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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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Great Lent and Holy Week Renewal of Our Baptism Commitment
Let us enter the season of the radiant Fast with joy,
Giving ourselves to the spiritual combat.
Let us purify our spirit and cleanse our flesh. As we fast from food,
let us abstain from every passion. Rejoicing in the virtues of the Spirit, may we persevere with love
so as to be worthy to see
the solemn Passion of Christ our God, and with spiritual gladness
to behold His holy Resurrection.
(Forgiveness Vespers)
In the early Church baptisms took place in connection with the glorious feast of Christ’s Resurrection. The one to be baptized, the catechumen, was plunged into the baptismal pool, symbolic tomb of Christ, only to be raised with Christ from the tomb which now symbolized a womb to new life. Catechumens studied the Christian faith for one to three years, and the last forty days before their baptisms were given more intense instruction on how to live the life of Christ through prayer, fasting and good works, – the basis for a Christian life. So this season was not dismal or sad and gloomy but rather joyful – living Christ was filled with joy.
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“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Lk. 2: 14
“The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Mt. 20: 24
Dear Friends,
The first verse is the song of the angels on the night of the Nativity of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It’s the programme of heaven for us, the inhabitants of earth.
The second verse is the programme of Jesus, who “for us humans and for our salvation, took flesh and became human” as we state in the Nicene Creed.
The Church Fathers expressed the meaning of these verses – the incarnation, salvation, the passion, the resurrection – in the expression “the economy (or plan) of salvation.”
These salutary verses are the answer to the question that theologians and we ask ourselves, “Cur Deus homo?”
It is also our question about the mystery of the incarnation, the cross and salvation, about the mystery of our life, problems, sicknesses, wars, catastrophes, earthquakes and Coronavirus epidemics.
We shall all continue for ever asking these questions, and the real answer is always that of Jesus and the Gospel. My life has meaning when I realise in my life the angels’ song and Jesus’ word. That means that my life consists of glorifying God and being an agent of peace and joy among human beings. And I shall also act in solidarity with men and women on this earth, together to build a better world, based on the values of faith, hope and charity.
That is Christmas. Happy Feast! Holy year 2021!
Gregorios III
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Bishop Gerald Nicholas Dino, Eparch Emeritus of Phoenix, fell asleep in the Lord on November 14, 2020. Born in 1940 in Binghamton, New York, he was ordained a priest for the Eparchy of Pasaic on March 21, 1965. On December 6, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him bishop of the Eparchy of Van Nuys, and on March 27, 2008 he was consecrated a bishop and served until his retirement at age 76 in 2016.
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Syriac Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus is pictured in a file photo during the consecration service of a chapel in the Jesuit College Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt, Germany. Germany's bishops have pledged to improve the integration of Eastern Catholics in their church, as part of ongoing plans to help migrants and refugees. (Credit: Harald Oppitz/KNA via CNS.)
CruxNow.com - (Jonathan Luxmoore, Oct 19, 2020, catholic news service)
Germany’s bishops have pledged to improve the integration of Eastern Catholics in the predominant Latin-rite church, as part of ongoing plans to help migrants and refugees.
“The Catholic Church in Germany is changing and the life of our parishes becoming more diverse — faithful from Eastern Catholic Churches are living with us and finding their home here,” the bishops’ conference said. “This diversity of Catholic Church traditions should be kept alive, so migrants and refugees can be integrated into our community without losing their own identity.”
“They belong to the Catholic Church but come from different Eastern church traditions. Their developed patterns of liturgy and church law deserve to be valued and cherished.”
The statement, signed by Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg, chairman of the bishops’ Migration Commission, and Auxiliary Bishop Dominicus Meier of Paderborn, the bishops’ representative for Eastern Catholics, accompanied new guidelines for pastoral care of Eastern Catholics lacking their own priests and pastors.
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Vatican.va - The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the Eparchy of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto of the Byzantine Rite Slovaks (Canada) presented by His Grace, Marián Andrej Pacák, C.SS.R., and appointed as Apostolic Administrator to the vacant see of the same circumscription His Grace, Kurt R. Burnette, Bishop of Passaic of the Ruthenians (USA).
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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.