The Spirituality of the Christian East – 20140309

Posted on by

The very first type of prayer is the Prayer of Supplication, that is the humble asking for the gifts of heaven and the disposition to receive them. It is important to point out that when we offer such a prayer we should also be aware for the need to include a request to be truly disposed to receive the requested gifts. This means that we must also ask God to open our hearts and minds so that we might be able to receive His gifts in a worthy  manner – that we might be people who want to live like His children.

One of the proper dispositions that we must develop as we pray is that of gratitude for all the things we have been given – that also includes the challenges and struggles that are a natural part of this earthly existence. When we do this, we profess our belief that life, because of God’s great love for us, delivers the most appropriate opportunities to help us to spiritually grow. When we dismiss the events of life and see them as negative, we miss the meaning and purpose of this earthly existence. We are placed here at this particular point in history to learn how to be truly be the human beings that God intended when He created us with the help of other humans. This is the attitude of the mind and heart that we must have if we are to enter into real communication with God our Father and Creator.

Think about it. How can God positively respond to our supplications when we are not grateful for the life He has given us? When we are not grateful, we tell God, in so many words, that we don’t like what He created and want Him to change it. This, in effect, tells Him that we don’t think He did a good job and that we are not satisfied with what He has given us.  I know this may not be easy when we are hurting and seriously challenged. That is why it behooves us to become accustomed to offering thanksgiving to God when we are not challenged seriously by life. Integrate gratitude into your daily life. Let God know that you are thankful for the life He has given you.

Sunday March 9, 2014

Posted on by

We bow before Your sacred image, O gracious Lord,  and beg forgiveness for our offenses, O Christ our God;  for You, of Your own will, deigned to ascend the cross in Your human nature to deliver from bondage under the enemy, those whom You created. Therefore, we gratefully cry out to You:
“Through Your coming  to save the world, O Savior, You have  filled all with joy.”

orthodxsundayOne week of the Great Fast of 2014 has already been completed. On this first weekend of the Great Fast, our Church commemorates the fact that the 7th Ecumenical Council, Nicaea II,  defined the legitimacy of the cult of images of Christ and the saints. The actions of the Council, after much struggle, restored the veneration of images, a practice that had been forbidden in Byzantium for more than a century and a half. To this very day the Eastern Church asserts the importance of using Sacred Images to assist the faithful in engaging in authentic prayer and worship.

 The Eastern Church sees the veneration of icons as important for several reasons. Each  sacred image (1) declares and asserts that the person(s) depicted not only lived in history but are alive, right now, in the spiritual realm; (2) reminds us of actual events in the life in Jesus, His Mother and others who followed Him; and (3) tells us that life is meant to be a journey of personal transformation, spiritual growth and change.

Think about it. While we recognize that the persons depicted in iconography are human, they are also very different. This difference in appearance is meant to convey the fact that those represented went through a process of personal transformation. They used the events and challenges of their lives to change their hearts and minds and become more and more like the person of Jesus, Who is the model of what people are intended to be like when God created humankind – of how God intended humans to live in order to reflect His image and likeness in the created universe. God did not create humankind without some idea of how humans should live. Think about it. There is a specific plan for all creatures and created things. All animals, plants and created things have   a natural and well defined way of behaving. There appears to be a natural law that governs the behavior of all created things. Because God gave humans free will, however, He doesn’t force us to conform to a predetermined way of behaving. Instead, He came in the Person of Jesus to encourage us to live in a certain manner so that we might achieve the fullness of life and eventually be joined to Him for all eternity.

Getting to Know Something About Our Eastern Catholic Faith – 20140309

Posted on by

The term Iconoclasm refers to a period in the history of the Byzantine Church when there was extreme opposition to the      representation of the human figure and the veneration of images, the two being held inseparable. This historical period can be simply divided into three discernible phases:

holy fathers iconEmergence (717-754)  
Emperor Leo II & the Iconoclastic Council

Council of Nicaea (787)
First Reestablishment

Full Restoration & Final Extinction (815-842)

The exact origin of the movement is obscure. By 724 two bishops supported Emperor Leo III in opposition to the traditional views of Patriarch Germanus I on the veneration of images. Historians are divided as to Leo’s basic motivation. The very shallowness of the theology of  images in the period makes any real evaluation difficult.

The practice of venerating icons was forbidden in Byzantium for more than a century and a half. The entire state machinery and the high offices of the Church were in the hands of men who were committed to iconoclasm.

In 780 Empress Irene assumed power in the name of her son, Constantine VI, who was still a minor. After much difficulty, she convoked the Council of Nicaea II (787 CE), determined to restore the veneration of icons. The Council restored icons to a place of honor. When, however, the Acts of the Council were    distributed to the other four Patriarchs, Emperor Charlemagne opposed them. He   was upset because the engagement of his daughter to Emperor Constantine VI was broken. He therefore asked the Patriarch of Rome to oppose the Acts of Nicaea II. The Patriarch of Rome did not immediately send his approval because the Patriarch of Constantinople  had  refused to restore territories in Italy and Illyria which Emperor Leo III had given to him in 773. It should be noted that even in the East the Acts of Nicaea II were not recognized until 843. Its ecumenical status was only confirmed by the Council of Constantinople IV in 869-870. For a Council to be declared ecumenical, all five Patriarchs had to approve a Council’s Acts. In 880,  after Rome finally approved the Acts of Nicaea II, the entire Church embraced the legitimacy of the veneration of sacred images and Iconoclasm was   finally brought to an end. As you can tell, politics played a role in this struggle.

We continue to venerate icons to this day.

Learning Our Faith from the Church Fathers – 20140309

Posted on by

Perhaps one the greatest individual theologians of the Christian East, Gregory Palamas, never presented a systematic doctrine of divinization. His contribution to the topic, however, has been enormous. Regardless of the controversial debates he engaged in with his theological opponents and the resulting reactionary nature of his theology, Gregory is highly esteemed as the teacher of divinity and a man of prayer. He is still frequently castigated in Western Christianity, I truly believe, because most people find him quite difficult to comprehend and because they have failed to open their hearts and minds to his theology. Of course Western Christianity hasn’t been very open to the idea of Theosis either.

Gregory, building on the teachings and spirituality of the fathers, formed his ideas about deification on these three main premises: (1) the creation of  humans in the image and after the likeness of God; (2) the incarnation of God in the Person of Jesus, His Word and Son; and (3) the strength of the human being’s communion with God in the Holy Spirit.

Gregory often reminds us of the fact that even though humans were created in God’s image, they are the image in a sort of indistinct way, whereas Christ is an identical image. Humans, having their origin in God, in their existence mirror God and owe their life totally to the Creator. As such, true life springs from their participation in the life of God and communion with Him. Now it is the task of the incarnation of the Son to help us grow into the full realization of that image. The way that Jesus lived gives us insight as to how we must live in order to develop into the full expression of God’s image.

In a sermon that Gregory gave on Holy Saturday, he expounded on the motif of the divine incarnation by saying that God’s Son became man to show to what heights He would raise us; to keep us from self-exaltation through thinking that we ourselves are deserving of this position through our own merits; to join together, with His help, the sundered aspects of our nature.

This was made possible by virtue of the joining of the divine and human in the person of Jesus, the Christ (i.e., by the hypostatic union – the philosophical-theological explanation of how God could have accomplished joining the divine and human in the Person of  Jesus). When the Second Person of the Trinity took on human nature, He bestowed on it the fullness of His grace and delivered it from the bonds of   corruption and death. The consequence of this union of the two natures in Christ was the deification of human nature. Gregory’s view is sometimes called in the East the physical view since it derives the deification of human nature from its  hypostatic union with the incarnate Son of God.

God’s incarnation made Theosis possible!

A Look at the New Testament – St. Paul – 20140309

Posted on by

I would encourage my readers to pick up the New Testament (NT) during the Great Fast and read Paul’s First letter to the Thessalonians. After reading this letter, read Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Scripture scholars assert that no other relatively short NT document has had as much influence on Christian theology as Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Its language of justification and the contrasts between grace and law and faith and works were central to Martin Luther’s thought and have been central to Protestant thought and preaching. Paul uses similar language in his letter to the Romans, which was written a half decade or so after his letter to the Galatians.

There is some debate as to whether Galatians should be the second letter in a chronological NT. Scholars date is as early as 50 CE. His letter to the Corinthians, however, and others are dated to the first half of the 50s. Because of the similarity of the language of Galatians and Romans, some scholars would not put Galatians as Paul’s second letter. There is unanimous consensus among scholars that Romans was the last of seven letters that are specifically attributed to Paul even though a total of 13 letters bear his name. Nothing in Galatians refers to the plans Paul speaks about in Romans.

This letter was sent to a group of communities in Galatia. Galatia was a region in central Asia Minor that contained several cities, the most prominent of them is the city now known as Ancyra, Turkey.

These communities became deeply conflicted after Paul left. When he was there he was under attack, being accused of having falsified the Gospel. The evidence is in the letter itself, the most polemical of all Paul’s letters. Only in part of second Corinthians is Paul’s tone as angry and combative.

When you reflect upon Paul’s thought, you can see why many became angry with him. He does not present stories about Jesus or His teachings. Rather, Paul presents the conclusions that he drew from the teachings of Jesus.

In Galatians Paul accuses the communities of deserting and turning to a different gospel, because of those who pervert the gospel of Christ. He pronounces a double curse on anyone who advocates a gospel other than the one they received from him. He calls them foolish and bewitched. He wishes that those who were troubling them would castrate themselves. These are truly strong and angry words.

Why was Paul upset? He had preached the Gospel all over Galatia with good results. He won converts and established churches. After he left, some Jewish-Christians began to preach their own version of the Gospel – namely reformed Judaism. They did not have the vision that Paul did – they did not abstract the message from Jesus’ teaching as he did.

Being a Vibrant Parish – 20140309

Posted on by

Since our homes are, or should be, the first and most important churches in our lives, we need to think about how we practice the presence of God in our homes. If we do not feel the presence of God in our homes, chances are we will not feel His presence anywhere else. We must make a deliberate and concerted effort to create a sense of the presence of God at home.

How can we do this? One way is by having signs and symbols of our faith in our homes. Do you have icons in your home? Do you have a cross? Is a Bible visibly present somewhere in your home? If not, why not! They are concrete signs of our beliefs in a God Who is eminently in our world. If you have pictures of your family members and friends in your home, why don’t you also have icons of Jesus and Mary? We believe that they are a part of our lives, that they are as close to us as our family members. Remember these symbols are great reminders of God’s presence, of our faith, and help make God real.

If none of these signs are present in our home, does it not convey the impression that we are ashamed of our beliefs? Someone asked me, What will people think if they come to my house and find icons? I answered, they will think you are a person who believes that God is real and believes in Him.

Learning About the Practices of Our Religion – 20140309

Posted on by

mysticalsuperAs I shared in the last issue of this article, we have a glimpse of how early Christians worshipped from the eighth book of the Apostolic Constitutions. It contains the earliest complete text of a eucharistic rite and represents the usage of the Church of Antioch.  The number of resemblances between that rite and the developed Byzantine Divine Liturgy, is striking. The earliest surviving texts we have of the developed Byzantine Divine Liturgy dates from the end of the eighth century or the beginning of the ninth.

The following is a description of the eucharistic ritual used in Antioch. It is contained in the Apostolic Constitutions.

The congregation gathered in a church that was pointed towards the east,  rectangular in shape and with sacristies (i.e., those rooms used for clergy and servers to vest) on either side at the east. The people were carefully segregated. Men sat on one side and women on the other. Only the elderly and very young had seats. Deacons made sure that people were in their proper places.

The Liturgy began after the vesting of the bishop and his enthronement. There were readings from the scriptures during this portion of the service. It seems that readings were taken from both the Old and New Testaments: the Torah, the Prophets, the Epistles, the Acts and the Gospels. It is not clear, however, whether passages from each were read on every occasion. The rubrics (i.e., liturgical     directions) directed the readers to stand on some high place in the middle of the nave. The Psalms of David were also sung between the readings. Sermons by the bishop and priests followed when the readings were completed. The bishop    always preached while sitting (This  is clearly seen when the Patriarch of Rome, the Pope, preaches). It should be noted that in the early Church, all communities had a man appointed as a bishop. The Liturgy was never served only by a priest.

Following the sermon(s), all people who were not baptized and, therefore, permitted to receive Holy Communion, were dismissed. They were dismissed right before the recitation of the Creed which was the secret profession of what Christians believe. Until more recent years, the following was said before the recitation of the Creed:  The doors, the doors. In wisdom let us be attentive. Since we no longer dismiss people who attend the Liturgy, we have dropped those words about the “doors”.

It was only when the baptized faithful were left in the Church did the Liturgy continue. It was only after the Creed was recited (this is still true), that the actual Anaphora was then celebrated.

The Anaphora is the core of our worship.  

Daily Prayer for the Great Fast

Posted on by

If you truly want to enter into the spirit of the Great Fast and haven’t quite figured out how you might do that, might I suggest that one of the things you can do is recite the Prayer of Ephrem each day.  In our tradition this prayer is considered to be the most succinct summation of the spirit of Great Fast and is hence prayed in public and private. While there are historically two versions of the prayer – the Greek and the Slavonic – the modern English translation attempts to combine the two. As Ephrem wrote solely in Syriac, it is almost certain that it was not written by him. However, the Prayer appears to belong to the large body of Greek penitential and ascetic literature that was composed in Ephrem’s name during the century after his death in 373. Why not try to say it each day of the Great Fast?

st ephraim the syrian

Ukrainian

Господи і Владико життя мого, дух млявости, недбайливости, владолюбства й пустослів’я віджени від мене.
Дух же доброчесности і смиренномудрія, терпіння й любови даруй мені, недостойному рабові Твоєму.
Так, Господи Царю, дай мені зріти мої прогрішення і не осуджувати брата мого, бо Ти благословен єси на віки віків. Амінь.

English

O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, idle curiosity/meddling, lust for power and idle talk.
But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity/integrity, humility, patience and love.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to condemn my brother. For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

GREAT LENT PASTORAL OF THE UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY OF THE U.S.A. TO OUR CLERGY, HIEROMONKS AND BROTHERS, RELIGIOUS SISTERS, SEMINARIANS AND BELOVED FAITHFUL

Posted on by

“Open to me the doors of repentance, O Giver of life. As we worship in your temple this morning, teach us how to purify the temples of our bodies, and in your compassion, purify me by the goodness of your mercies.”
– from the Matins for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

In teaching the faithful about the cycle of feasts and commemorations contained in the liturgical year of the Byzantine church, the church Fathers often used the symbol of a door, as we see in the above citation from the service of matins. Indeed, as a pilgrim community journeying towards the heavenly Jerusalem, we can say that we have only just recently passed through the door symbolizing the culmination of the celebrations surrounding the birth and baptism of Our Lord. And having closed it behind us, we have travelled only a few steps along the journey, and have come upon another door along our path: the door that crosses the threshold into the time of Great Lent. Great Lent is a blessed time of cleansing, renewal and conversion that encompasses the totality of our being: physical, psychological and above all, spiritual – all in preparation for the great commemoration of the death, burial and Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Every year at this time we ask ourselves the question: How are we to effectively use this time of Lent so that we can be truly transformed, in mind, body and spirit? Thankfully, the Church in her wisdom has shown us the answer through the Gospel lessons contained in the Sundays immediately before the beginning of Great Lent. We find in them, concrete means of preparing for Lent so that we can embark upon these 40 holy days, sure of our victory in the end.
In the Gospel of the Sunday of Zaccheus (Lk. 19:1-10) we learn that a personal and indomitable desire for conversion is necessary if we are to profit from the time of Great Lent. The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (Lk. 18:10-14) demonstrates that a humble recognition of our personal sinfulness is also a prerequisite. The Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15: 11-32) contains many lessons for us, one of them being that God will cover us with his boundless forgiveness and mercy if we take but one tiny step towards him in repentance. Meatfare Sunday (Mt. 25: 31-46) presents us with a terrifying picture of the Last Judgment and Christ’s admonition that only through acts of corporal mercy towards our brothers and sisters in need, will we escape the sentence of eternal damnation. Finally, when we at last stand on the threshold of Great Lent, the Gospel of Cheesefare Sunday (Mt. 6: 14-21) teaches us that our sincere forgiveness of those who have offended us is the key that ensures God’s mercy and forgiveness for our own transgressions.
During the time of Great Lent we urge you to return often to the Gospel lessons of these preparatory Sundays, to meditate upon them and plumb their depths for the golden nuggets of God’s grace, wisdom and love that are found within them in abundance.
If we do this, then we will discover that, at the end of our Lenten journey, yet another door will be opened for us: a door that leads to the celebration of the indescribable joy of Our Lord’s glorious Resurrection from the dead; a door that leads to a faith in Christ that is stronger, deeper, more courageous and resilient, shining brightly for all to see. Indeed, gathered together in our parish churches on Easter Sunday we can become modern examples of those ancient communities where Saint Paul preached so long ago, communities for which ‘God had opened the door of faith’. (Acts 14:27)
Of course, the gift of faith is not something to be hoarded and hidden from sight. We are called to put it on display for all the world to see, to ‘set it on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house’. (Mt. 5:15) To paraphrase the words that were pronounced at our baptism we are to ‘take the lighted candle and strive throughout our lifetime to shine brightly with the light of faith and of good deeds…’
When our entire being is filled with the joy of faith, then our natural desire should be to share this joy and this faith with others. Our Holy Father, Pope Francis has emphasized this noble privilege and responsibility of Christians in his brilliant Apostolic Exhortation ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ – ‘The Joy of the Gospel’ in which he writes that the Good News of our faith is ‘a joy ever new, a joy which is shared’. This is also reflected in the resolution of the Synod of Bishops of our Ukrainian Catholic Church last year, which, under the banner of the program of parish spiritual renewal entitled ‘The Vibrant Parish – a Place to Encounter the Living Christ’, has dedicated 2014 to the development of a Missionary Spirit in our Ukrainian Church.
The very nature and mission of the Church means that we are called to bear witness to Christ and to share the Good News with others. May the journey through Great Lent upon which we are embarking, be a time of true spiritual conversion and renewal for all of us. And may all those who yearn to walk through the door that leads to an encounter with Christ and the Church, be guided through the light of our good example.

+Stefan Soroka
Metropolitan-Archbishop of Philadelphia

+Richard Seminack
Eparch of St. Nicholas in Chicago

+Paul Chomnycky, OSBM (author)
Eparch of Stamford

+John Bura
Apostolic Administrator
of St. Josaphat in Parma

Great Lent, 2014

Pastoral letter of His Beatitude Sviatoslav and the Permanent Synod of the occasion of the Great Fast 2014

Posted on by

Most Reverend Metropolitans and Bishops! Very Reverend Priests, Religious, Monastics! Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

patssOur Church, our Faithful and our entire Ukrainian People enter into the Great Fast this year with feelings of pain, fear, suffering and trembling hope. We have experienced one of the longest and most terrible winters in the history of our people – a winter in which we profoundly and personally felt the darkness of sin, and we saw evil that garishly expressed itself in our modern history and bore its murderous interior for all to see. Sin, in its ugly, noxious nature, rose up before us.

At the same time, this is the winter of our national unity, solidarity, openness to our neighbour, and the continuation of our exodus from the home of slavery. On the ‘Maidan’, we understood the true sense of sacrifice, dedication and mercy. For many this was a time of profound self-realization and conversion to the Lord. The experience of the last 90 days must become for us a signpost for the next 40 days and for the rest of our life.

During the Great Fast, we will especially remember, together with our deceased family members, the sacrifice of the martyrs of the “Heavenly Legion” – those that gave their lives for the victory of good over evil and of truth over injustice. We will also remember the selfless dedication of those people who stood there over these last months in the most terrifying and freezing-cold nights on the Maidan united in prayer. With gratitude, we will remember all Christians and people of good will in Ukraine and throughout the world – for their prayer and moral and material support.

At the same time, we will always keep in mind that the results of this winter were not the accomplishment of human hands: “if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive (Psalm 124: 2-3). We became witnesses and conveyers of the mystery of the actions of God’s grace, witnesses that, “what is impossible for man, is possible for God” (Luke 18:26).

The Great Fast continues that which began on the Maidan, and adds to it new spiritual substance. Contemplating the pure sacrifice of the “Heavenly Legion” and the dedication of the hundreds of thousands of people, each of us should evaluate our lives differently: seek greatness in your consciousness and in your mystical being, open your life to others – to God and your neighbour, cleanse from yourself everything that limits us and leads to sin. On this path of conversion and cleansing, our Church prays with the words of venerable Ephrem, “Lord and Master of my life! Remove from me the spirit of laziness and indifference, lust of power and idle chatter. Rather grant to me, Your servant, the spirit of purity, humility, patience, and love. Yes, O Lord and King, let me see my own sins and not judge my brother or sister, for it is You who are blessed forever!”

This year in particular, the Great Fast challenges Ukrainians to overcome the sins of hatred and distrust. This is especially the case for those who have been entrusted with the helm of the nation. It is difficult for us to trust the new leadership today, because we have experienced authorities that enslave, humiliate and kill. Thus, it will take a great effort to overcome this sin. The first step in this direction must be forgiveness. A good opportunity for this is “Forgiveness Sunday” which opens the way to reconciliation with God and neighbour. Together with this, we must remember that trust toward a restored authority cannot be blind and should usher in an active sharing of responsibility for that which happens on our country. This shared responsibility must emanate from each of us: with responsibility for our own household, our village or city, and for our country – remembering that every citizen must not demand of oneself any less then he/she would demand of others.

The insistent reminder about this responsibility will be the sacrifice of those innocent people killed – whose memory no one dare stain by their own selfish purpose or political conduct. Let us not squander this God-given opportunity that opens for us new possibilities, a new way of living, so that, according to the words of the Apostle to the nations, we would be made, “worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which we are suffering” (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:5).

How will we accomplish this? The Great Fast is the way to the Resurrection. Our Saviour, Who, “came that we would have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10) proposes for us appropriate means, in order that our activity would be life-giving. He calls us to direct ourselves toward the Lord’s Passover, to pass through the pilgrimage from sin to love in order to be forever a “new creation in Christ” (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:17).

In spite of the uniqueness of the Lenten period for our people this year, it always is a period of spiritual struggle. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). The spiritual combat to which the Church calls us during the Great Fast, has concrete dimensions according to the words of the Prophet Isaiah, “”this is the kind of fasting that I want: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the fetters of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every oppression. Share your bread with the hungry, and invite the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and do not refuse to help your own people? (58, 6–7).

We must fight for truth and righteousness, confirm the God-given dignity of every person, maintain peace in our souls and our country, promote reconciliation and repentance, and aid in the healing of the spiritual and physical wounds by which Ukrainians have been injured. In particular we call everyone to solidarity in tending to the families of those killed and wounded and those that remain traumatized body and soul.

Difficult and complicated times may await us. We must be prepared for economic sacrifices, which will demand from our part patience and perseverance. Let us learn to carry our daily Cross steadfastly  and without complaint, even when we will find ourselves without that which we consider most indispensable. Let this be our fast – a fast that raises hope for a better future for Ukraine, which, after the winter, will come into its springtime and will yield its fruit.

To experience the Great Fast most profitably, we propose to all of our Faithful to continue their prayer and fasting for the Ukrainian people according to the intentions that we give in the supplement.

We call upon everyone to dedicate themselves to work and prayer, in fasting and charity. “May the God of peace himself sanctify you totally; and may your entire being – spirit and soul and body – be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

On behalf of the members of the Permanent Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church

+ SVIATOSLAV

Father and Head of the UGCC

Issued at Lviv-Briukhovichy 28 February 2014 A. D. Cheesefare Friday

INTENTIONS FOR PRAYER AND FASTING DURING THE GREAT FAST

Monday – for the Supreme Council (i.e. Parliament) of Ukraine and the upcoming Presidential election

Tuesday – for the new government of Ukraine and its successful service

Wednesday – for the Army of Ukraine

Thursday – for the Police and other law enforcement agencies

Friday – for those wounded on the Maidan and their families

Saturday – remembering the deceased, especially those killed on the Maidan

Sunday – for the unity and integrity of Ukraine