Fr. Michael Winn

Dec

13

2013

Christmas Pastoral Letter of Vladyka Ken, Bishop of New Westminster

UGCCBishop Ken, Christmas, Nativity of our Lord

Office of the Bishop New Westminster Eparchy Christmas Pastoral Letter of 2013 Christ is Born! Glorify Him! Dear Sisters and Brothers, Thanks to the wonders of electronic communication, reaching people around the world and sharing news, trends and events is possible at the touch of a keyboard or the tap on a smartphone screen. In the last several weeks we have seen first-hand how Ukrainians are struggling for freedoms, the devastation in the Philippines, the on-going plight of the citizens of Syria and of those seeking refuge from the battles that rage on in countries throughout the world. We have…

Nov

25

2013

By Fr. Michael Winn

The Phillipian Fast – The Preparatory Season for the Nativity of our Lord

Christian Life, Liturgynativity fast, pilipiwka

by Rev. Msgr. Russell A. Duker from Christ-bearers - Meditations for the Pre-Christmas Fast, Christmas, and Theophany The oldest Christian feast is the Resurrection of our Lord or Easter. This Holy Day includes a whole cycle of feasts such as the Ascension and Pentecost. It is the great feast of our redemption and sanctification. Later Holy Days followed slowly until the fourth century. After the Church won official recognition and full freedom of worship and evangelization, our present calendar of festal celebration began to develop. This development was motivated by the Church’s desire to honor both events in the life of…

Sep

08

2013

By Fr. Michael Winn

The Nativity of the Mother of God

Liturgy

The New Testament says nothing about the early life of Jesus’ Mother. But in the Church’s tradition, Mary, like other significant people in the history of Israel, was born by the direct intervention of God. According to the second-century Protevangelium of James, her parents, Joachim and Anna, were righteous but childless. Once when Joachim, a rich man, went to the temple to offer his gifts to the Lord, he was not allowed to do so, because he had not raised up offspring in Israel. Saddened by this rejection, he researched to see whether all the righteous in Israel had had…

Aug

18

2013

By Fr. Michael Winn

Preparation for Confession by St. John Kronstadt

Christian Life, Prayer

I, a sinful soul, confess to our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, all of my evil acts which I have done, said or thought from baptism even unto this present day. I have not kept the vows of my baptism, but have made myself unwanted before the face of God. I have sinned before the Lord by lack of faith and by doubts concerning the Orthodox Faith and the Holy Church; by ungratefulness for all of God's great and unceasing gifts; His long-suffering and His providence for me, a sinner; by lack of love for the Lord, as well…

Aug

13

2013

By Fr. Michael Winn

Liturgy: Where the Holy One Seeks Us

Christian Life, Liturgy

Archpriest Peter Galadza, PhD is Kule Family Professor of Liturgy at the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Canada. He is immediate past president of the Society for the Study of Oriental Liturgy. In 2003-2004 he was a research fellow at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Research Center, and has recently been elected to the Board of Fellows of McGill University’s Centre for Research on Religion. This podcast is presented on Ancient Faith Radio as part of the Searching for the Sacred Symposium - co-sponsored by St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Ft. Wayne and the…

Jul

22

2013

By Fr. Michael Winn

The Order of Repentance – Long Form of Confession

Faith, Liturgy

Priest: Blessed be our God at all times, now and for ever and ever. All: Amen. Glory be to You, our God, glory be to You! Heavenly King, Advocate, Spirit of Truth, Who are everywhere present and fill all things, Treasury of Blessings, Bestower of Life, come, and dwell with us; cleanse us of all that defiles us, and O Good One, save our souls. Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us. (3) Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever. Amen. Trinity…

Jul

21

2013

By Fr. Michael Winn

The Small Trebnyk (or Abbreviated Euchologion) [Shary, 1983]

Liturgy

In an ongoing effort to provide liturgical texts in English for our visitors, we provide today the 1983 English translation of The Small Trebnyk (or Abbreviated Euchologion) produced by the now defunct St. Joseph's Institute of Detroit, Michigan. The Preface is included here: Preface A Trebnyk or Euchologion is a book of Prayer-Rites used by the priest for the administration of the church sacraments and various blessings and sacramentals. Some call it a Book of Needs, because it provides for the important spiritual needs of the faithful. Moreover, it is a service book used by the priest who is the…

Jul

21

2013

By Fr. Michael Winn

The Order of Repentance – A Communal Penance Service According to the Byzantine Rite

Christian Life, Faith, Prayer

Priest: Blessed be our God at all times, now and for ever and ever. All: Amen. Glory be to You, our God, glory be to You! Heavenly King, Advocate, Spirit of Truth, Who are everywhere present and fill all things, Treasury of Blessings, Bestower of Life, come, and dwell with us; cleanse us of all that defiles us, and O Good One, save our souls. Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy and Immortal, have mercy on us. (3) Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and for ever and ever. Amen. Trinity…

Jul

21

2013

By Fr. Michael Winn

Concerning the Purely Vocal Nature of Authentic Liturgical Chant

Liturgy

Rev. John Sembrat, O.S.B.M. July 1995 One specific factor that is especially detrimental to the beauty and mystical character of our church music is the introduction of musical instruments in church services where they exert an uncontrollable secularizing influence, distracting the mind and heart of the faithful by diverting their attention from prayerful contemplation to a worldly and carnal kind of entertainment which certainly cannot be called authentic liturgical music. It was not by some pure coincidence of historical circumstances that the Catholic Church of both East and West has regarded, down to the present day, unaccompanied chant to be…

Jul

14

2013

By Fr. Michael Winn

Introduction to Epistle Readings Help Card

Faith, Liturgy

The following was created by Fr. Michael Winn for the Eparchy of Edmonton in order to help those who read the Epistle at the Sunday Divine Liturgy. It is a list of the "introductions" to the Epistle readings, in both English and Ukrainian, that also acts as a book marker. It was created on standard letter-size paper and is intended to be folded in half vertically and then laminated. Introduction to the Epistle Readings