The way our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church celebrates Pascha tells us what we truly believe about Pascha. Some things are very obvious. For example, the eight days from Pascha to the Antipasch are celebrated with all the doors to the iconostasis … Continue reading
Category Archives: Getting to Know Something About Our Greek Catholic Faith
In order to truly enter into the joy of the great feast of Pascha, I believe that it is important to know something about this feast. In our Eastern Church the truly most appropriate name for this feast is Pascha. … Continue reading
The happenings of Great and Good Friday are proclaimed in our Church not only by word but also by dramatic action. It is one of the most beautiful services of our worship cycle. One of the prominent symbols of Good … Continue reading
In last week’s Bulletin I began sharing thoughts about the Prayer of Ephrem, which is THE Lenten Him of the Eastern Church. In the first verse of the prayer, we deal with the four negative “objects” of metanoia. They are … Continue reading
While the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is the preeminent liturgical service of our Church, the Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian is the preeminent personal, lenten prayer of our Church. Our Church encourages all members to say it each … Continue reading
As I shared in the last issue of this article, one of the general, liturgical principles of our Church is that the celebration of the Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy, is incompatible with fasting. The Divine Liturgy is not penitential in … Continue reading
It is a long-held Eastern tradition that the Divine Liturgy is not celebrated during the weekdays of the Great Fast. Why? Because the celebratory nature of the Divine Liturgy conflicts with the idea of fasting. However the Church, in order … Continue reading
Although I believe that all of my readers already have some idea about how the Eastern Church observes the Great Fast, I would repeat some traditional suggestions. Recommended Minimal Effort On the first day of Lent (February 8) and Good … Continue reading
In trying to understand the differences between our Greek-Catholicism and Roman Catholicism, I suggested that we first look at the Reformation in order to understand why Western Christianity, and Roman Catholicism, have the approaches to religion that they do. The … Continue reading
In the last issue of this article I began a series of thoughts about the differences between Eastern and Western Christianity by first looking at one of the major influences on Western Christianity, the Reformation. The Reformation did not directly … Continue reading