Featured Articles

Aug
03
2014
By Fr. Roman Planchak
The First Athenian to Believe

The First Athenian to Believe

Faith, Featured Articles
When we read the Acts of the Apostles we may feel that the apostles had success after success. That wasn’t always the case. St Paul had the following experience in Athens, the intellectual capital of the Greek world, recorded in Acts 17:16-34. He was waiting for Silas and Timothy to rejoin him and continue their journey when, as the Scripture says, “…his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the Gentile worshippers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to…
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Jul
27
2014
By Fr. Roman Planchak
Jewel of the Martyrs

Jewel of the Martyrs

Faith, Featured Articles
Few Christians have not heard of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. After living in India for twenty years, teaching in a (middle class) girls high school, she received what she termed “a call within a call” to devote the rest of her life to caring for the sick poor while living among them. At her death there were over 4500 sisters in the religious community she founded. Mother Teresa is a modern example of what our Tradition calls “Unmercenary Healers,” people – usually physicians – who cared for the sick without pay, offering their skills back to God as their sacrifice…
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Jul
20
2014
By Fr. Roman Planchak
The Pillar of the Prophets

The Pillar of the Prophets

Faith, Featured Articles
The Scriptures are filled with writings of the prophets, particularly the fifteen books named after the most celebrated Hebrew prophets. Nevertheless, the one most revered as “the pillar of the prophets and their leader” (aposticha) seems to have written nothing, except a letter to King Jehoram of Israel, which was delivered sometime after the prophet had left this world (cf., 2 Chronicles 21:10-12). Elijah (Elias) the Thisbite lived in the ninth century BC, in the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Ahab. Five hundred years had passed since Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. Several generations…
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Jul
18
2014
By Fr. Roman Planchak
Vehicles for Unity

Vehicles for Unity

Faith, Featured Articles
Many Christian Churches in America were founded by a pastor who had a Bible, a microphone and a conviction that God wanted him to preach. So he gathered a few followers (often his own relatives), rented space and scheduled services. Americans see nothing unusual in this – after all freedom of speech and individual initiative are hallmarks of the American way of doing things. Why not in the Church? The historic Churches (those of the first centuries) saw things differently. Many of these Churches had, in fact, been founded by one of the apostles or their co-workers. They emphasized that…
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Jun
30
2014
By Fr. Roman Planchak
Peter the Rock of Faith

Peter the Rock of Faith

Christian Life, Faith, Featured Articles
Most of the Epistles found in the New Testament are attributed to St. Paul. In addition there are three Epistles of St John, one each of James and Jude, and two of St Peter. Since these are not read at a Sunday Divine Liturgy, we may be less familiar with them. They are all read at weekday Liturgies in the time between the Theophany and the beginning of the Great Fast. In addition portions of 1 Peter are read at Great Vespers on June 29, the feast of Ss. Peter and Paul. 1 Peter is addressed to Christians in “Pontus,…
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Jun
26
2014
By Fr. Michael Winn
UGCC bishops urge the faithful to continue fasting and to continually pray for peace in Ukraine

UGCC bishops urge the faithful to continue fasting and to continually pray for peace in Ukraine

Featured Articles, News
“Our Christian conscience tells us … that we do not have the right to let our hands down. We should continue in praying and fasting. In this complicated time for our country, we beseech the Almighty for victory over the machinations of an outside aggressor and for peace on our land,” write the members of the Synod of Bishops of the UGCC Kyiv-Halych Major Archbishopric in their “Appeal to the faithful and all people of goodwill” to continue on-going praying and fasting for peace in Ukraine. The Greek-Catholic bishops are appealing to UGCC faithful and generally to all Christians and…
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Jun
23
2014
By Fr. Roman Planchak
Harbinger of the Sun

Harbinger of the Sun

Featured Articles, Liturgy
Our Church Calendar remembers many events in Christian history: martyrdoms, ecumenical councils, miracles, and even earthquakes. There are only three births celebrated, however: that of the Theotokos (September 8), the nativity of Christ Himself (December 25) and the birth of St John the Forerunner (June 24). We do not know where or when this feast was first observed, but it is mentioned in writings of fourth- and fifth-century Fathers in both East and West (Saints Ambrose, Augustine and John Chrysostom). The oldest shrine of the Forerunner, at Ain-Karem, home of his parents Zachariah and Elizabeth, was destroyed during the fifth-century…
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Jun
18
2014
By Fr. Roman Planchak
Glorified In His Saints

Glorified In His Saints

Faith, Featured Articles
Catholic and Orthodox Christians are sometimes criticized by people because of the reverence we show to the saints. Critics may feel that we ignore the Lord, preferring to pay homage to favorite saints. Seeing how some believers act, we may understand why some Protestants and others may feel as they do. Some devotees of the saints lavish more praise on the saints than on Christ. While such behavior may be misguided, an appropriate devotion to the Theotokos and other saints is not. For us, the saints are the “proof” that the Holy Spirit truly came upon the Church at Pentecost.…
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Jun
11
2014
By Brent Kostyniuk
Both Sides

Both Sides

Both Lungs, Christian Life, Faith, Featured Articles
by Brent Kostyniuk “I’ve looked at life from both sides now…” I’m sure Joni Mitchell’s words mean something different to just about everyone who hears them. Over the past several months, they have taken on a special new meaning for me, as I reflect on St. John Paul II’s famous exhortation that the Church needs to breathe through both lungs - East and West. For the past five years, this column has used the saint’s words as a focus in attempting to spread knowledge and appreciation of Eastern theology and spirituality to those from the Christian West. Often, the theme…
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Jun
10
2014
By Fr. Roman Planchak
We Have Received the Heavenly Spirit

We Have Received the Heavenly Spirit

Faith, Featured Articles
“On the first day of the week we pray standing, but everyone does not know why.” This issue, raised in the fourth century by St. Basil the Great, may be just as timely today. In most Eastern Churches standing is the most appropriate posture for prayer. Sitting is always in order for those who are physically weaker (due to sickness, age, pregnancy, etc). Kneeling, however, is not considered proper on Sundays or during the Paschal season, which ends today. St Basil gives two reasons why we should pray standing on Sunday: the first is that it is the day on…
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