Divine Liturgy for the coming week

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

Parish announcements this week

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).

    • New Year’s Day: 10:00 a.m. The Divine Liturgy
    • Holy Theophany of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ—January 6: 9:15 a.m. Great Compline and at 10:00a.m. The Divine Liturgy; 11:00 a.m. Great Sanctification of Water
    • Christmas (Julian Calendar) —January 7: 9:45a.m. Great Compline and 10:30 a.m. The Divine Liturgy

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.

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The Martyrdom of St. Stephen, deacon

[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:

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Does God really change you?

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)

Our Christmas schedule 2019

“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 Sunday Before Christmas: The Genealogy of Jesus

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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Divine Liturgy for the coming week

Christ is Born!

Sunday, 12/22, Sunday before Christmas —Sunday of the Holy Fathers
9:00 a.m. +Ivan and Martha Kootz requested by Kateryna Szymkiw
10:30 a.m. For our parishioners

Epistle: Hebrews 11:9-10; 17-23; 32-40
Gospel: Matthew 1:1-25, Tone 3

Monday, 12/23, Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ; the Holy Ten Martyrs of Crete
9:00 a.m. Friends and Benefactors of St. Gianna Center requested by Paul Zalonski

Tuesday, 12/24, The Holy Venerable Martyr Eugenia
9:00 a.m. +Stefan Pospolita requested by Olga Pospolita

Vigil of the Nativity (Today is a day of abstinence)

Wednesday, 12/25, The Nativity of Our Lord and God Jesus Christ
9:45 a.m. The God with Us service
10:30 a.m. For our parishioners
Anointing-Myrovann

Thursday, 12/26, Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ; Synaxis of the Most Holy Mother of God
9:00 a.m. +Vira Walnycky (1st Anniv., Pan.) requested by Walnycky Family

Friday, 12/27, Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ; the Holy Apostle, First Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen
9:00 a.m. God’s blessing and health for Carolina Anamaria requested by Ana Lupsac

Saturday, 12/28, Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ; the Two Thousand Martyrs Who Were Burned in Nicomedia
9:00 a.m. +Michael Docknevich (Pan.) requested by Martin Docknevich

Sunday, 12/29, Commemoration of the Holy and Just Joseph, King David; James, Brother of the Lord according to the Flesh; Post-feast of the Nativity of Christ; The Holy Children, Who Were Murdered by Herod in Bethlehem
9:00 a.m. +Michael Waselik (18 Anniv.) requested by the Family
10:30 a.m. For our parishioners

Epistle: Galatians 1:11-19
Gospel: Matthew 2:13-23, Tone 4

Parish announcements this week

Christ is Born!

This week’s vigil light is offered to God’s glory by Halia Lodynsky and family in memory of Stefan Jurchak.

Schedule for New Years, Epiphany and Christmas (Julian Calendar).

  • New Year’s Day: 10:00 a.m. The Divine Liturgy
  • Holy Theophany of Our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ—January 6: 9:15 a.m. Great Compline and at 10:00a.m. The Divine Liturgy; 11:00 a.m. Great Sanctification of Water 
  • Christmas (Julian Calendar) —January 7: 9:45a.m. Great Compline and 10:30 a.m. The Divine Liturgy

Merry Christmas to all of our parishioners. May the blessings of the Christ Child be upon you and your families this Christmas and throughout the New Year!

With the upcoming Holidays of Christmas, New Year and Epiphany our best wishes to our bishop His Excellency Paul Chomnycky our Parishioners, Trustees, Choir Director and members of the church choir, Altar Boys, Knights of Columbus members, Sestretsi members, all Ukrainian and American Organizations in our parish, all benefactors and members of our parish that every day donate their time, work and money for good of our Church.

May the new born Jesus Christ bless our Parish.
Fr. Iura Godenciuc and Family

All donations and contributions must be received by Wednesday, December 25th to be recorded on the annual statement for the year 2019.

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 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.

The Ukrainian Ridna Shkola invites children young and old to its annual St. Nicholas pageant on Sunday, December 29th 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.

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