Christian Life – Page 4

Apr

10

2015

Message of His Beatitude Sviatoslav on Pascha 2015

Christian Life, Featured Articles, NewsPastoral Letters, Sviatoslav

Most Reverend Archbishops and Bishops, Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers, Venerable Brothers and Sisters, Dearly Beloved in Christ of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church Christ is Risen! Let the divinely inspired Habbakuk stand with us at the divine watch; Let him show us the brilliant angel who proclaims: Today salvation comes to the world; for Christ, being Almighty, is risen. (Ode 4, Paschal Canon) Beloved in Christ! Once again we gather in Ukraine and throughout the world to greet one another on the glorious feast of our Lord’s Resurrection. For more than a year we have been traveling along a special…

Apr

10

2015

By Fr. Michael Winn

Pastoral Letter of His Beatitude Sviatoslav to the Youth on Palm Sunday 2015

Christian Life, NewsPastoral Letters, Sviatoslav

My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. (Prov. 23:26) Dear Young People in Christ! I always await Palm Sunday with great anticipation – the day of the glorious entrance of Christ into Jerusalem – for it is an opportunity to support and bless you and to speak to you the Word of God. Today we experience a profound Gospel event – the entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem. This is a celebration of Christ’s triumph and glory that opens the door to suffering and death, one of the most important episodes of His life. The…

Mar

07

2015

By Fr. Michael Winn

Lent is Time of ‘Joy’ for Eastern Catholics

Christian Life, Featured Articles, LiturgyLent

by Laura Ieraci The Catholic Telegraph, March 6, 2015 “Joy” is not a word people usually associate with strict fasting and penance — unless they are Eastern-rite Catholics. In the Eastern church, the penitential period that prepares believers to celebrate Easter, is called “Great Lent,” and its prayers invite the faithful to recognize their “need for forgiveness” and to “delight in the joy” of the fast. Mother Theodora, the “hegumena” or abbess of the Byzantine Catholic Christ the Bridegroom Monastery in Burton, Ohio, describes the Lenten disposition as “bright sadness.” “We recognize our weakness and sinfulness, but rejoice in the…

Mar

03

2015

By Robert Taft

Anamnesis not Amnesia – The Healing of Memories and the Problem of Uniatism

Christian Life, Faith, Featured Articles

21st Kelly Lecture, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Canada 1 December 2000 The Very Rev. Archimandrite Robert F. Taft, S.J., Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome No one who keeps abreast of the religious news can be unaware that ecumenical relations between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches are in a period of crisis, worse, perhaps, than at any time since the official international ecumenical dialogue between these two communions began in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. The Eighth Plenary Session of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox…

Feb

24

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

Christ, the Living Bread

Christian LifeFasting, Great Lent, Presanctified Liturgy

“THE DISCIPLES OF JOHAN and of the Pharisees were fasting. Then they came and said to [Jesus], ‘Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days’” (Mark 2:18-20). This exchange, recorded in all three synoptic Gospels, established a principle which…

Feb

12

2015

By Iryna Galadza

Children and the Great Fast

Christian Life, Liturgychildren, Lent

This year, Great Lent approaches on the heels of the Nativity Season. Kolyada in church continues, but the soft and somber sound of The Rivers of Babylon hint at the approaching season of repentance. The familiar Sundays of the Publican and the Pharisee, The Prodigal Son, and the Last Judgement prepare us adults for the spiritual journey of the Great Fast, a journey facilitated by liturgical services, spiritual reading, Lenten missions, fasting and prayer. This season of great challenges is hopefully followed by great rewards. What about our children? How do they fit into the demanding spiritual disciplines of this…

Feb

11

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

Living with Christ Great Lent at Home

Christian Life, Featured Articles, Liturgy

From the Eparchy of Newton. Resource for Great Lent at Home: Great-Lent-at-Home-Complete-w-Cover. PDF, 556KB, 28 pages)

Feb

11

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

Consecrate a Fast

Christian Life, Featured Articles

BEFORE THERE WERE FREEZERS and refrigerators, preparing for the Great Fast involved cleaning out any meat or dairy products on hand. In parts of Europe meats would be cured for consumption after Pascha. Many Greeks observe what has been called “Roasted Thursday” – the Thursday in Meatfare week when all meats would be cooked to be eaten by the weekend. Many Slavs observe maslenitsa, the Slavic version of carnival, using remaining dairy products to make blini and other rich pastries for Cheesefare week. Another aspect of preparing for the Great Fast – which has nothing to do with food –…

Feb

08

2015

By Fr. Michael Bombak

The Three Holy and Great Hierarchs: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom

Christian Life, Featured ArticlesBasil the Great, Bombak, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!" Have you ever been to a symphony and noticed what happens before all the playing begins? All of a sudden you hear the first violinist play a note and everyone tunes their instruments to that one particular and distinct note. This note is the note "A 440." Without hearing it at the beginning the instruments would be in their own tuning instead of tuned together. Without being reminded of this note at the beginning of the show, the show wouldn't be a show. All the notes which the orchestra will play…

Feb

08

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

Instructions for Lent From Our Lord Jesus: Pray, Fast and Give Alms

Christian Life, Featured ArticlesAlms Giving, Fasting, Great Lent, Prayer

Matthew 6: 1-21, NKJV 1* "Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 "Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4* so that your alms may be in secret;…