O Christ our God, Your Kingdom is eternal and Your dominion is from generation to generation. You have become incarnate of the Holy Spirit, being made Man through the ever-virgin Mary. Your coming, O Christ, has shed upon us a great light. O You, Light of Light and Radiance of the Father! You have illuminated the whole creation. Wherefore everything that breathes sings to You a hymn of praise. O image of the Father’s glory, eternal God, existing before all ages, who shone forth from the Virgin. O Lord, glory to You. Help me to prepare myself to truly celebrate this great mystery. I ask your help and offer praise to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
O Almighty God, help me to understand and live with a deep awareness that You are unceasingly being born into this world in me. Your incarnation as a human tells me that my life, and all human life, is a sharing in Your Divine Life and that with each millisecond of my life is, in reality, You being born again in my world. Just as Your Life brought into existence Your Son Jesus, so Your life not only brings me into existence but sustains me in existence. I find it difficult, O Heavenly Father, to truly understand this miracle. Help me if I, at any time, display any ignorance about this great mystery and help me prepare myself to celebrate in the coming feasts Your manifestation of this great truth. I ask your help and offer praise to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen
O Heavenly Father, help me this day, which I celebrate with my fellow citizens as a day of Thanksgiving, to be truly thankful for all that You have given me, especially the gift of life. Help me to truly believe and know that the life that is within me calling me into existence, is, in some mysterious way, Your own life. Help me to realize that You created me to be your child, that is someone You desire to be destined to share in the peace and happiness of Your eternal Kingdom. Make my gratitude real and sincere. Help me to demonstrate my gratitude by extending love to all men and women who share this earthly existence with me. I ask Your help and offer praise to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
O God, help me to truly believe that You, my Creator, clothed Yourself in flesh in order to truly express Your great love for me. Help me to believe that You, Who fashioned the whole creation with Your strong arm, became flesh in the womb of a woman whom You formed in order to prove Your love by actually sharing all the experiences of this earthly with me, with the exception of sin. Help me by Your great mercy and kindness to prepare myself to understand the Good News You shared with me through Your incarnation. Help me to know that I can live like You lived because of Your help. I ask Your help again and offer praise to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
PYLYPIVKA (ADVENT) PASTORAL OF THE UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY OF THE U. S. A.
TO OUR CLERGY, HIEROMONKS AND BROTHERS, RELIGIOUS SISTERS, SEMINARIANS AND BELOVED FAITHFUL
Praise be Jesus Christ!
On November 14th, we began observing ‘Pylypivka’ or St. Philip’s Fast in preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of the Birth of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Society around is now entering a period of aggressively attempting to increase and enhance our appetite for goods, gifts, and items deemed necessary for the celebration of Christmas. It is difficult for most of us to withdraw from our earthly appetites as we attempt to make more time for prayer and meditation. From whom can we get some direction?
The Blessed and Holy Martyrs of our Ukrainian Catholic Church inspire us to surrender more of ourselves. Their sacrifice of life in the face of persecution and for God’s kingdom minimizes any excuses you and I may offer in neglecting making sacrifices for our faith in our daily life. We are quickly becoming a generation of people feeling entitled to daily privileges and rights, and even in our journey of faith. This attitude of feeling entitled deprives us of choosing that which has deeper and more significant meaning in our life. We even begin to presume Our Lord by not choosing to be excitedly motivated to meet him in celebrating his holy feast in his holy Church.
Christmas is coming! Bright lights and festivities surround us and lift our spirits. You and I share a responsibility to brightly shine with our light of baptism. “Pylypivka’ summons you and me to pause. We are reminded to meditate on our journey of faith with Jesus. Be still, calm yourself and hear the voice of Jesus in your life. Surrender more time for prayer and thoughtful meditation. Search for Jesus with more frequent participation in worship in your parish. Then let Jesus be the source of your energy and that which you value in your daily life. You will enjoy peace and joy which cannot be bought or garnered in the busyness of the world around us.
You and I are called to rekindle our light of faith to call others to Jesus. Choose to be a thankful person, rejoicing in your love for God. Choose to be a person of hope, offering encouragement and assistance to others struggling in daily life. You will be a source of light and renewal for others, even unknowingly at times. The Lord’s presence and peace will descend upon others and surround them with his joy and peace. You truly will then be preparing for the joyous celebration of Jesus’ birth.
Thanksgiving Day provides opportunity for families and friends to gather and enjoy their common bond and love for one another. When proclaiming Thanksgiving Day in 1789, President Washington cited the importance of our unity in rendering thanks to God, and in offering prayers and supplications for the pardon of our transgressions. Celebrating forgiveness and seeking God’s forgiveness in the Holy Mystery or Sacrament of Confession is a life-giving way to humble ourselves before God and invite Him into our daily life. Choose to go to confession more often so as to come nearer to God in daily life.
George Washington also called for us “to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue”. We do this as we pray and support the many throughout the world who suffer persecution because of their faith. Particularly we pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine who face persecution and the onset of war and terrorism. We also pray for our suffering Christian brothers and sisters in Syria, Iraq, Palestine and various parts of Africa, some of whom need to flee their homelands because of persecution and war. You and I are called to raise our voices through our democratically elected leaders to express our outrage as to the loss of life and devastation which is occurring in various parts of the world. Let us be thankful for the peace we enjoy in our nation with prayers and actions in defense of others who do not enjoy the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue.
May your ‘Pylypivka’ journey be especially blessed with many opportunities for spiritual renewal and may you enjoy a joyful Thanksgiving!
+Stefan Soroka(author)
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
O God, inspire me so that I may see the divine mercy that is revealed in Bethlehem. Let me cleanse my mind and offer virtues to You instead of myrrh. Let me prepare to enter the feast of the Nativity with faith, storing up treasure in my soul as I cry aloud: “Glory in the highest to God in Trinity, whose good will is now being revealed to men, in His love for mankind He will set Adam free from the ancient curse. I ask Your help and offer praise to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
O Almighty God, You have come so many times to me and found no resting place. Forgive me for my overcrowded life, my vain haste and preoccupation with self. Come again, O Lord, and though my heart is a jumble of voices and my mind overlaid with many fears, find a place however humble where You can begin to work Your wonder as you create peace and joy within me. If in some hidden corner, in some out-of-the-way spot, I can clear away the clutter and shut out the noise and darkness, come be born again in me and I will kneel in perfect peace with the wisest and humblest of men. I ask Your help and offer praise to You, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and ever and forever. Amen.
As we end the 24th week after Pentecost, the Church assigns a reading from Luke’s Gospel that relates the cure of a woman who had been badly stooped for over 18 years. It is important to note that Jesus performed this cure supposedly on the Jewish Sabbath. Exclusive to the Gospel of Luke, this story presents Jesus’ kindly regard for the unfortunate and for women.
Two things about this story should be noted: (1) the woman is said to have been afflicted for 18 years and the number 18 in Judaism means Giving Chai or Life and (2) the Mishnah (i.e., an authoritative collection of exegetical material embodying the oral tradition of Jewish law and forming the first part of the Talmud) gives intricate rules for what a person can do the Sabbath. Tying and loosing knots, for example, are among the kinds of forbidden work. This is why Jesus uses the example of watering a donkey on the Sabbath, to do this you had to untie the donkey. The Mishnah also states that an animal can be led no more than 200 yards and can never be whipped on the Sabbath.
One of the immediate things a person can conclude when reading this story is that symbolically the woman was bent over from the absolute sheer weight of the restrictions that her religion placed on her. Jesus straightens her to her full height by removing all these restrictions and calls her to simply believe that God loves her. He also shows her that how you treat others is more important than keeping rules. Jesus showed her true compassion. The chief of the synagogue, on the other hand, showed her no compassion. Even though he was probably aware of her suffering – she was a member of his synagogue – he cared less about her condition and would have denied her a cure because rules were more important.
Of course the chief of the synagogue was also probably jealous of Jesus and His ability to cure. Like many other rabbis at that time, he didn’t want Jesus to become popular because Jesus might take people away from his synagogue. Therefore He had to find fault with Jesus’ actions. It also didn’t help that Jesus publicly helped a woman He did not know. This was forbidden in Jewish society.
Jesus’ actions, on the other hand, were motivated by His love for others and His compassion for the woman. He did not allow rules to get in the way of helping others in need. He understood in a very deep way that the only way He could have, as a human, a relationship with His heavenly Father was by loving others and doing all that He could to help them.
Jesus clearly demonstrated that religious rules for living are useless if they don’t lead a person to deeper compassion and concern for others. The primary goal of all religions (or should be) is to bring people closer to God by helping them become more open and loving to others. It seems, however, that many use religion to bring division among people. Religious beliefs have, unfortunately, been used throughout history – even today – to justify war and conflict. When people believe they alone have the truth, conflict always follows.
Jesus calls us to love one another!
There are many journey stories in Scripture, illumining different facets of the spiritual journey. In Genesis (32:23-33), we read that Jacob was traveling home from a foreign land where he had acquired two wives, eleven children and a large herd of sheep and goats. His family had gone on ahead. He was alone. In the dark, he met a stranger and the two of them wrestled all night. The stranger could not prevail and Jacob refused to end the bout till he had received a blessing. The stranger, whom Jacob identified with God, did bless him. But before he left, he struck Jacob on the hip. From that day on Jacob limped.
This story makes it clear that a spiritual journey is not always smooth and uneventful. Much of what happens on such a journey is cause for celebration: Jacob had acquired a family and great possessions. There are also obstacles on this journey, and a person has to struggle to overcome them, as Jacob did. A person may be wounded on the journey, as Jacob was, but he or she can recover and discover that the wound was a blessing.
A person may try to deny that the obstacles exist or attribute them to some other person or to some other cause. A person may try to avoid the struggle to remove them by plunging into some kind of feverish activity or by procrastinating about taking action. But until a person acknowledges the obstacles and wrestles with them hand to hand there will be little growth in his or her relationship to God and neighbor. The person may not succeed in removing the obstacles completely. That is unimportant and of no significance. What is important is the commitment to the struggle to overcome them. It is similar to what we say about a journey. The destination is not important. The journey, and how we make the journey, is!
The journey of life is the same. Unfortunately too many people think that the destination is important (and they usually think heaven is the destination). What is important is how we make the journey – who we become on the journey! Since life is eternal, what makes us think that our journey will cease with one lifetime on earth? Wherever we will be after this lifetime, we will still be on a journey. We won’t just be stagnant, sitting on a cloud playing a harp! We will still have an opportunity to grow and develop as the spiritual children of our Creator-God. We will still be challenged to continue the journey of spiritual transformation!
As you probably know from experience, our Divine Liturgy is a concelebration of people and celebrant. This finds particular expression in the eucharistic prayers which are all, without exception, structured as dialogues. Every prayer is sealed by the gathering with one of the key words of Christian worship, AMEN, thus binding the celebrant and the people of God at whose head he stands into one organic whole. Every prayer – with the exception of the prayer of the priest himself which is said by the celebrant during the Cherubic Hymn, is spoken on behalf of all present. All of the constituent parts of the solemn eucharistic ceremony – the reading of the Word of God, the Anaphora, the Partaking of Communion – unite all of us to one another and we become partakers in the communion of the Holy Spirit.
Mystical Supper
The same may be said of the individual rites of the eucharist. All express to some degree not only the unity of the celebrant and the people but also their synergy – their concelebration and collaboration. Thus, the reading of the Word of God (i.e., Epistle and Gospel) and its elaboration in the sermon – which according to unanimous testimony of all early evidence comprises the first part of the eucharistic celebration – self-evidently presupposes listeners, people who receive the preaching.
I would digress just briefly and make a comment on the sermon. I would again exhort you to think about the readings that you hear and make sure that you attempt to find the particular message you are supposed to receive. This is the way that I view the sermon. The sermon is my attempt to model for you what message I received from the readings. I do not attempt to state that the message that I share is the message you have to receive. You may, as you listen to the readings, receive a totally different message. The readings all have multiple layers of meanings. There is never, I believe, only one message to any Epistle or Gospel. I find the truth of this by the fact that even though we repeat the same readings every year, each time I read them I tend to get a different message. So, while I am thankful that you listen to me, I do hope that you never are afraid to derive some message for yourself. The Holy Spirit moves within all of us, helping us to find the message that we need to continue our spiritual growth.
The Divine Liturgy, up to and including the sermon, is called the Liturgy of the Word. In the early Church, the Assembly (Church) would first listen to letters sent by one of the Apostles or share stories about the life of Christ before they would partake of the meal and communion. The first part, because it has most of the prayers that change, requires us to use books.