Today marks the third day of our 48-day Great Fast that is leading us to the Paschal joy of the Resurrection.  As our Roman Catholic brethren begin their lenten journeys today by putting ashes on their heads, we continue ours with the   vesperal Pre-Sanctified Liturgy. As they bury their alleluias, we enter the Season of Alleluias. As they carry the cross with Christ and unite themselves to His sufferings in the Stations of the Cross, we look to the Resurrection in our All Souls Saturdays with the parastas or memorial prayers. As they kneel in repentance, we prostrate ourselves before each other and the Lord.

Many of the externals are different in how East and West make their lenten journeys, but the tri-fold path of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are at the root of our Christian conversion, our metanoia, our transfiguration, our theosis in Christ. Our traditions provide the framework that supports the repentance and conversion we are all called to.

During the Synod of Bishops, held from February 8–9, 2012, in retreat center of the Lviv Archeparchy of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Bryukhovychi (near Lviv), began the Year of Remembrance of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj in honor of the 120th anniversary of his birth, which is celebrated on February 17. This is stated in the message of the Synod of Bishops to the faithful on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, which was passed to UNIAN new agency.

In the message the bishops recall Patriarch Slipyj is a “live embodiment of the fate of the Ukrainian Church and our people in the twentieth century – he, like many others, were unlawfully deprived of liberty (18 years imprisonment). He, like millions of Ukrainians, was doomed to torture in the dungeons of the NKVD/KGB and martyrdom in the Gulag. Even if in prison he was a ‘silent witness of the Church,’ later, in the settlements (outside Ukraine), he became the voice of the ‘silent Church’ and its spiritual support, never forgetting his countrymen, who were still being punished in captivity.”

The bishops of the UGCC believe that these words are also spoken to us today. “To those who have to live in conditions of selective justice, increasingly more restrictions on the right to assembly and demonstration, to receive and disseminate accurate information, in a time when the national language and culture is being forced out from public life. In Ukraine, unfortunately, there is no stop to the troublesome tradition of abuse of power and disregard for human dignity, violation of national, cultural and religious rights, neglect by ones own, accompanied by pursuit of honors and thirst for power,” states the document of the Synod.

According to the Synod, Patriarch Slipyj’s views on national unity today “are a guiding light,” since now there is still a lack of unity and it becomes “our national disaster when people are artificially divided by regional, historical, linguistic and cultural characteristics.”

In their message, the bishops stress that thanks to Patriarch Slipyj the Church in the diaspora not only survived but has become a world Church, without which today it is difficult to imagine the landscape of the Catholic Church in the world.

“Today normative for us are the two fundamental principles with which Patriarch Slipyj described the UGCC’s church identity: the first, communion with the Bishop of Rome, and the second, allegiance to the Eastern Byzantine tradition,” said Synod.

Therefore, the bishops encourage the faithful of the Church to pray for the glory of Patriarch Slipyj and participate in festivities planned by the UGCC and the state in this anniversary year, but they say the best way to honor him is “to make Patriarch Slipyj’s ideals ours.”

Source: Feb 19, 2012 The Way

On this last day before we enter the Great Lent, we recall the words of Matthew 6:

14For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences.

15But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences.

16And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward.

17But thou, when thou fastest anoint thy head, and wash thy face;

18That thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay thee.

In humility before God, we ask our clergy and our fellow parishioners to forgive us for every hurt and offense we’ve caused in deed, thought, word, or omission, intentionally or unintentionally. We begin our practice of Lenten prostration by prostrating ourselves before our clergy and each other as we say, “Forgive me, a sinner.” What a blessing it is to be able to hear and speak the response: “The Lord forgives!”

Maggie’s Place Maternity Homes is looking into the possibility of establishing a hospitality home in Dallas. If you’re interested in supporting the effort, contact Estelle and/or attend the local meeting Thur Feb 23rd at 7PM in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s faith formation center.

To Our Reverend Clergy, Reverend Religious, Seminarians and Faithful,

Glory be to Jesus Christ!

In twenty-first century America, it is impossible to escape the influence of fundamentalist Protestantism: it dominates the airwaves in the person of charismatic preachers, and it undergirds many of the positions taken by politicians. For them, the Bible is the only source of revelation. In this they are very different from Catholics and Orthodox, who are aware of the revelation manifested by the Holy Spirit in the living Tradition of the Church. For example, fundamentalist Protestants would discount the value of the Great Fast since it is not found in scripture; we, on the other hand, know that out Lenten observances provide an opportunity for us to encounter the Lord in a special way.

For us Ukrainian Catholics, our Lenten observances take on a distinct flavor, which is very different even from what is experienced among the Roman Catholics. These differences go beyond the fact that we begin the Great Fast two days before Ash Wednesday and finish it earlier than they, on Lazarus Saturday – that is, the day before Palm Sunday. Our emphasis is in fact very different from the Roman Catholics, who focus on the sufferings of Christ; this is evident in the Stations of the Cross – a quintessential Roman Catholic devotional practice not native to our spirituality.

Our Byzantine spirituality chooses, rather, to focus on conversion. This is expressed in the English word “repentance” which, contrary to popular belief, does not refer to sorrow for sins; rather, repentance is about a change of direction – that is, away from sin and toward God. This is also expressed in the Greek word metanoia, from which we get our Ukrainian word metania, which refers to the bow that we make every time we enter the church. As our metanias are not limited to the Great Fast, neither is our metanoia, our conversion; in fact, our ever-deeper conversion to the ways of the Lord Jesus Christ is the sum of the Christian life. The Great Fast is but a microcosm of the spiritual life, inviting us to focus more intently upon the life, which we should be living all year long.

The theme of conversion comes out clearly in our liturgies. In the weeks leading up to the beginning of the Great Fast, the Gospel readings provide us with examples of conversion to emulate: the eagerness of Zacchaeus, the repentance of the publican, the return of the prodigal son. This theme continues during the Great Fast, where the Church holds up for us the dramatic conversion of Holy Mother Mary of Egypt.

You are certainly all familiar with our Lenten practices: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Of the three, fasting has probably received the greatest emphasis, as is evident in the question “What are you going to give up for Lent?” For those who make the extra effort to come to church, we see that fasting even invades the liturgical realm: Divine Liturgy is forbidden on the weekdays of the Great Fast as we fast from that joyous celebration of “dynamic” Eucharist, so we need to content ourselves with the “static” Eucharist – that is, reception of the reserved sacrament during the majestic yet penitential Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. So often forgotten is the almsgiving which might give an indication that the other practices are more than theatrical. Remember: the Lenten practices are not an end in themselves; rather, they are aimed at our conversion of heart, and this includes a growing recognition of the “neighbor” whom God has given to us so that we might share our blessings.

Let us support one another during this holy season of the Great Fast, so that we – as individuals and as Church – might indeed come to the conversion which Christ desires of us.

+Stefan Soroka
Metropolitan-Archbishop of Philadelphia

+Richard Seminack
Eparch of St. Nicholas in Chicago

+Paul Chomnycky, OSBM
Eparch of Stamford

+John Bura
Apostolic Administrator of St. Josaphat in Parma

Great Fast, 2012

http://esnucc.org/news-amp-events/pastoral-letters-6