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ByzanTEEN Pilgrimage



Pilgrimage 2000 invites us to look at Vocations to Ministry in the Church as well as contemplation of the Holy Eucharist.


Friday, August 31, 2001

8:00 PM Welcome / Evening Social with Refreshments
Rev. Thomas Loya
Sister Celeste Strohmeyer, OSBM


Saturday, September 1, 2001

2:00 - 3:00 PM Moleben for Vocations
"When He wants to get the job done, God sends a teen."

3:00 - 4:00 PM Talk / Dialogue
"Well, I said I was sorry..."

9:00 - 10:30 PM Teen Social at Prayer Garden
Volleyball / Soccer at Race Track


Sunday, September 2, 2000

2:00 - 3:00 PM
Talk / Dialogue
"Eucharist - Extreme Intimacy"

3:30 PM
Teen Procession for the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy
Teens to process together and carry the Icons and Banners for the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy

8:00 PM
Candlelight Procession

9:00 - 10:30 PM Pizza Social



ByzanTEEN Pilgrimage takes place at the Lower Level of the Prayer Garden

except for those activities noted as being held elsewhere.

Hieromonk Elias,

Last year, in addition to the Slavonic Divine Liturgy on Sunday, there was also a Slavonic Divine Liturgy on Monday morning at 7:30 A.M.

Joe Prokopchak
O' Lord, forgive me for I have sinned without number.

SLAVA ISUSU CHRISTU!
SLAVA NA VIKI BOHU!

Fr. Elias!

The schedule I saw in the ECL shows a 7:00 Divine Liturgy in OCS on Monday morning. Hope to see you there.

Any workshop at your parish with Valentine this year??

mark

I heartell that Fr. Custer will be meeting with single young adults (on the other side of the garden wall from the teens). Is this on a published schedule?

Greetings my brothers and sisters,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

I guess I'll have to show up at one of the Slovanic Liturgies and we'll meander around smartly until we figure out who each other are. I know Sharon Mech and her beautiful son. We met at Ligonier in March. Anyway, I hope to meet Joe Prokopchak as well. I'm a native of Uniontown and I'd like to thank Joe for his wonderful pictures over the last two years.

Safe travels.

Palomnicki Uniontownski,

Rick Cooley
Hagerstown, MD

I have a simple question, or at least I hope it is. Since unlike Sharon I can't pack our kids meals in a diaper bag, how do we handle feeding hungry teens, 17 & 19 years old during the day. Are there good restaurants close by?

I am sure I have missed something in all of this. Is there a scedule posted so I can get the complete happenings of the event.

Thanks,
In Christ,
Rose

Rose,

I can't pack kid meals in a diaper bag either. (I'd look awfully silly wearing a diaper bag on my chest, eh? )

Click on the "Byzantine Catholic Church in America" link at the bottom of the page, then scroll down to the Calendar of Events area. I haven't checked, but I think the schedule should be there by now. If not, click on the Sisters of St. Basil link & check there.

There are food sources available. Onsite there is a "light lunch" stand, a stuffed cabbage-ish stand aand the like. Immediately across the street is a mall. The mall outlots have sit-down places like Ponderosa & East & Park (I've always thought they got the name backwards - don't you want to park before you eat?) as well as Phast Phood joints like Burger Thing & McDogfoods.

Hey, if you come, please say howdy! Best place to find me will be at the Saturday noon Liturgy. I'm not quite 5'5", not built like a model, wear glasses, will have on either a schmatte (shade & indoors) or a big hat (sun) will be accompanied by a 9 month old who may or may not be wearing (or chewing on) a hot-chili-pepper patterned French Foreign Legion-style hat, and I sing mezzo-soprano.

Hope to see you there! Prepare for both sun & rain, and wear the most comfortable, supportive shoes you own.

Best,

Sharon

Sharon Mech, SFO
Cantor & sinner
sharon@cmhc.com

[ 08-27-2002: Message edited by: Sharon Mech ]

Hi Rose

Across the street from Mt.St.Macrina is the Uniontown Mall. They have a couple of resteraunts, The Beanery is good, plus a pizza place with all kinds of pizza, subs etc. Also in the near the mall are McDonald's, Burger King, Red Lobster, Eat-N-Park, Steak House, Yum-Yum Donuts, Denny's, Bob Evans Resteraunt.

There are also other places if you want to leave the Mount and take a drive. There are several good places on McClellandtown Road, just down the street from the Mount.

If you have any questions, you can email me.

mark

I will pray that all of you who are going will be transformed by this year's pilgrimage. May you all become shining lights!

And I hope and pray that all of you who are going will pray for the rest of us who cannot go for whatever reason.

And, yes, let us pray for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and to the monastic life -- just as our Holy Father has asked us to do.

May this year's pilgrimage be the most spiritual ever!!!!

Ok, I give,

Ya'll are talking to the Southern Baptist convert here. What are the crosses on the poles for surrounded by the flowers. My mind would say similar to but not like the exatation of the cross. In that the Holy Cross is always before us.

Now explain the name, and what the tradition is, and where it is from, and any other info you think would be benificial. I will have to explain this to the kids. Also, sould I bring our icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Rose

Dearly beloved in Christ,

Glory to Jesus Christ !

The 2002 Pilgrimage schedule is now posted online for all to see. Click on the url below to see it.

2002 Pilgrimage schedule

Joe Prokopchak
"Through the prayers of the Mother of God, O' Savior save us".

Hey Rose,

What are the odds? A Jew & a Baptist here, chatting about BC customs.

I haven't a clue of the origin, but the crosses of which you speak are processional crosses. For most churches they are the cross that is ordinarily taken in processions at the parish, but dressed up with a wreath of flowers (honor, decoration, etc) and a streamer with the church's name & location.

I don't know if this is the "official" reason, but it seems to me that folks bring them to Otpust as a way of indicating THEIR parish representation at Mt. St. Macrina. The crosses are also part of the processions to the "big" liturgies, and an awfully pretty sight.

I said "most" crosses were "official." St. John Chrysostom parish in Columbus, Ohio has the only "grass roots" processional cross I know of. We're kinda a "diaspora" parish. A dozen or two folks from our parish go to Uniontown every year, but it's not a parish thing - just the families going individually - which is fine. But the few of us who DO go got tired of being the only parish there without a processional cross planted at the Shrine Altar. There wasn't any real danger of our being permitted to take the official one out of church, so we decided to make our own. I cross-stitched the streamer with our name & location, another lady at the parish made the flower wreath & tacked my stitchings to a ribbon backing. Some woodworkers we had worked with previously cut the cross for us, and we had them put it in a circle to start with, since it would make holding the wreath easier. A gentleman in the parish crafted the mounting. (Our processional cross travels with an allen wrench so we can disassemble it to fit in cars.) It's been going to Uniontown for several years now. Mind you it usually STAYS up at the Shrine Altar - so far we haven't worked out being sure someone's there to carry it in processions (I'm with the cantors, and do not enjoy bilocation) but it's THERE, and we are happy. Baby steps.

Sure, bring any icons you like. My "travel" icons (St. Mary of Egypt & St. Seraphim of Sarov) go with me practically everywhere. If your icon is not laminated & sealed, I'd strongly suggest carrying it in/with something waterproof (gallon Ziploc?) as rain can sometimes hit when ya least expect it.

Hope to meet you there!


Sharon

[ 08-29-2002: Message edited by: Sharon Mech ]

Dear Rose 'n Sharon,

Sounds positively biblical, doesn't it?

Yes, during Whirled Yoot Week in Tah-ranna I saw numerous groups with similar Crosses and banners indicating where they were from.

The school next to where I work had pilgrims from the Diocese of Rome (their Bishop was in town, after all . . .).

They had an interesting way of going out to breakfast each morning.

They went in procession with the Cross and banner in front.

Another group from Florence had a banner with their local miraculous icon of the Mother of Jesus on it, a beautiful Byzantine icon would you believe.

As I knew about its history, I told them that, "This means you must belong to the Carmelite monastery at blah-blah-blah . . ."

Icons and images like that used to have a similar function to coats-of-arms for soldiers and aristocracy - it indicated symbolically where one was from and one's identity.

The raising of a pole with a Cross was first done by St Helena in Jerusalem, by tradition, when she discovered the True Cross.

This tradition continued ever since and is most beautifully done liturgically with the slow raising of a Cross on Holy Cross Day to the chanting of 400 "Lord have Mercy" by the Priest to the four directions.

Alex

Hi Rose

In the "old days", each parish would have it's own chartered bus that would bring pilgrims. The buses would un-load at the bottom of the Hill and with their processional cross the pilgrims would start walking up the Hill singing their parish "pilgrimage song" and would receive the blessing after registering.

There are still some buses that stop and let the pilgrims off on Sunday morning.

I'm bring 2 new ikons that I wrote this summer to blessed at the Otpust.

mark

Alex dear,


Having grown up Jewish, I naturally had a Hebrew name - Shoshana - which is indeed "Rose."


BTW, have ya seen the bumper sticker "Visualize Whirled Peas" ?


So next year, you gonna come to Uniontownski?


Sharon