Featured Articles – Page 19

Apr

24

2015

Why Are There Two Paschas?

Christian Life, Faith, Featured ArticlesPascha

A sore point in the relationship between the Churches concerns the date on which we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. Often one group of Christians is observing Pascha while their neighbors may have up to a month to go before they do the same. While some people may enjoy having two festive meals as a result (they rarely observe both fasts), Christians have always seen this as a regrettable, if unavoidable anomaly. The Quartodecimans The oldest celebration of Christ’s resurrection is not Pascha (Easter) but every Sunday, the Lord’s Day. When an annual festival came into being is not known…

Apr

24

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

A Lamb Without Blemish and Without Spot

Faith, Featured Articles

What’s in a name?” This question, which Shakespeare put in the mouth of Juliet, has become something of a cliché ever since. Nevertheless, it is certainly a valid question when we look at our name for the Feast of Christ’s Resurrection. In AD 725 St Bede the Venerable, an English monk and scholar, addressed this question in his work, The Reckoning of Time. He tells us that the word “Easter” was the Old English term for the month which we call April and which, in turn “was once called after a goddess of theirs named Ēostre, in whose honor feasts…

Apr

18

2015

By UGCC Bishops of Canada

Message of the UGCC Bishops of Canada on Pascha 2015

Featured Articles, UGCCPascha, Pastoral Letters, UGCC Bishops of Canada

To the Reverend Clergy, Monastics and Religious Sisters and Brothers, Seminarians and Laity of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Canada: Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen! Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ! “Behold, today is the day of the Resurrection, let us glory in the Feast; let us embrace one another in joy” (from Resurrection Matins). The glorious proclamation of Our Lord’s Resurrection marks the most joyous and transformative event in human history. During the Resurrection Matins, we are overwhelmed by the power of God’s graciousness, a power that moves us to recognize more clearly the meaning of life…

Apr

17

2015

By Brent Kostyniuk

Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky, CSsR – A Martyr for Christ

Both Lungs, Featured Articles

by Brent Kostyniuk When I was in Grade Three, our teacher asked the class what we would do if someone came into the room and threatened to shoot anyone who was Christian. It was an incredibly scary prospect back then and it still is today. Yet, there are brave and faithful people who resist any temptation to deny their faith and face martyrdom instead. Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky did exactly that. Vasyl Velychkovsky was born in 1903 into a priestly family in Western Ukraine. His father was a priest, as were both his grandfathers. After serving as a rifleman in World…

Apr

10

2015

By Fr. Michael Winn

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…

Mar

31

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

The Seal on Our Repentance

Featured Articles, LiturgyMystery of Holy Unction

Source: Eparchy of Newton During the forty days of the Great Fast the Church urges us to ascetic effort as a preparation for the observances of Holy Week and Pascha. We know that, by His death and resurrection, Christ has achieved the restoration of our human nature in Himself and has enabled us to share in His victory over sin and death by baptism. Like Adam in the resurrection icon, Christ has taken us by the hand to draw us from the pit of spiritual death. But we know that, like Adam, our feet are still in the grave. It…

Mar

31

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

Christ in Prophetic Song

Faith, Featured ArticlesMatins, Old Testament

Source: Eparchy of Newton When the Risen Christ joined the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Gospel says that, “beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). Where and how did Moses and the prophets speak of Jesus, whom the biblical teachers of His day did not recognize? The Church Fathers described the references to Christ in the Old Testament as a typology. A Biblical “type” is a person or event which points beyond its original meaning to something greater to come. The human author –…

Mar

07

2015

By Fr. Roman Planchak

“See, See That I am God”

Faith, Featured ArticlesGreat Lent, Matins, Old Testament

Source: Eparchy of Newton PEOPLE FAMILIAR WITH the Church’s morning service (Matins or Orthros) would recognize the term “Ninth Ode.” It refers to the Biblical canticle of the Theotokos which begins, “My soul magnifies the Lord…” (cf., Luke 1:46-55) sung at this service. This hymn expresses the joyful gratitude of the holy Virgin at the incarnation of Christ in her womb. Calling this canticle the “Ninth Ode” raises a question. Where are the other eight? We rarely, if ever, hear of them. There are nine Biblical canticles which at one time were sung at Matins/Orthros. With the development of 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

04

2015

By Fr. Michael Winn

All Souls Saturdays

Featured Articles, LiturgyBurial, Death, Funeral, Lent

ALL SOULS SATURDAY The Holy Fathers were convinced that the commemoration of the departed by alms and sacrifices [Divine Liturgies] brings great comfort and benefit to them. (Synaxarion for Meat-fare Saturday) One of the most venerable traditions in the Church, equally observed in the West as in the East, is the commemoration of the departed in our liturgical prayers. It is the constant teaching of the Church since Apostolic times (cf. Synaxarion) that the departed can be helped by our prayers, offerings and good deeds. St. John Chrysostom (+407) in speaking of the faithful departed reminded his people; Let us…