Phil Battey | Special to the Catholic Herald

May 5, 1968. Protests in France sparked street battles in Paris between students and army troops. Communist units initiated Phase II of the Tet Offensive, attacking 119 targets in South Vietnam, including the capital Saigon. Bobby Goldboro’s Honey was Number 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 record chart. And at Our Lady of the Annunciation Cathedral in West Roxbury, Mass., Bishop Justin Najmy ordained 25-year-old Deacon Joseph Francavilla as a priest in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. As Father Francavilla put on his vestments for the first time as a priest, the congregation chanted again and again:  “Axios” — Greek for “He is worthy.”

“It was a beautiful spring day in Boston, and you don’t get many of those there,” recalled Father Francavilla, who will celebrate his 50th anniversary as a priest next month. “I would spend the next four years assisting at Annunciation Cathedral and then come to Washington as pastor of the newly established Holy Transfiguration Church in McLean.”  He has served at Holy Transfiguration, one of five Eastern Catholic parishes in the Washington area, for the past 47 years.

Fairfax, Virginia – A new and unique daily prayer app is now available from Eastern Christian Publications for iOS and Android devices.  The app is titled “ECPubs” and is available for free download from either the Apple Store or Google Play.  This is the only Byzantine Catholic app available in English with all the changeable prayer texts included for the Daily Office.

The app is updated daily with full texts of The Hours and Daily Vespers, and with all changeable parts included according to the Byzantine Typicon, or liturgical calendar. The main options in the app are:

- Prayer of the Day – icon and troparia (hymns) for the saint of the day
- Java with Jesus – daily reflections to read while you have your morning coffee
- Living Our Faith – thoughts for the day from several international writers
- The Hours – prayer text of the First, Third, Sixth and Ninth Hours
- Daily Vespers – prayer texts with changeable parts for a Reader Service and for Clergy
- Sunday Bulletin – image and commentary from the Sunday of the week
- Theosis Magazine – monthly spiritual essays in full color as an ebook
- Book of the Month – short excerpt from a featured book from ECP
- Intro to Prayer – an educational explanation of the Byzantine Daily Office
- Websites – links to various Eastern Christian websites

A free-will offering or monthly stipend is requested from those users who find the app useful and can afford to help support it financially.

ECP has published over 200 titles since starting in 1993 including 20 volumes of the Eastern Churches Journal, 6 years of Theosis magazine (a full-color monthly publication of spiritual essays and the Byzantine calendar), and color Sunday bulletin covers for over 250 parishes across the US and Canada.  Book subjects cover the history, theology, spirituality, ecumenism, biographies, and liturgy of the Eastern Christian Churches, both Catholic and Orthodox.

Fairfax, Virginia – The 22nd Annual Orientale Lumen Conference will be held on June 18-21, 2018 in Washington, DC on the theme: “Sister Churches: Fact or Fiction?”  The conference is open to the public but advanced reservations are required.  The agenda will include six plenary sessions of lectures and discussion of the conference theme, ecumenical prayer services from the Byzantine Christian tradition, and fellowship at meals and evening receptions.

Plenary speakers for this conference will include:

•    Patriarch Emeritus Gregorios III, retired primate of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem
•    Father Hyacinthe Destivelle, OP, from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in the Vatican
•    Father John Ford, CSC, professor emeritus of ecumenism of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC
•    Father Robert Kaslyn, SJ, professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC
•    Dr. Will Cohen from the University of Scranton and author of “The Concept of ‘Sister Churches’ in Catholic-Orthodox Relations since Vatican II”
•    Mr. Michael Haldas, author, educator and lecturer from Bethesda, MD
•    Father Ron Roberson, CSP, will be the moderator

A pre-recorded video by Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware), professor emeritus from Oxford University, on the conference theme will be shown at the opening session.

Historic Ukrainian Catholic Liturgies now Available
in DVD from OLTV

Fairfax, Virginia – In October, 2017 two historic celebrations of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom in the Ukrainian language took place in London, England. The first was in Westminster Cathedral, the central Catholic Cathedral of all of Great Britain and Wales, hosted by Cardinal Vincent Nichols.  The second was in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family near Grosvenor Square and Oxford Street.  

For the Liturgy in Westminster Cathedral, Major-Archbishop Sviatoslav, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Kyiv, was the main celebrant with 30 other Eastern Catholic bishops from all of Europe and 20 Roman Catholic bishops of Great Britain.  Over 1,000 people attended and a 100-voice choir led the singing.  Cardinal Nichols welcomed everyone and was the homilist.  This was the first time in history that such a large celebration of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy occurred in Westminster, and the first time that special permission was given for video recording in the cathedral.

Fairfax, Virginia – The Congregation for Eastern Churches in the Vatican recently authorized Eastern Christian Publications (ECP) to scan and reprint a four-volume series of liturgical texts in Greek known as the Anthologion.  The original books, published from 1967 to 1980, are now out of print and unavailable.  They contain the complete texts for Matins, Vespers, Compline and other daily services along with all the changeable parts for the four major seasons of the liturgical year and the saint-of-day for those same periods.  They are:

•    Volume I: September 1 through the beginning of Lent (1688 pages)
•    Volume II: January 15 through Lent and Holy Week (1624 pages)
•    Volume III: Pascha through June 30 (1032 pages)
•    Volume IV: All Saints’ Sunday through August 31 (1224 pages)

An original copy has been provided to ECP by the Congregation from their archives for high-resolution scanning and cleaning.  The final printed editions will be enhanced and slightly enlarged.  The books will be offered on a “print-on-demand” basis in either unbound folios or with hard-back binding.  Orders will take 6-8 weeks to manufacture and deliver.

New Book!

A series of essays by Patriarch Emeritus Gregorios III

148 pages with colour illustrations

Published by Eastern Christian Publications

http://ecpubs.com/product/ecclesiology/

ISBN: 978-1-940219-33-2

Price $15

press.vatican.va (2018-02-12) - At 11.45 this morning, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the members of the Greek-Melkite Synod, and addressed the following words to them:

Address of the Holy Father

Beatitude, dear Brothers in the Episcopate,

Thank you for your visit. The happy occasion is given by the public event of the Ecclesiastical Communion, which will take place tomorrow morning during the Eucharistic celebration and which I have already had the opportunity to grant to Your Beatitude in the Letter of 22 June, after your election as Patriarch, Pater et Caput, on the part of the Synod of Bishops.

So, as today, dear Brother, I assure you of my constant closeness in prayer: that the Risen Lord will be near you and accompany you in the mission entrusted to you. It is a prayer that cannot be dissociated from that for the beloved Syria and for all the Middle East, a region in which your Church is deeply rooted and performs a precious service for the good of the People of God. A presence, yours, which is not limited to the Middle East, but has extended, for many years now, to those countries where many Greek-Melkite faithful have moved in search of a better life. My prayer and my affectionate remembrance goes also to those faithful in the diaspora and to their Pastors.

Zenit.org - Pope Francis visited Rome’s Greek-Catholic Community of Ukrainians today at the Basilica of St. Sophia on Via Boccea, northwest of Rome, Jan. 28, 2018.

The Pope arrived around 4 p.m., after having celebrated Mass this morning at Rome’s Marian Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and after having his traditional noon Angelus.

Jumbotrons were set up outside the church transmitting coverage to the faithful unable to be inside. Faithful welcomed the Pope with Ukrainian Christmas songs because for Greek-Catholic Ukrainians, following the Julian calendar, it is still Christmastime, since the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple is February 18.

Continue reading at Zenit.org.

Patriarch of Antioch for Syriac Catholic Church Ignatius Youssef III Younan Delivers Christmas Message Shedding Light on His People’s Situation

Here are excerpts of the Christmas message of Ignatius Youssef III Younan, Patriarch of Antioch for Syriac Catholic Church, provided to Zenit by Patriarch Younan:

__

Christmas Message 2017

of Ignatius Youssef III YOUNAN

Patriarch of Antioch for Syriac Catholic Church

***

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14)

Dear brothers and sisters: I am quite confident that in each Christmas celebration, while contemplating the Divine Child of Bethlehem, Emmanuel, we deepen our faithfulness to our Lord Jesus Christ and strive to live His message of Love and Peace. God so loved us that He became one of us to lift us up to Him:

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14)

The message of Christmas Night brought down by the angel to the humble shepherds of Bethlehem, still resonates year after year in our heart, as a message of peace, joy and reconciliation. A wonderful message that was chanted by the Angels: “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to people of good will”. Let us remember that in the Syriac-Aramaic version of this angelica song, we read: “..and Good hope for human beings!” (Lc 2:14).

Saint James of Sarug (5th-6th century) one among the greatest fathers of the Syriac Church, gave us this following hymn: ”Glory to the Father who sent His Word to become flesh, adoration to the Son who, though unlimited, became limited in a manger and thanksgiving to the Spirit who chanted in the mouth of the angels: Glory in the highest and peace on earth”