APPEAL OF UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS IN THE UNITED STATES FOR MEDITATION AND FASTING FOR UKRAINE

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APPEAL OF UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS IN THE UNITED STATES FOR
MEDITATION AND FASTING FOR UKRAINE

The bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine with Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk have asked their faithful to fast and to pray daily for various intentions, among them, for the President and elected officials of Ukraine, for the conversion of the aggressors, for the Ukrainian army, for those who protect citizens, for the souls of the deceased, and for unity and independence of Ukraine. Let us join them in holy prayer and fasting!

We, the Ukrainian Catholic Bishops of the United States call upon all of our clergy, religious and faithful to pray daily the special prayer for Ukraine provided with this appeal, and to devote precious time for quiet meditation and prayer for the intentions already cited by the bishops of Ukraine. Fast by pausing from our daily activities for an extended amount of time to reflect and pray for the people of Ukraine, and for the specific intentions given above. Meditate on the horrific sufferings of the people of Ukraine, as you pray to God for peace and unity. Pray to the Mother of God for her intercession with her Son, Jesus Christ and for her maternal protection of the people of Ukraine. Pause to identify with the suffering as you pray for peace. Sacrifice valued time and thought in prayer for our brothers and sisters who suffer!

In addition, we ask that all of our clergy and faithful, following every Divine Liturgy and liturgical service say the Prayer for Peace for Ukraine. Let us be steadfast and continue to offer these prayers, fasting and meditation until peace and unity are achieved in Ukraine. We thank you for your anticipated faithful and prayerful participation! God bless you!

+Stefan Soroka
Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainians
Metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States

+Richard Seminack
Eparch of St. Nicholas in Chicago

+Paul Chomnycky, OSBM
Eparch of Stamford

+ Bohdan Danylo
Eparch of St. Josaphat in Parma

+John Bura
Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia

February, 2015

 

A Prayer for Peace in Ukraine


Heavenly Father, Your Son taught us
“Blessed are the Peacemakers for
they shall be called Children of God.”
At this hour, we fervently pray that
Your Holy Spirit may inspire men and
women in Ukraine to become Peacemakers.
May they seek reconciliation and dialogue
and end the violent confrontation and killing.
May they restore tranquility to their nation
and restore human rights, democratic principles
and religious liberty to their troubled land.
God, our Father, we beseech you to comfort
the suffering, heal the wounded and accept the
souls of the departed into Your Heavenly Kingdom.
And may the Most Holy Mother of God, extend her
Blessed Mantle of Protection over Ukraine.
And may each of us always live our lives
as instruments of Your Peace.

Amen.

ETERNAL MEMORY

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cross_lgCONDOLENCES
Our sincerest condolences and sympathy are extended to

STEVE & JACKIE PIPTA
at the death of Steve’s mom Mary Jane Pipta. She was buried from St. Stephen’s Church last Monday.

ETERNAL MEMORY
ВЕЧНАЯ ПАМЯТЬ

February 8, 2015

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When You will come to earth in glory, O God, and all creatures will tremble before You,
the river of fire will flow before Your judgment-seat, and the books will be opened and all hidden things revealed, deliver me from the unquenchable fire and make me worthy to stand at Your right hand, O righteous Judge.

LastJudgement

Although it may be difficult to understand in light of the Kondak we pray on this weekend of Meat Fare, the designation of this parable as The Last Judgment, is somewhat misleading. It is an imaginative scene in which is set the core of the moral teachings of Jesus. The parable, in truth, is really about love of neighbor. All of us, because we have received the gift of Christ’s love, are called to freely love others in return. We get distracted, however, because of the river of fire and the image of God as Judge mentioned in the Kondak, that we miss, I think, the true meaning of the parable.

We know that all people need personal love that is recognition by others of their uniqueness. We also know that people who are sick, thirsty, and hungry and in prison are frequently denied this personal love. We also know that however narrow and limited our sphere of influence is, each one of us is called by God to see that His love is expressed to others through us. We are not here on earth only for ourselves but, rather, to help make God’s Kingdom real. We also know that this helps us.

Thus the parable spells our unconditional love for others. The evangelist has Jesus say: inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, you have done it unto Me! Jesus clearly identifies Himself with those to whom service is given or refused, and their behavior toward men is their behavior toward God. St. John reiterates this by saying, you cannot say you love God and hate your neighbor!

The surprise in the parable is that those condemned never accepted the fact that they encountered Jesus in other men and that they were not able to distinguish between their duties to God and their duties to man. What is also highlighted is the fact that both the righteous and the wicked have made decisions that are irrevocable. Free Will makes all of us responsible for how we treat others. To hate others because they hate us is not an excuse. The choice to return hate with hate is ours alone! We must take personal responsibility for our own behavior!

Understanding Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Faith – 20150208

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Our Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church follows the Eastern Church’s approach to the Great Fast – Lent. It suggests ways of observing the Fast that are drawn from a long and noble history of ascetic practices that have proven to help us focus our attention on the meaning and purpose of the Fast, namely preparation for experiencing again the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ – the Anointed One of God. I truly believe that it is extremely important that we freely engaged in ascetical practices during this time   because we desire to grow as spiritual beings and to come to a deeper and fuller understanding of who we are in God’s Kingdom. The Fast should be a time that when we put greater effort into growing as spiritual beings. This is supported by the Church. We literally change our usual worship services.

hagiasophialastThe Church has understood for centuries that the gradual introduction into a different way of living during the Fast should be gradual. So, she has designated two weeks for gradually preparing for the Fast, namely Meat Fare and Cheese Fare.

These two weeks of preparation for Lent, however, only make sense if we are going to eliminate meat and dairy products from our diets. The traditional approach to the Great Fast would have us eliminate meat from our diets during this coming week.

Again, I truly believe that our Church encourages us to include voluntary practices into our lives during this time – practices that we believe will help us to spiritually grow. We must always remember that we don’t give up things during this time because we believe that in some way this will honor or even placate God to be more positively disposed toward us or love us more than He already does. We cannot merit God’s Love or eternal reward

Acts of spiritually motivated personal discipline help us to more seriously think about our spiritual lives. Ascetical practices help us to focus our attention on our spiritual lives.

It absolutely drives me crazy when I am asked: What are you giving up for Lent? I don’t give things up! I try to engage in ascetical practices which have been proven, over time, to be helpful for focusing on my spiritual life.

How will you observe Lent? If you don’t want to spiritually grow or don’t think you have to, then don’t do anything! If, however, you want to grow spiritual, do something!

The Divine Liturgy and Our Worship of God – 20150208

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During the past several weeks, I have been sharing thoughts about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We should keep this in mind when we refer to the Eucharist: It was not until the 16th century of the Common Era that Christians began to interpret the Scriptures to mean that the Holy Gifts were merely and only symbolic. Why would the Holy Spirit be silent until the modern era? Could it be true that it was only until then that the Church was finally restored after falling into apostasy for 1500 years and then rescued by modern day prophets who found the truth? Or should we simply accept that the body of older Christian believers has been correct in what it has believed everywhere, always and by all. The Church has always loved and known the Scriptures. The Church Fathers lived, breathed, and dreamed the Scriptures. Reading their works testifies to this. They believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Some educated opponents to the belief in the Real Presence object and quote the Church Fathers (first-of all Eusebios) calling the Holy Gifts symbols. Yes, they are symbols. The Eastern Church to this day refers in the Epiclesis of its Divine Liturgy to the Holy Mystery as the spiritual and unbloody sacrifice. Those praying the Liturgy clearly ask the Holy Spirit to make this bread the precious Body of Your Christ and that which is in this chalice, the precious Blood of Your Christ.

The word symbol literally means to bring two together into one. The Church Fathers used the word symbol in the Platonic sense, not in the modern, English sense. In America when someone asks if the Holy Eucharist is symbolic they generally mean to ask if it only represents the Body and Blood of Christ in a figurative and not a literal sense.

In the Eastern Church it’s both because we don’t think according to modern philosophical terms and see and believe that the transformed gifts communicate a Higher Reality. We believe that Christ is truly present even though that which He is present within remains the same. It is not merely   symbolic, that is just a sign that represents Christ. We believe that the Holy Eucharist IS actually Christ, present because of the power of the Holy Spirit to transform bread and wine into Christ’s Real Presence.

The Call To Holiness – 20150208

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One of the strategies that can be used to discover which road to travel when called to holiness, is discernment. It leads us to an understanding of our motives and, when used regularly, can help us discover our fundamental motivation. When we clearly see what stirs us to action and what directs our choices, we become freer to choose a course of action that is loving rather than self-serving. Discernment is more than voiding the mistakes of the past. It is more than merely repeating the patterns that worked well in the past. It is a process of looking for different, healthier, more growth-producing courses of action and choosing the ones that help us grow in our relationship to God and to other people.

It is not enough to look at one or two similar experiences. One needs to look at a series of them and identify what is common among them. What is common usually is not obvious and often seems to be but a minor factor in the experiences. It may take many years of reflection to identify the hidden operation of a basic fear or the subtle presence of self-indulgence in a life that on the surface seems to be devoted to God and to serving other people.

Once a pattern of acting is clear, our freedom is enhanced. The unconscious power of these patterns is weakened and we are freer to choose among the options open to us. Discernment makes the difference between following blind instinct or unthinking feelings and making responsible choices. The truth that Jesus said makes us free is in great part the truth about ourselves and about our deeper motives.

Frequently, people try to discern the will of God for themselves only when they are faced with an important decision. They look for a sign outside of themselves to point the direction they should take. But when a big decision comes up, it is more helpful to reflect on the patterns we have followed in the myriad small decisions of daily life. From these patterns, the fundamental direction our lives have been taking becomes clear. Then we can more easily decide, in light of the present circumstances and of foreseen consequences, which path to take.

Again, the call to holiness is a call to live a reflective and thoughtful life that is based on a desire to truly be God’s child. It means honestly looking at our lives and determining how best to be like Jesus.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the New Testament – 20150208

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hebrewsIn the last few issues I have been sharing thoughts about the Letter to the Hebrews which is attributed to Paul. I shared that scholars have suggested that in Judaism there were many different ideas about sacrifice and that Western Christianity’s image of Jesus as the once for all sacrifice for sin is but an interpretation of this historical event. This is only be understood within the theological framework that places emphasis on the fact that we are all sinners. That our sins must be paid for in order for God to forgive us and that Jesus is the sacrifice who paid the price. I am sure that most of my readers are aware of this typically Western approach to the death of Jesus on the Cross. Within this framework of thought, God cannot or will not forgive sins unless adequate payment is made; for God to forgive without payment would imply that sin doesn’t matter all that much to God. Somebody had to pay the price. But ordinary humans couldn’t pay the price; they would be dying only for their own sins. Only a perfect human, a sinless human who didn’t deserve to die, could be the sacrifice. For Anselm (a Western Father of the Church), this explained the necessity of the Incarnation: God became human in Jesus so that he could be the perfect sacrifice that paid for our sins (At this point you should also read “Leaning our Faith from the Greek Fathers of the Church — 20150208” if you haven’t already).

I am, at this point, including the Western understanding of the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross since it is the one to which most Christians, in our Western society, are exposed. The theological terms for this understanding of Jesus’ death include the terms substitutionary atonement and satisfaction theory of the atonement. The first emphasizes that Jesus died in our place. The second that He satisfied the debt we owe to God. Though less than a thousand years old, many people today (perhaps most) think that this is true Christianity – the official, traditional understanding of Jesus’ death. It is the default position for many when they hear the words sacrifice and atonement and when they think about the death of Jesus.

This is not the Eastern Church’s understanding of Christ’s death. The Eastern Church has a different and equally valid understanding of His death. It is a matter of perspective. The Western understanding is based on the idea of original sin and our inheritance of the effect of this sin.

Learning Our Faith From the Greek Fathers of the Church – 20150208

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Byzantine theology did not produce any significant elaboration of the Pauline doctrine of justification expressed in Romans and Galatians (You will recall that the Protestant Reformation drew heavily upon this notion of justification and advanced an understanding of redemption that requires only faith and not faith coupled with good works). The Greek patristic commentaries on such passages as Galatians 3:13 (Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a cure for us), generally interpret this idea of redemption by substitution in the wider context of victory over death and of sanctification. They never develop the idea in the direction of an Anselmian theory of satisfaction. The voluntary assumption of human mortality by the Logos (Christ) was, in the minds of the Greek Fathers, truly an act of God’s condescension by which He united to Himself the whole of humanity; for, as Gregory of Nazianzus wrote, what is not assumed is not healed, and what is united to God is saved; therefore, we needed a God made flesh and put to death in order that we could live again.

holy fathers iconThe death of One of the Holy Trinity in the flesh was a voluntary act, a voluntary assumption by God of the entire dimension of human tragedy. There is nothing in Him by compulsion or necessity; everything is free: willingly He was hungry, willingly thirsty, willingly He was frightened, and willingly He died. But – and this is the essential difference between the East and West – this divine freedom of the hypostasis of the Logos did not limit the reality of His human condition: the Lord assumed a mortal humanity at the very moment of the Incarnation, at which time the free divine decision to die had already been made. He takes a body, a body which is not different from ours, writes St. Athanasius; He takes from us a nature similar to ours and, since we all are subject to corruption and death, He delivers His body to death for us.

I don’t know if you sense the difference between the Eastern and Western Church’s understanding of the Incarnation. The idea that the cross was the purpose of the Incarnation itself is vividly suggested by the Byzantine liturgical texts of the Nativity. The hymnology of the pre-feast is structured according to that of Holy Week, and the humility of Bethlehem is viewed as leading toward Golgotha: The kings, first fruits of the Gentiles, bring Three gifts…. By myrrh they point to Your death…. Born now in the flesh, You shall in the flesh undergo burial and death, and You shall rise again on the third day. The cross is not the result of our sins but, rather, our redemption from ignorance.

The Spirituality of the Christian East – 20150208

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Eastern spirituality bears witness to the conviction that human beings are made, together with everything that   exists, to be filled with all the fullness of God. Divine fullness dwells bodily in   Jesus Christ, through whom God, by His Spirit, shares His life with the world. Further, one of the fundamental affirmations of Eastern spirituality is that God exists and that He can and must be known. Knowing God is the only real purpose of life. In fact, knowing God is life itself. In John’s Gospel we find these words: And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You sent.

Eastern spirituality, which is truly experienced in our Divine Liturgy, proclaims that God is not only to be believed in, worshiped, loved and served; He is also to be known. Many centuries ago St. Athanasius put it this way: For what use is existence to the creature if he cannot know his Maker? How could men be reasonable beings if they had no knowledge of the Word and Reason of the Father through whom they had received their being?

It is characteristic of our time to deny that God can be known in any real sense of the term     knowledge. Not only are there widespread and pervasive philosophical doctrines which claim that true knowledge belongs only to earthly things, that is to the world of the observable, the weighable and the measurable – only to the things that data shows us exist.
Our Eastern spirituality does not need data to know God. Knowledge of God is gained through experience of life in ourselves and as it exists throughout the universe. All we can know is that some life force animates all living things. While all living things have separate identities, nevertheless the very same life force animates all things.
Think about this!

GREAT FAST PASTORAL — 2015

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GREAT FAST PASTORAL OF THE UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY

OF THE U.S.A. TO OUR CLERGY, HIEROMONKS AND BROTHERS,

RELIGIOUS SISTERS, SEMINARIANS AND BELOVED FAITHFUL

 

“They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart” (Jer. 4:7).

On Monday, February 16th, we begin the holy season of the Great Fast. Once again, our Church invites us to embark upon this annual journey – a period of grace when we identify more closely with our Lord Jesus Christ in his suffering, death, and resurrection.

During this time, we are encouraged to be faithful to our traditional Lenten practices. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are practical means for our spiritual move in the direction of our Savior. But we do not stop with just these. Micah the Prophet sets for us a good checklist:

“Act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Without this right relationship with God and with others – no amount of fasting and prayer will help us to draw closer to the Lord.

The Great Fast makes sense when it is seen precisely as preparation for the celebration of the Paschal Mystery – the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus – which spells out the Gospel (Good News) in terms of our being reconciled and made one with God, and consequently our being at peace with self, with God, and with others.

That reconciliatory peace our Lord proclaimed to his followers on the day of his resurrection: “Peace be with you . . . Receive the Holy Spirit; for those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained” (Jn. 20:21, 22-23).

To believe the Gospel is to believe that Jesus’ forgiveness is to be experienced in the Mystery of Reconciliation (Penance). That’s Good News! That’s the Gospel! Therefore, the Mystery of Reconciliation serves to couple the call to repent by acknowledging sin in our lives and the call to believe the Gospel by seeking and accepting God’s loving forgiveness.

God does not want us to get discouraged or overwhelmed by our sins. When St. Paul the Apostle looked into his own life, he exclaimed “I do not understand what I do; for I do not do what I would like to do, but instead I do what I hate” (Rom. 7:15).

How typical! Don’t we all experience this? We have such good intentions and poor performance. We start well, but somewhere along the line our will power runs out. We slide down the slippery slope and often end up pretty much where we started. We could get discouraged. To help us when we are tempted to give up, St. Paul continues:

“I know that no good lives in me, that is, in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. I don’t do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do . . . What a miserable man I am! Who will rescue me?” (Rom. 7:18-19, 24).

(And St. Paul gives the answer: “Thanks be to God, our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Rom. 7:25).

God does not abandon us to our sins. Throughout the entire Holy Bible, from the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament to the sending of his Beloved Son in the New Testament, we get a picture of a loving, heavenly Father seeking and calling his children to come home. With warnings, invitations, promises, and the offering of his Only-Begotten Son, has the call of God gone throughout the world. He has spoken to us in words and gracious deeds and by the Holy Spirit in our own consciences. All the promises that God has made to us have been confirmed and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The call of the Great Fast is a call to return home, so vividly seen in the story of the prodigal son. It is a call to fear the Lord, to love him, to serve him, to glorify him, to rejoice in him. So much has been done for us, especially that great sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross for the sake of our salvation, of bringing us home. God has endless blessings to bestow upon us if we open our hearts to him. And this is the time to do it!

Beloved sisters and brothers in Christ, please be assured of our daily prayers for all of you. Let us remember also at this time our sisters and brothers in Ukraine as they undergo tremendous hardships in their continued struggle for peace, dignity, unity, and territorial integrity. May our good Lord look favorably upon them and fulfill all their requests.

“The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you!” (2 Thess. 3:18).

+Stefan Soroka
Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainians
Metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States

+Richard Seminack
Eparch of St. Nicholas in Chicago

+Paul Chomnycky, OSBM
Eparch of Stamford

+ Bohdan Danylo
Eparch of St. Josaphat in Parma

+John Bura (author)
Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia

Great Fast 2015