Fr. Roman Planchak

Oct

15

2016

St. Lucian of Antioch: Scholar and Martyr

Faith, Liturgy

MOST CHRISTIANS KNOW that the books of the New Testament — the Gospels, the Epistles and the rest — were written in the first century ad. Some know that these books were compiled as the New Testament sometime in the next three centuries. Few know that the form of the New Testament which we use in our Church — the “Byzantine text” — is largely the work of St Lucian of Antioch, whom our Church remembers on October 15. Who Was Lucian of Antioch? Born in c. 240, Lucian was the son of Christian parents in a Syriac-speaking area in…

Oct

13

2016

By Fr. Roman Planchak

St. John Chrysostom: Family

Christian LifeWisdom of the Fathers

"Don’t say, “Bible-reading is for monks; am I turning my child into a monk?” No! It isn’t necessary for him to be a monk. Make him into a Christian! Why are you afraid of something so good? It is necessary for everyone to know Scriptural teachings, and this is especially true for children. Even at their age they are exposed to all sorts of folly and bad examples from popular entertainments. Our children need remedies for all these things! We are so concerned with our children’s schooling; if only we were equally zealous in bringing them up in the discipline…

Oct

02

2016

By Fr. Roman Planchak

“The Gospel I Received”

Oct

01

2016

By Fr. Roman Planchak

St. Romanos: Patron of Church Musicians

Christian Life, FaithMusic

ONE OF THE MORE POPULAR CHANTS in our Church is the kondakion of Christ’s Nativity, “Today the Virgin gives birth…” What many do not know is that this hymn is an excerpt from a much longer work and that it was written by St Romanos the Melodist. Who is This Saint? St Romanos was born in Homs, Syria (some say Damascus), to a Jewish family in the latter part of the fifth century. We do not know when he was baptized or whether his family was converted as well. As a young man he moved to Beirut and entered the…

Sep

14

2016

By Fr. Roman Planchak

We Glory in Your Cross

LiturgyCross

MANY OF THE FEASTS we celebrate each year have a special rite connected with them. The Great Sanctification of Water on the Theophany, the hajme service on Pascha and the veneration of icons on the Sunday of Orthodoxy are perhaps the best-known examples of these festal observances. There is also a special rite proper to the feast of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross (September 14) called, appropriately, the Exaltation of the Cross. During the Great Doxology at Orthros the cross, adorned with flowers and herbage is brought in procession to the center of the church where it is placed…

Jun

25

2016

By Fr. Roman Planchak

The Son of Man Forgives Sins

Christian Life, Featured Articles

WE READ IN Matthew 9:1-8 that, when people brought a paralyzed man to the Lord Jesus, He healed the man’s paralysis, but not before telling him, “Your sins are forgiven” (Matthew 9:2). The bystanders’ initial thought that Jesus had blasphemed was replaced by wonder. As Matthew described it, “they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power to men” (Matthew 9:8). The Lord Jesus, of course, was more than just a man. His full humanity was joined without confusion to the divine nature of the Word of God. He forgave sin, then, as the only-begotten Son of the Father.…

Jun

18

2016

By Fr. Roman Planchak

Galilee of the Gentiles

Faith

The passage from St Matthew’s Gospel describing the healing of the demoniac begins with the words, “When Jesus had come to the other side…” (Matthew 8:28). “The other side of what?” we may ask, raising questions of where Jesus went and what it meant for His ministry. How does knowing where He lived and where He travelled contribute to our understanding of who He is and to our way of following Him? The Lord Jesus spent most of His earthly life in the province of Galilee, the northernmost district of the Holy Land. Galilee, north of Samaria, was the ancient…

Nov

25

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

St. Philip’s Fast

Christian Life, Featured Articlesnativity fast, pilipiwka

The American Shopping Season is at hand. Some people will spend it jostling for bargains; others will pass the time lamenting the commercialization of Christmas. The Eastern Churches, on the other hand, encourage their faithful to prepare for this feast by fasting. Each of these Churches has a pre-Nativity Fast, but each Church observes it to a different degree. Like the feast of Christ’s Nativity itself, this fast originated in the West. In ad 380 he Council of Saragossa in Spain mandated daily church attendance beginning on December 17. Pope St Leo the Great (400-461) described four Fasts, one in…

Nov

25

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

The Nativity Fast in the Home

Christian Life, Featured Articlesnativity fast, pilipiwka

The Shopping Season is at hand. Some people will spend it jostling for bargains; others will pass the time lamenting the commercialization of Christmas. The Eastern Churches, on the other hand, encourage their faithful to prepare for this feast by increasing their involvement with the things of God. Please download this wonderful guide to help you prepare for the glorious coming of our Lord! PDF - Christmas-Fast-in-the-Home Source: Eparchy of Newton

Aug

03

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

Blessed Are You Among Women

Faith

Two of the most frequently used prayers in our tradition are taken from the same Gospel narrative: the visit of the Holy Virgin to her older cousin Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist (cf., Luke 1:39-56). Both the Angelic Salutation (“Hail, O Theotokos…”) and the Canticle of the Theotokos (“My soul magnifies the Lord…”) are taken from this passage. The event which it describes is generally called the Visitation. According to Luke, the angel Gabriel who told her that she would bear a son also told her that “Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age;…