“This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29). The last words of this Gospel passage explain its selection for reading at today’s Divine Liturgy, In the home stretch of the Great Fast we may need to be reminded that effectiveness in the Christian life demands more than occasional application. We […]
Search Results for: Great Fast Lent
A Fastless Fast?
CHEESEFARE SUNDAY IS TRADITIONALLY the last day for eating dairy products until Pascha, as the Great Fast begins tomorrow. This poses a problem in our society where meat and dairy are the substance of every meal. Some people say that they cannot do without meat and so they only fast sporadically. By this they may […]
Great and Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
The following is excerpted from A Paschal Pilgrimage: A Guide to the Great Fast by Bishop Basil Losten. The Bridegroom Cometh On Palm Sunday evening at Vespers we “pass from the feast of palms and branches… to the saving solemnity of the sufferings of Christ.” On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning of Holy Week, Matins […]
Paschal Letter of the UGCC Bishops of Canada 2023
To the Reverend Fathers, Religious Sisters, Venerable Monastics,Brothers and Sisters in Christ! Were not our hearts burning inside…It is true. Our Lord is risen!(Luke 24:32, 34) Christ is Risen! Dearly Beloved in Christ! Following the ancient tradition, our Church invited us to more intense prayer, penance, and charity during the forty days of the Great […]
Ever Changing Liturgy
by Brent Kostyniuk A youngish man gets woken up by his wife on Sunday morning. “Time to get ready for church.” “No! I’m not going today.” “Give me three good reasons why,” his wife replied. “It’s always the same. The sermons are boring. Besides, I went last week. Give me three good reasons why I […]
Only One Thing Will Remain – That Which You Have Given to the Poor
Pastoral Letter of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church of 2020 to the clergy, religious, and laity Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers!Venerable Brothers and Sisters in Religious Life!Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ! I. “The poor you always have with you” (Jn 12:8): the faces and dimensions of poverty around us 1. […]
2019 Easter Pastoral Letter from the UGCC Bishops of Canada
To the Very 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, One day during this past month of March, many of us opened the newspaper and saw a disturbing headline: “City of […]
Gen 1: 1-13- Back to Basics
Glory be to Jesus Christ! Brothers and sisters we have arrived at the Great and Holy Fast, the training ground of our souls, and the desert through which we travel to witness the Lord’s Resurrection! Let us enter the Fast with joy! Lent is many things, but one very important element of the fast is […]
St. Lucian of Antioch: Scholar and Martyr
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 […]
The Son of Man Forgives Sins
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 […]