Ukrainian Catholics worship together, determined to keep age-old liturgy alive

MOUNT ANGEL, OREGON — A shady drive, lined with mossy Douglas fir trees, leads to the Goff family farm, with its century-old farmhouse and groves of filberts.

On the last Sunday in August the afternoon scene included the glint of the altar servers’ gold robes, chairs arranged under birches, masked worshippers patiently waiting and clutches of children making the most of the last moments before the liturgy began.

Father Richard Janowicz stood in prayer at a makeshift altar.

The priest, longtime pastor of Nativity of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Springfield, made the trip to the Goff farm to celebrate a Mass with the Andrey Sheptytsky Ukrainian Catholic Apostolate of Portland. This was the group’s first anniversary.

After the Mass, Father Janowicz described the apostolate as being a little like the hopeful, would-be founders of a mission that doesn’t yet exist. “They have a great dedication to keeping the prayer life and to grow, despite the many challenges of this past year,” he said.

The apostolate includes people like Nada Holovcuk, who worshipped in Ukrainian-rite churches in Bosnia as a child.

“When you go to a service you grew up with, it’s close to your heart,” she said.

Fund-raising tops $136,875

By the Rev. John M. Fields | www.ukrweekly.com

PHILADELPHIA – The Pennsylvania anthracite coal region town of Shenandoah is some 4,550 miles, as the crow flies, from the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine. And Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, is some 4,750 miles from Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. Yet despite time and distance, these towns and cities have a unique relationship, which has its beginning in the latter half of the 19th century.

As immigrants from Eastern Europe came to the United States in the 1880s, a large number of Ukrainians settled in the northeastern Pennsylvania coal region. In the Schuylkill County town of Shenandoah, these new arrivals to America established in 1884 the first Eastern Catholic Church in the United States. From this Ukrainian Greek-Catholic parish, the Church experienced rapid growth as more immigrants from Ukraine arrived and, with the arrival of Bishop Soter Ortynsky in 1907, Philadel­phia became the home of this developing Church.

Oregon, Ohio - Three hundred and fifty years after she first wept in compassion for peasants in present-day Slovakia, the Blessed Virgin Mary of Klokočov is coming to Oregon.

St. Michael the Archangel Byzantine Catholic Church, 4001 Navarre Ave., Oregon, will display a copy of the weeping icon beginning Monday through Aug. 30. The local parish is the latest site on a regional pilgrimage that began in June under Ohio's Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma.

St. Michael Parish welcomes the public to view and venerate the icon each day between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.

A two-dimensional image of Mary, wearing a crown and holding a similarly crowned Jesus, the icon depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary of Klokočov is spiritually significant in a faith tradition that holds icons themselves as spiritually significant, as St. Michael's Rev. Robert Stash explained in an interview anticipating the arrival of the icon on Monday.

The St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church gathers for liturgy while having to adhere to a 15 person capacity limit. (Article and Photo by Taylor Clark)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Under the latest Anchorage Emergency Order, churches and other types of gatherings are once again put on capacity limits. Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said that the vast majority of churches are complying or working with the muni to figure out a way to hold services. One following the mandates the best they can while still holding services is the St. Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church, led by Father Joseph Wargacki.

Under the order, 15 people are allowed at indoor gatherings. On Sunday’s liturgy, there were 11 adults, five children, and one infant present in the main chapel, including people helping with the service. Father Wargacki said they’re doing what they can to keep folks safe, but the number of people inside at one time can fluctuate.

Continue Reading at ktuu.com.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops News Release - July 21 at 7:39 AM

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is inviting all Christians and people of goodwill to join in a Day of Mourning on Friday, July 24 for the conversion of the #HagiaSophia in Istanbul back into a mosque after serving for over eighty years as a museum. The museum was a place of encounter and dialogue between people of all faiths and cultures. The Greek Orthodox have asked that every Church toll its bells, every flag be raised to half-mast and that the Akathist Hymn is chanted in the evening. For Catholics unfamiliar with the Akathist Hymn, the recitation of the Rosary is recommended, as both prayers entreat the Mother of God for her intercession.

https://www.goarch.org/-/july-24-day-of-mourning

Today, July 14th., +Bp. Milan Šašik CM (1952-2020), the diocesan bishop of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo, Transcarpathia (Ukraine), died suddenly.

Blessed repose! Eternal Memory...Вѣчнаѧ памѧть! Boldog nyugalmat és örök emléket. (From Father Michael Hayduk)

Sloatsbug, NY - Due to the Coronavirus, the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate Announce that the 66th Holy Dormition Pilgrimage August 8 -9, 2020 will be a Virtual Pilgrimage (via internet) this year. We had hoped that this year’s pilgrimage would have been a place of sanctuary where all of us could gather to replenish our souls after the devastating effects of this pandemic. However, there is still uncertainty as to when travel and gathering in large groups will be safe.We plan to live-stream Divine Liturgy for that weekend as well as offer other opportunities for the faithful to receivespiritual graces.We will try to have the Divine Liturgy also broadcast on television.We hope to provide opportunities for those who do not have internet access. Please watch for details in the near future at ssmi-us.org .

Monasteries uphold the domestic church, and the domestic church is illuminated by the monasteries.

Robert Klesko | ncregister.com

It’s safe to say that 2020 has been a particularly trying year, especially for people of faith. We’ve been separated from our churches, from the sacraments, and from the spiritual nourishment of kinship and community. This year, especially through Lent and the Easter season, life felt especially dry and arid for many. It was within this desert of isolation that a stream of living water was opened up by my favorite Eastern Catholic nuns — the nuns of Christ the Bridegroom Monastery in Burton, Ohio.

The Monastery of Christ the Bridegroom is about a 45-minute ride southeast of Cleveland. It was founded in 2009 and was recently raised to a sui iuris monastery of eparchial right in 2019 by Bishop Milan Lach of the Eparchy of Parma (Ruthenian). The monastery is headed by Mother Theodora, who serves as hegumena (abbess) and currently has three “life-professed” members (also called stavrophore or “cross-bearer”) and two rasophore (“robe-bearer”) members. I was privileged to meet and spend time with Mother Theodora when she appeared on EWTN Live in July 2019. It was clear from my time with Mother that she is a woman who is in love with her vocation and deeply in love with Christ the Bridegroom.

It’s fairly uncommon, among Eastern Catholic monasteries, to identify the community ethos through the image and theology of Christ the Bridegroom. But when you spend time with the nuns, it becomes clear that it is a perfect fit! The striving for union with God, which is the singular occupation of monastic life — and indeed, all Christian life — is well encapsulated by marital imagery. Sister Petra, one of the rasophore nuns, explains:

The Bridegroom is the One Who pursues our souls and beckons us as His Bride, the Church into union with Him, “Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one, and come!” (SOS 2:13) He calls us to union, yearning to penetrate every recess of our hearts with His life-giving Spirit, to bring forth in us spiritual fruit that will last for all eternity. To encounter Christ as Bridegroom is to know yourself sought and desired by God, purchased by a Love “stern as death” (SOS 8:6) It is to respond with the total gift of yourself to the God-Man, Jesus Christ; to know yourself claimed in love. Of course, this union becomes reality in prayer (we call our cell rule the hour of private prayer we each offer each day in our own cells our “spousal prayers”), through which we learn to hear His Voice and reveal ourselves to Him. The Bridegroom is the Fulfillment of all desire, but we in this world we are as yet only espoused to Him: the consummation will only be realized in Heaven. Thus, to turn to Christ as Bridegroom is to live in hope, with faith that “hope does not disappoint us” (Rom. 5:5).

This love of Christ the Bridegroom has produced spiritual fruit for several thousand recently through the monastery’s outreach during Lent and Holy Week. When the churches closed, the nuns (by way of a providential penance) took to building a guide for the domestic Church for Lent and Holy Week (now expanded beyond the Paschal season). Mother Cecilia, who spearheaded the monastery’s efforts, explains:

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McLean, VA - Photos from Holy Transfiguration Parish celebrating the Sunday of Orthodoxy. During Matins the Seventh Ecumencial Council was remembered wih the traditional procession with icons was held together with the pronouncement of the anathamas.