holy Prophet Malachi
9:00 a.m. Special Intention requested by Stefania Tisaridis
Saturday, 1/04, Fore-feast of Theophany; The Synaxis of the Seventy Holy Apostles
9:00 a.m. +Paraskevia Paluha requested by Jaroslaw Paluha
Sunday, 1/05, Sunday before Theophany —The Holy Martyr Theopemptus and Theonas
9:00 a.m. +Orest Dubno requested by Paul Paluha
10:30 a.m. For our parishioners
Epistle: 2 Timothy 4:5-8
Gospel: Mark 1:1-8, Tone 5
Christ is born!
This week’s vigil light is offered to God’s glory by Barbara and Patrick Bagley in memory of Michael Lipcan, Sr.
The Ukrainian Ridna Shkola invites children young and old to its annual St. Nicholas pageant TODAY at 12:30 p.m. in St. Michael’s church hall, 569 George street, New Haven. Come greet St. Nicholas on the eve of the Christmas holidays. Refreshments and gifts for all. Meet our teachers and visit our classrooms during our open house.
Schedule for New Years, Epiphany and Christmas (Julian Calendar).
The next Financial Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, at 6:00 p.m. in the Veteran’s Meeting Room. All Financial Committee members and interested parishioners are invited.
The next meeting of Knights of Columbus Blessed Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Council will be held on Wednesday, January 8, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. in the Holy Name Room. All men of the parish are invited to attend.
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 19, after the only one (1) Divine Liturgy at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are $20.00 for adults, free for students Ridna Shkola and altar boys. We will be running a raffle. Please donate items for raffle and cakes for desert. You can buy tickets after each Divine Liturgy in the church hall or contact Anna Salemme 203-934-6520, or purchase tickets at SUMA credit Union.
Sorokousty —All Souls Saturdays will be celebrated on February 15th, March 7th, March 14th, March 21st, and May 30th. 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.
His Beatitude, Patriarch Sviatoslav is talking about a new liturgical calendar.
Read the article here.
[In the Byzantine Church today is the feast day for St. Stephen while in the Latin Church December 26 is the day on which Stephen is liturgically commemorated.]
On December 27, the Church remembers the martyrdom of the Holy Apostle, the first Deacon, and the first Martyr, Stephen. The Ambon Prayer for this feast begins, “O Christ our God, you accepted the weakness of our flesh and strengthened it against the spiritual enemy. By your life-giving death you gave it courage against death. Because of this your holy martyrs preferred to die for you rather than to live. You revealed the man named Stephen as the founder of the assembly of martyrs.”
St. Stephen was the first martyr (witness) to our Lord because he was Christ-like himself. Jesus said that he came “not to be served, but to serve,” and so Stephen became a servant (diakonos). When he was tried for his faith, the Acts of the Apostles (6:15) says, “All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” He was deified and made God-like through his faith. As they became to stone him, he had a vision of the coming of Christ, “filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (7:55),” and like Christ on the Cross, he forgave his persecutors, “‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them’; and when he said this, he fell asleep. (7:60)” Indeed, one of his persecutors, a man name Saul, would become one of the greatest apostles (8:1). How do Christians do that? How can they forgive people who hate them and take their lives? This cannot be done by human powers, but only by the grace of God. We can fulfill the meaning of Christmas, of a God who humbled himself for our sake, only by the power and love of God, only if we open our hearts to him entirely and submit to his will.
In virtually every rite of Christianity, the feast of St. Stephen’s martyrdom is immediately connected with Christmas. The faith and sacrifice of Stephen is the only proper response to the birth of the Son and Word of God as our Savior and Redeemer. In fact the feast of Christmas is surrounded by commemorations of martyrs:
Often we can take the designation ‘child of God’ as a metaphor, as a nice thought, but not something that reaches down to our very core. Yet the communion that Jesus invites us into is no metaphor, but a reality that changes our inner landscape. In Jesus, we become part of his risen body, sharing his inheritance as sons and daughters of God. (NS)
“Behold, Christ comes among his own. We are made his through grace and holy virtues. (Troparion)
On December 24, the Vigil of the Nativity is a day of abstinence
Wednesday, December 25, The Nativity of Our Lord and God Jesus Christ
We will pray at 9:45 a.m. The God with Us service followed at 10:30 a.m. The Divine Liturgy with the Anointing-Myrovann at the conclusion.
Join us in prayer on this great feast of our faith!
The Gospel this Sunday presents us with an abundance of names, all those who were the ancestors of Christ. By this we see that on this feast, the Son and Word of God becomes a part of the human family and a part of human history. In this Gospel Jesus is also given a name, the final verse tells us that the child will be known as Jesus – Savior. In verse 22, though, he is given the name “Immanuel,” “God with us.” This gives us the theological meaning of the feast, the incarnation signifies our deification.
We all have names, but for the ancients, names had meanings, they did not simply give us an identification tag, but told us something of who we were. In that sense, we do not name ourselves, but we are given a name, we are all “called by name” by God, and so we enter into the ancestry of Jesus. The names are the forefathers of Jesus, but also the foremothers are mentioned: Tamar, who bore a son by trickery of Judah; Ruth, the grandmother of David, who left her people to follow Naomi; the unnamed wife of David, Bathsheba, who David married by arranging for the death of Uriah. We see, then, that even trough questionable and evil actions, as well as by faithfulness, Jesus becomes “the son given to us.” The greatest of the woman in his genealogy is, of course, Mary, his mother, who by her obedience cancelled the curse of Eve, and united God with humanity in her womb.
Today, we celebrate the Son of Abraham, according to the Law, and the Son of David, the everlasting King, to whom even David bowed, and even the Son of exile, for we are all citizens of the spiritual, not the earthly, Jerusalem. Today we must be named as a follower of Christ.
Meditation by Archpriest David Petras
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