by Brent Kostyniuk
I think what I love most about summer vacations is the way they manage to surprise, even when it seems a situation could not possibly hold any surprises. Yet, that is exactly what happened again this summer.
Before I tell you about the serendipitous event, let me remind you what Both Lungs is all about.
The expression was coined by St. John Paul II who said the Church must breathe through Both Lungs. In fact, he said it numerous times, and in slightly different contexts. One instance where he used the phrase was in the encyclical Ut Unum Sint – that we may be one. Referring to the Baptism of Ukraine in 988, the pontiff called it a key event in the evangelization of the world. “The great Slav nations of Eastern Europe owe their faith to this event. In this perspective an expression which I have frequently employed finds its deepest meaning: the Church must breathe with her two lungs!”
More than any pope since Leo XIII, Saint John Paul II understood the East and loved it. His grandmother was Ukrainian Catholic, who perhaps instilled the bond he had for the East. However, the notion of Both Lungs isn’t simply a matter of East and West. It’s not about one side or the other. It is about being whole. Saint John Paul II saw appreciation of the East as not only essential for the life of the Catholic Church, but as a stepping stone towards a restored universal Christian Church. To that end, he was not afraid to express the need for communion with the East in strong language.
Our Eastern Catholic brothers and sisters are very conscious of being the living bearers of this tradition, together with our Orthodox brothers and sisters. The members of the Catholic Church of the Latin tradition must also be fully acquainted with this treasure and thus feel, with the Pope, a passionate longing that the full manifestation of the Church’s catholicity be restored to the Church and to the world, expressed not by a single tradition, and still less by one community in opposition to the other; and that we too may be granted a full taste of the divinely revealed and undivided heritage of the universal Church which is preserved and grows in the life of the Churches of the East as in those of the West.
Now, the surprise of my summer. In early August we travelled to Penticton where our daughter’s Ukrainian dance group Kupalo was performing at the annual Peach Festival.
Although there is no Ukrainian Catholic parish in Penticton, there is a “mission” parish served by Father Andrzej Wasylinko from Kelowna. Divine Liturgy would be served at St. John Vianney Catholic Church on Saturday evening. St. John is a very welcoming structure, built in the modern style of 1965. The interior has a spirit of grace and peace – also coolness which was most welcome on a 34 C day! For the Divine Liturgy the altar had been transformed with the requisite icons and candles, while small tables served for the proskomedia — preparation table — and tetrapod in front. It was, I thought, a wonderful gesture of breathing through both lungs; although obviously not a Ukrainian church, I felt quite at home.
After the Divine Liturgy, and in honour of the Feast of the Transfiguration, which was celebrated two days before on August 8, Father Andrzej prayed a short Litiya blessing the gifts of the harvest. The custom is an ancient one. In Greece and Romania, the harvest season traditionally began on Transfiguration. Grapes, in particular, were not eaten before August 6. In some parishes, the first grapes would be brought to church for a blessing and distributed to parishioners. The Litiya succinctly reflects all that a bountiful harvest means.
O Lord Jesus Christ our God, You blessed the five loaves and fed the five thousand. Bless these loaves, this wheat, wine, and oil, and multiply them in this city and in the whole world; sanctify all the faithful who shall partake of them; for it is You, O Christ our God, Who bless and sanctify all things. And we glorify You with Your eternal Father and Your all-holy, gracious, and life-giving Spirit, now and forever and ever.
After the blessing, the small congregation of about 20 was invited to take a piece of the blessed bread and dip it in the wine. It was a custom which I had never experienced. A basket of fruit had also been blessed and this was also shared with all present.
I left the church feeling as spiritually uplifted as I have ever been. Was it Father’s sermon, the intimacy of the small congregation and the shared food afterwards, or perhaps the beautiful Okanagan weather? No, I rather think it was the realization that when we breathe through both lungs, we are all the better off for it.
This piece first appeared in The Prairie Messenger. Reprinted with permission.
