CATECHESIS
THE PARISH CATECHETICAL PROGRAM WILL RESUME IN SEPTEMBER
PARENTS & CHILDREN, PLEASE CONTINUE TO COME REGULARLY TO CHURCH DURING SUMMER VACATION!
MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS YOU!
CONGRATULATIONS: First Confession & Solemn Communion – I want to congratulate the first communicants, Amarah andElliana Bennett, Ava Coleman, Amiriah Regets, Carlee and Connor Remauro and Maksym Vatamaniuk. On Sunday, May 23, 2021 they celebrated the Holy Mysteries of First Confession and Solemn Holy Communion. I want to thank Mrs. Colopelnic for preparing this group for the celebration of these two Sacraments. I thank the parents and family members for their effort in helping their children attend church during these past few months. With the celebration of these sacraments, children embark on a new spiritual journey in their young life. The success of this journey depends on the involvement and dedication of parents and family in the life of the church! Their faith needs to be at the center of their lives! I appeal to all parents, please do not disregard the importance of coming to church for your children’s and your own spiritual growth! The First Confession and Communion cannot be the end, but must be a new beginning. The sad reality is that all too often, the celebration of these sacraments is treated as a final spiritual milestone, after which many think that there is no need to grow spiritually. Let us all do our part and help others understand the blessings that we receive from Christ through His holy Church. May God continue bless our parish community!
SUNDAY, MAY 30, 2021
Sunday of all Saints
Let us celebrate with songs of praise the deeds of the holy people over all the earth, honoring them, as it is fitting: the apostles and martyrs, the bishops and holy women. While living on earth, they joined with the heavenly spirits, and by the grace of Christ, they received immortality through their sufferings. They shine as bright stars for us, and now they intercede for our souls.
Stikhera at “O Lord, I have cried …”Saturday vespers
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May the Holy Spirit teach us to view the world with God’s eyes and to treat our brothers and sisters with the gentleness of His heart.
Pope Francis @Pontifex
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Sunday, May 9, 2021
Today, many countries are celebrating Mother's Day. I wish to remember all others with gratitude and affection, entrusting them to the protections of Mary, our heavenly Mother. Let us also remember those mothers who accompany us from Heaven.
Pope Francis @Pontifex
Sunday, May 2, 2021
Sunday of the Samaritan woman
"When You appeared in the flesh, O Christ God, to accomplish Your plan of salvation, the Samaritan woman heard the word of God’s love for us.
She left the well and ran to the town and said: Come and see the One Who knows the secrets of our hearts; can this be the Christ, the Messiah Whom we await, the One Who bestows great mercy?"
Stikhera at “O Lord, I have cried …”
Saturday vespers
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Let’s not wait for our neighbours to be good before we are good to them, for others to respect us before we serve them. Let’s begin with ourselves.
There is no page of the Gospel on which there is no place for us. For us Christians, meditating is a way of coming into contact with Jesus. And in this way, only in this way, can we discover ourselves.
Pope Francis @Pontifex
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Sunday, April 25, 2021
The fullness of life and of joy is found by giving oneself for the Gospel and for our brothers and sisters, with openness, welcoming and goodness.
The Lord of life wants us to be full of life, and he tells us the secret of life: we come to possess it only by giving it away.
Pope Francis @Pontifex
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Sunday, April 18, 2021
Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearers
The myrrh-bearing women, O Christ, rose up early and hastened to Your tomb, seeking to anoint Your most pure body. But when the glad tidings were brought to them by the words of the angel, they hastened to the apostles as messengers of joy. The Leader of our salvation has risen and conquered death. He grants the world eternal life and
great mercy.
Stikhera at “O Lord, I have cried …”
Saturday vespers
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The Lord calls us to cooperate in the construction of history, becoming, together with Him, peacemakers and witnesses of hope in a future of salvation and resurrection.
In these dark months of the pandemic, let us listen to the Risen Lord as he invites us to begin anew and never lose hope.
Pope Francis @Pontifex
Sunday, April 11, 2021
THOMAS SUNDAY
Even though the doors were closed, You came to Your disciples, O Christ, and Thomas, called the Twin, was not with them. Therefore, he did not believe what they told him. You did not deem him unworthy for his lack of faith, but in Your goodness, You confirmed his faith by showing him Your pure side and the wounds in Your hands and feet. He touched them, and when he saw You, he confessed You to be neither and abstract God not merely human; and he cried out: My Lord and my God, glory to You!
(Stikhera at “O, Lord, I have cried…)
Easter is the most important feast of our faith because it is the feast of our salvation, the feast of God's love for us.
Let us never tire of seeking the risen Christ who gives life in abundance to those who meet him. To find Christ means to discover peace in our hearts.Pope Francis @Pontifex
Sunday, March 28, 2021
In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah gives witness to the suffering of the Servant of God, which the Church recognizes to be the suffering of Christ:
He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him off no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Is 53:3-7).
Catechism of the UCC: Christ – Our Pascha # 225
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У Старому Завіті пророк Ісая свідчить про страждання Слуги Божого, в яких Церква бачить страждання Ісуса Христа:
«Зневажений, останній між людьми, чоловік болів, що зазнав недуги; немов людина, що перед нею обличчя закривають, зневажений, і ми Його нізащо мали. Та Він наші недуги взяв на Себе, він ніс на Собі наші болі. Ми ж, ми гадали, що Його покарано, що Бог Його побив, принизив. Він же був поранений за гріхи наші, роздавлений за беззаконня наші. Кара, що нас спасає, була на Ньому, і Його ранами ми вилікувані. Усі, як вівці, ми блукали; кожен ходив своєю дорогою; провини нас усіх Господь поклав на Нього. Його мордовано, та Він упокорявся і не розтуляв Своїх уст; немов ягня, що на заріз ведуть його, немов німа вівця перед обстригачами, не відкривав Він уст» (Іс. 53, 3-7).
Катехизм – Христос наша Пасха # 225
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May we not let this time of grace pass in vain, in the foolish illusion that we can control the times and means of our conversion to the Lord!
How many times have we told the Lord: “Lord, I will come to you later... I can’t come today. Tomorrow I will begin to pray and do something for others”. In this life, we will always have things to do and excuses to offer, but right now is the time to return to God.
Pope Francis @Pontifex
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Sunday, March 21, 2021
The most effective means of combatting pride is to train oneself in humility. This opens a person toward God and neighbour, and makes a person capable of receiving God’s transfiguring and liberating power.
The apostle Paul declares: “We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:4-5). Through the virtue of humility, a person stands in truth before the face of God.
Therefore, Christian humility does not demean a person, but allows one to recognize one’s true dignity as a child of God. Saint John Chrysostom teaches: He who places humility as the foundation of his character can safely build a building of any height.
Humility is the strongest palisade, an immovable wall, an impenetrable fortress; it supports the entire edifice and does not allow it to fall… it makes it inaccessible to all attacks… and through it God, the lover of mankind, pours out on us his plentiful gifts. (John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis, 36, 7: PG 53, 330)
Catechism of the UCC: Christ – Our Pascha # 779
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To experience Lent in hope means receiving the hope of Christ, who gave his life on the cross and was raised by God on the third day, and always being prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls us to account for our hope (1 Pt 3,15).
The Holy Spirit writes the history of the Church and of the world. We are open books, willing to receive his handwriting. And in each of us the Spirit composes original works, because there is never one Christian who is completely identical to another.
If God so loves us that he gives himself to us, the Church too has this mission. She is not sent to judge but to welcome; not to impose, but to sow; not to condemn, but to bring Christ who is our salvation.
Pope Francis @Pontifex
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Sunday, March 14, 2021
The Holy Mystery of Repentance (or Confession) is a marvellous manifestation of God’s love and mercy towards us sinners. This is because the Lord does not reject us and does not turn away from us when we, having been washed of our sins in Baptism and endowed with divine grace, sin again through malice or weakness. Indeed, the Lord awaits our repentance. He forgives us if we repent and confess our sins (see Lk 15:12-32).
Catechism of the UCC: Christ – Our Pascha # 449
Святе таїнство Покаяння є великим виявом Божої любові й милосердя до нас – грішних. Бо коли ми, обмиті зі своїх гріхів у Хрещенні та обдаровані Божою благодаттю, знову чинимо зі злоби чи немочі гріх, Господь не відкидає нас і не відвертається, а очікує від нас покаяння. Він прощає нас, якщо ми каємося і сповідуємо свої гріхи (див. Лк. 15, 12-32).
Катехизм УГКЦ – Христос наша Пасха 449
Lent is a journey that involves our whole life, our entire being. It is a time to reconsider the path we are taking, to find the route that leads us home and to rediscover our profound relationship with God, on whom everything depends.
Love is our strength, strength of so many brothers and sisters who here too have suffered prejudice and indignities, mistreatment and persecutions for the name of Jesus. (Apostolic Journey - Iraq,
March 5-8, 2021)
Let us remember our brothers and sisters who have paid the extreme price for their fidelity to the Lord. May their sacrifice inspire us to renew our trust in the strength of the Cross and its saving message of forgiveness, reconciliation and rebirth (Apostolic Journey - Iraq, March 5-8, 2021)
Pope Francis @Pontifex
Sunday, March 7, 2021
As a consequence of our first parents’ fall, human will became weakened. The capacity to recognize and choose the good was also enfeebled. In their relations with God and neighbour and in their attitude towards themselves and their environment, human persons began to be guided not by love and self-giving but by an egotistic exploitation of the other for personal and consumeristic gain. A consequence of the Fall is the loss of every person’s wholeness. This manifests itself in physical and spiritual suffering, in sickness and death
Christ came into the world to heal and save the human race, to renew the wholeness lost by human persons. During his earthly life, Christ, the healer of human souls and bodies, remitted sins and healed the sick. After his Ascension, he continues to do this in his Church by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Mysteries of Repentance and Holy Anointing.
Catechism of the UCC: Christ – Our Pascha # 447 & 448
Унаслідок гріхопадіння прародичів послабилася воля людини та її здатність розпізнавати й обирати добро. У своїх взаєминах із Богом, ближнім й у ставленні до себе самої і довкілля людина стала керуватися не любов’ю та даруванням себе, а самолюбним використанням людей задля власної користі і споживацтва. Наслідком гріхопадіння є втрата цілісності людини, що виявляється у фізичних і душевних стражданнях, хворобах і смерті.
Христос прийшов у світ, аби зцілити й спасти людину, щоб відновити втрачену людиною цілісність. Христос – лікар душ і тіл людських – під час Свого земного життя відпускав гріхи та зціляв хворих, а після вознесіння силою Святого Духа чинить це й далі через Свою Церкву у святих таїнствах Покаяння та Єлеопомазання.
Катехизм УГКЦ – Христос наша Пасха 447 & 448
Let us pray together that we may experience the sacrament of reconciliation with renewed depth, to taste the forgiveness and infinite mercy of God.
The center of confession is Jesus who waits for us, who listens to us and forgives us.
Pope Francis @Pontifex
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Sunday, February 28, 2021
Saint Gregory of Nyssa taught: “Tears are like the blood of the soul’s wounds.” Prayer with tears is God’s gift to us. It enables us to lament our sins and feel inner longing for God. It is a deep sensation that descends upon us when God reveals his Divine beauty on the one hand, and our own imperfection on the other. It is the tension between the Divine perfect and the human imperfect. Shedding tears over our imperfection, we commiserate with all creation which, due to our sin, “groans and suffers.”
The spiritual ascetics teach that the fear of God yields tears of repentance. Tears bring spiritual joy while joy gives strength. In virtue of this the soul bears fruit. Thus, pain, suffering, and tears culminate in blessedness. The gift of tears cleanses our spiritual eyes and enables us to see everything around us the way that God sees it. We then do not judge our neighbour but are filled with merciful love, having become capable of feeling the suffering and needs of others
Catechism of the UCC: Christ – Our Pascha # 688-689
Святий Григорій Ніський навчав: «Сльози – це немов кров душевних ран». Молитва сліз – це Божий дар оплакування своїх гріхів і внутрішньої туги за Богом; це глибоке зворушення, викликане відкриттям людині, з одного боку, божественної краси, а з іншого – власної недосконалості. Це напруження між «божественним досконалим» і «людським недосконалим». Оплакуючи свою недосконалість, людина водночас співстраждає з усім творінням, яке через її гріх «стогне і мучиться» (див. Рм. 8, 22).
Духовні подвижники навчають, що страх Божий викликає сльози покаяння, сльози приносять духовну радість, а радість дає силу, завдяки якій душа приносить плоди. Таким чином біль, страждання і плач завершуються блаженством. Дар сліз обмиває очі серця людини, робить її здатною бачити все, що її оточує, як це бачить Бог. Тому така людина не осуджує ближнього, а сповнюється милосердною любов’ю, стаючи здатною відчувати страждання і потреби інших людей.
Катехизм УГКЦ – Христос наша Пасха (# 688-689)
May the example of so many doctors and healthcare workers who have risked their life to the point of losing it due to the pandemic move us to feeling truly grateful for how generously, and sometimes heroically, they carry out their profession.
In this Lenten season, accepting and living the truth revealed in Christ means, first of all, opening our hearts to God’s word, which the Church passes on from generation to generation.
Pope Francis @Pontifex
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February 14, 2021
The person who prays is like someone in love with the beloved in his or her heart wherever they go. So we can pray at any moment, and during what happens every day: on the street, in the office, on public transportation, through words and in the silence of our hearts
All of us are responsible for the communications we make, for the information we share, for the control that we can exert over fake news by exposing it. All of us are to be witnesses of the truth
Fraternity is the true cure for the pandemic and the many evils that have affected us. Along with vaccines, fraternity and hope are, as it were, the medicine we need in today’s world.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Christ teaches about the kingdom of God in parables. Using simple yet deep imagery from life, he reveals the mystery of God’s life. The kingdom of God is like a field, where both wheat and weeds grow together, side by side, until the harvest time (see Mt 13:24-30); like a seed, which grows into a large tree (see Mt 13:31-32; Lk 13:19). The kingdom of God is like leaven in flour (see Mt 13:33; Lk 13:21); and like a treasure hidden in a field, a pearl of great value, and a fishing net (see Mt 13:44- 50). The kingdom of God is also like a king who forgives the debts of his servants (see Mt 18:23-35), like a householder who generously rewards the labourers working in the vineyard (see Mt 20:1-16), like a king who invites guests to the wedding of his son (see Mt 22:1-14), and like a man who has entrusted his servants with talents that they might increase them (see Mt 25:14-30). The kingdom of God grows in the world, as seeds in the earth, until the time of the harvest (see Mk 4:26-29)
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ
– Our Pascha # 210)
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January 24, 2021
The words of the Sacred Scripture were not written to remain imprisoned on papyrus, parchment or paper, but to be received by a person who prays, making them blossom in his or her heart.
The word of God is the antidote to our fear of having to face life. In speaking to us, the Lord reminds us that we are in his heart, that we are precious in his eyes, and that he holds us in the palm of his hand.
Let us not ignore God’s word! It is a love letter, written to us by the One who knows us best. In reading it, we again hear his voice, see his face and receive his Spirit.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Let us not ignore God’s word! It is a love letter, written to us by the One who knows us best. In reading it, we again hear his voice, see his face and receive his Spirit._
Peace is an important value, essential for the development of not only the individual, but whole nations and states. As a value, peace is based on the principle of respect for the human person—his or her life and dignity.
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ
– Our Pascha # 987)
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Each one of us Christians is a branch of the one vine which is Jesus; and all of us together are called to bear the fruits of this common membership in Christ.
Christian unity can be achieved only as a fruit of prayer. Jesus opened the way for us by praying. Our prayer for unity is thus a participation in the Lord’s prayer, who promised that any prayer said in His name would be heard by the Father.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Sunday of Zacchaeus
January 17, 2021
Thus, repentance is enlightenment, the crossing from darkness to light. Until we see the light of Christ we will not be able to recognize our own sins. The closer we come to God, the more clearly we see how sinful we are. The light of Christ illumines us and leads us to repentance, to a vision of beauty rather than deformity, to an awareness of God’s glory rather than of our own destitution.
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ –
Our Pascha # 784)
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A society is all the more human to the degree that it cares effectively for its most frail and suffering members, in a spirit of fraternal love.
We possess a great wealth that depends on what we are: the life we have received, the good within us, the indelible beauty God has given us by making us in his image. All these things
make each of us precious in his eyes, each one of us is priceless and unique in history.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Sunday before Theophany
January 10, 2021
Christ brings regeneration to humankind, and he chooses the waters of the Jordan to signify this. In Holy Scripture, water is a symbol of elemental forces and death, and simultaneously a symbol of cleansing, rebirth, life, and the grace of the Holy Spirit. By means of water, God “drowned sin ... in the days of Noah ... [and] at the hand of Moses he set free the Hebrew nation from the bondage of Pharaoh ... [and] by fire and water through Elijah brought back Israel from the error of Baal” (Trebnyk, Rite of the Great Blessing of Water for the Feast of Theophany, Third Prayer). By immersion into water (baptism), Christ washes away the record of Adam’s sins. The waters of the Jordan regenerate all creation. In the Jordan, Christ “has renewed through water and the Spirit our nature grown old through sin” (Trebnyk, Rite of the Great Blessing of Water for the Feast of Theophany, Third Prayer).
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ
– Our Pascha # 200)
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The first step towards an attitude of worship is to “lift up our eyes”. When we lift up our eyes to God, life’s problems do not go away, but we feel certain that the Lord grants us the strength to deal with them.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
Sunday Before Theophany
January 3, 2021
The Son of God, “who covers himself with light as with a garment ... today is covered by the streams of the Jordan.” Christ himself “has no need to be cleansed by them; but through the cleansing that he himself receives he bestows regeneration on us.”(Theophany of our Lord, Great Compline – Stichera for Lytia) “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness’ ” (Mt 3:13-15). The God-man enters into the Jordan waters: “As a man he came to be baptized, and the Jordan feared him as God and turned back. As a man he bared himself and entered the water, and the Father testified that he was God, saying: ‘This is my beloved Son.’”(Ilarion, Metropolitan of Kyiv, Sermon on Law and Grace, 26)
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ
Our Pascha # 199
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We too can change evil into good each day. Loving actions change history: even the ones that are small, hidden, everyday. For God guides history through the humble courage of those who pray, love and forgive.
Every other person is my brother or my sister. In everyone, I see reflected the face of God, and in those who suffer, I see the Lord pleading for my help. I see him in the sick, the poor, the unemployed, the marginalized, the migrant and the refugee.
The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God. He came into the world as each child comes into the world, weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Sunday, December 27, 0220
SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS
According to the liturgical texts, the birth of the Child “from a mother without a father” is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Daniel about the rock hewn from the mountain without human hands (see Dn 2:45). In the Incarnation, the Son of God “came from the bosom of the Father, and in his ineffable self-emptying he took on our lowly state.” Through the most holy Mother of God, he became what he had not been before—a human. The Church sings of the Mother of God thus: “The bright and spiritual cloud, filled with heavenly rain, today rises above the earth, in order to drop dew upon it and to water it.”
(Catechism of the Ukrainian
Catholic Church. Christ – Our Pascha # 191)
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Jesus does not wait until we are good to love us,
but gives Himself freely to us.
Instead of complaining in these difficult times about what the pandemic prevents us from doing, let us do something for someone who has less: not the umpteenth gift for ourselves and our friends, but for a person in need whom no-one thinks of!
Solidarity finds concrete expression in service, which can take a variety of forms in an effort to care for others. And service means caring for the vulnerable members of our families,
our society, our people.
Loving our neighbour as ourselves means being committed to building a world in which everyone has access to the goods of the earth, in which all can develop as individuals and as families, and in which fundamental rights and dignity are guaranteed to all. (Migrants Day)
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Sunday, December 20, 0220
The Church celebrates the coming of the Son of God into the world with the feast of the Nativity of Christ. The birth of Christ is announced to the shepherds by the angel of the Lord: “To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Christ, the Lord” (Lk 2:11). The Fathers of the Church extolled Christmas night as a day of joy and peace:
“Today the Bountiful One became poor for our sake ... Today we receive a gift for which we did not ask ... This present day threw open the heavenly door to our prayers ... Now the Divine Being took upon himself the seal of humanity, in order for humanity to be decorated by the seal of Divinity”
(Isaac the Syrian, Homily on the Nativity).
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ
– Our Pascha # 190)
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I ask God to inspire, in the hearts of all, respect for the life of our brothers, especially the most fragile and helpless, and to give strength to those who receive them and care for them, even when this demands heroic love.
Prayer during the time of Advent helps us to remember we are not more righteous or better than others, but that we are all sinners who need to be touched by God's mercy.
Advent is the time we are given to welcome the Lord who comes to encounter us, and also to verify our longing for God, to look forward and prepare ourselves for Christ’s return.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2020
The catholicity of the Church reflects her mission to gather together people and entire nations and to cultivate in each person a sense of responsibility not only for self, but also for others and, ultimately, all humanity. (see Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 192). In addition to providing a sense of personal responsibility and participation in the life of one’s own Christian community, catholicity opens a person to other individuals and communities for the purpose of creating communion with them, and actually offers the experience of such communion. Catholicity brings a spirit of conciliation, in which various communities outgrow their own group interests and engage in a culture of dialogue and mutual support in order to overcome misunderstandings and conflicts of all kinds.
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ – Our Pascha # 923)
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God listens to the cry of those who invoke Him. Even our reluctant questions, those that remain in the depths of our heart. The Father wishes to give us the Holy Spirit, which inspires every prayer and transforms everything. It is a question
of patience, of supporting the wait.
I want to be close to all doctors and nurses during this time in which the pandemic calls us to be near all men and women who suffer. Thank you for drawing near to them, thanks for your tenderness, thanks for your professionalism in taking
care of the sick.
Conversion is a grace that we need to forcefully ask God for. We are converted to the degree in which we open ourselves up to the beauty, the goodness, the tenderness of God. Thus let us leave what is false and fleeting for what is true,
beautiful and everlasting.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2020
God’s grace changes lives: He takes us as we are, but He never leaves us as we are.
Advent is the Season in which we remember God's nearness, that He came down toward us.
Conversion is precisely this: instead of being on the wrong road, we go on God's road.
We do not live aimlessly and without destination. We are awaited. We are precious. God has prepared for us the most worthy and beautiful place: Paradise.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2020
A prerequisite for prayer is the silence that we achieve with God’s help once we have rebuffed troubling thoughts. Achieving silence within us is a requirement for hearing God and conversing with him. The closer God is to us, the deeper our prayer becomes. There comes a moment when our remaining, or dwelling, in God’s presence no longer requires words. We fall silent once again, though this silence indicates the kind of communication that transcends words and concepts (See Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, On Divine Names, 11, 1). Such remaining, or dwelling, in God’s presence is called authentic, vigilant devotion. As the Holy Fathers teach, silence is both the beginning of our prayer and an expression of a prayerful contemplation of God (See John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 27).
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ – Our Pascha # 692)
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Lord, Father of our human family, you created all human beings equal in dignity: pour forth into our hearts a fraternal spirit. Move us to create healthier societies and a more dignified world, a world without hunger, poverty, violence and war.
When we pray, God opens our eyes renews and changes our hearts, heals our wounds and grants us the grace we need.
Let us care for the needs of every man and woman, young and old, with the same fraternal spirit of care and closeness that marked the Good Samaritan.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2020
The domestic church is a miniature community, united by blood and spiritual bonds. It is part of the great family of God, the Universal Church, which unites in one Christian family all who were born of God. This common birth makes them all brothers and sisters. The family as a domestic church is the primary cell of the Christian community, because it possesses the three principal ministries of the Universal Church: sharing the Good News, praying and witnessing with one’s life. This means that the parents are the first evangelizers and educators of their children. The family is a community of prayer, conversing with God in everyday life, and as it builds new relationships grounded in evangelical love, the family is called to become a school of social solidarity.
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ –
Our Pascha # 656)
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Every form of fundamentalist intolerance damages relationships between individuals, groups and peoples. Let us be committed to living and teaching the value of respect, a love capable of welcoming differences, and the priority of the dignity of every human being.
Hold out your hand to the poor, instead of demanding what you lack. In this way, you will multiply the talents you have received. (Mt 25:14-30)
Generosity that supports the weak, consoles the afflicted, relieves suffering and restores dignity to those stripped of it, is a condition for a fully human life.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER , 2020
Liturgically the Church re-creates the experience of the Saviour in the history of salvation by means of the Fast that begins on November 15/28, the day after the feast of the apostle Philip. This Fast lasts until the Nativity of Christ, and is appropriately called the Nativity Fast, or popularly, Saint Philip’s Fast (in Ukrainian, Pilipivka). During the course of this Fast, the Church prepares us for the luminous feast of the Nativity of Christ, reminding us of the consequences of Adam’s sinful lack of self-control: “Refusing to fast, the first Adam tastes of the death-bearing tree” (Octoechos, Tone 2, Sunday Matins: Canon of the Cross-Resurrection, Ode 5).
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Christ – Our Pascha # 175)
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Generosity that supports the weak, consoles the afflicted, relieves suffering and restores dignity to those stripped of it, is a condition for a fully human life.
The one who prays is never alone. In fact, Jesus welcomes us in His prayer so that we might pray in Him and through Him. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel invites us to pray to the Father in Jesus’s name.
Society is enriched by the dialogue between science and faith, which opens up new horizons for thought. The light of faith needs to enlighten scientific advances so that they respect the centrality of the human person.
All of us are able to give without expecting anything in return, to do good to others without demanding that they treat us well in return. As Jesus told his disciples: “Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give” (Mt 10:8).
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Sunday, November 8, 2020
In Holy Scripture, angels manifest the presence of God in the world, announcing to human beings the will of God. Holy Scripture refers to some of them by name: Michael (see Rev. 12, 7; Jude 1, 9), Raphael (see Tob 12, 15), Gabriel (see Lk 1, 19-26).
Angels assist human beings in their spiritual growth (see Heb 1, 14). The Tradition of the Church teaches that God grants every human being a guardian angel: “You appointed angels and guardians” (The Divine Liturgy of our Holy Father Basil the Great, Anaphora).
The unity of the visible and invisible creation – human beings and angels- becomes manifest in the Divine Liturgy, where the earthly expresses the heavenly, and humans serve together with angels: “Let us who mystically represent the cherubim and sing the Thrice-holy Hymns to the life giving Trinity….” And “Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Sabbaoth, heaven and earth are full of your glory! Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” (The Divine Liturgy of our Holy Father John Chrysostom, Cherubic Hymn; Anaphora
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ
– Our Pascha # 117)
In his mercy, God the Father consummated the fullness of creation in Jesus Christ, the New Adam. Christ entrusted the sharing of this fullness to the apostles: “Go into all the world and proclaim the good new to the whole creation” (Mk 16, 15). The Church – the bearer of a new creation – acts “in this world,” even though she herself is not of this world (see Jn 17, 14-16). She is the sign of “a new heaven and a new earth”. The establishment of the Church is the same as the creation of a new universe, and as the prophet Isaiah says, a new heaven … a new earth is created … and a new humanity is created, renewed according to the Creator’s image” (Gregory of Nyssa, Commentary on the Song of Songs, 13). The Church refers to these new people in the image of the Creator as saints, divinized by the grace of the Holy Spirit.
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ
– Our Pascha # 309)
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Choosing purity, meekness and mercy; choosing to entrust oneself to the Lord in poverty of spirit and in affliction; dedicating oneself to justice and peace – this means going against the current. This evangelical path was trodden by all the Saints and Blessed.
We need to look at our cities with a contemplative gaze, a gaze of faith which sees God dwelling in homes, on the streets and squares. This presence must be found, discovered. God does not hide himself from those who seek him with a sincere heart.
Those who love may be sure that none of their acts of love will be lost, nor any of their acts of sincere concern for others, nor any single act of love for God, nor any generous effort, nor any painful endurance. All of these enfold our world like a vital force
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Sunday, November 1, 2020
Every Christian has the grace of being called, that is, the grace of vocation. This calling involves the possibility of living a meaningful and happy life, which can only be realized in God. This vocation is fulfilled in the spiritual life, which is an inseparable condition for personal growth and development. Just as physical development requires physical activity, and intellectual development demands learning and education, similarly spiritual growth requires the grace of the Holy Mysteries, prayer, and good works.
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ –
Our Pascha # 711)
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“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased” (Lk 3:22). This simple phrase enables us to intuit something of the mystery of Jesus and of His heart, always turned to the Father. Jesus gave us His own Prayer, which is His loving dialogue with the Father.
Those who love may be sure that none of their acts of love will be lost, nor any of their acts of sincere concern for others, nor any single act of love for God, nor any generous effort, nor any painful endurance. All of these enfold our world like a vital force.
Kindness frees us from the cruelty that at times infects human relationships, from the anxiety that prevents us from thinking of others, from the frantic flurry of activity that forgets that others also have a right to be happy.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Sunday, October 25, 2020
The Sermon on the Mount reveals life in God’s kingdom and points to the fact that the kingdom of God is God’s gift, not something earned through works of the Law. Only by receiving the kingdom in faith and obedience to the will of God does human being become the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world”
(see Mt. 5, 13-16).
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ
– Our Pascha # 205)
__________________________________________________________________________To all believers, and to men and women of good will, we say: let us become creative artisans of peace, let us build social friendship, let us make our own the culture of dialogue.
Belonging to Christ, and the resulting way of life, do not isolate the believer from the world, but rather make him or her the protagonist in a service of love for the common good.
The mission, the ‘Church on the move’, is not a programme to be carried out by sheer force of will. It is Christ who makes the Church go out of herself. In the mission of evangelization, you move because the Holy Spirit pushes you, and carries you.
A courageous decision? Using the money spent on weapons for a “global Fund” to defeat hunger. This would help avoid many wars and the emigration of many of our brothers and sisters from the poorest nations.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
Sunday, October 18, 2020
The Word of God is received with faith, and faith comes from what is heard (see Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romans 10, 17). To understand the Holy Scriptures, it is necessary to join reading the Word of God with hearing that Word in homilies and catechesis. As related in the Acts of the Apostles, a steward of the Ethiopian queen was reading the prophecies of Isaiah about Christ, but he did not understand them until the apostle Philip explained their meaning to him. Thanks to this explanation, the steward believed in Jesus Christ and was baptized (see Acts of the Apostles 8, 26-39).
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Christ – Our Pascha # 47)
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Education bears within itself a seed of hope: the hope of peace and justice; the hope of beauty and goodness; the hope of social harmony.
In prayer we place our worries and petitions in the hands of God, and we trust that He will listen, for He knows what we need and will give us what is good for us.
Tenderness is love that draws near and becomes real. A movement that starts from our heart and reaches the eyes, the ears and the hands. Tenderness is the path of choice for the strongest, most courageous men and women.
I am near to those people affected by wildfires: on the West Coast of the United States, especially California, the central regions of South America, the Pantanal area, Paraguay, the banks of the Paraná River, and Argentina. May the Lord sustain them.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
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Sunday, October 11, 2020
Pride is the most dangerous passion and the mother of all sins. It was because of pride that Satan fell from God, and it is precisely pride that has ruined the prolonged endeavours of many ascetics. Pride is a person’s idolatrous self-deification: a person exults oneself over other people and puts oneself in the place of God. The proud person is closed to God’s grace: “The Lord opposes the proud; but he gives grace to the humble” (Prov. 3, 34; 1 Pt. 5, 5; and James 4, 6).
St. Augustine teaches that pride is the source of all evil, and in order to overcome all other sins, one must rid oneself of the root cause – pride: “Whence does iniquity abound? From pride. Cure pride and there will be no more iniquity. Consequently, that the cause of all diseases might be cured, namely, pride, the Son of God came down and was made low” (Augustine of Hippo, Commentary on the Gospel of John, 25, 16)
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ – Our Pascha # 777)
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Let us dream, as a single human family, as fellow travelers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same earth which is our common home, each of us bringing the richness of his or her beliefs and convictions, each of us with his or her own voice, brothers and sisters all.
We cannot be indifferent to suffering; we cannot allow anyone to go through life as an outcast. Instead, we should feel indignant, challenged to emerge from our comfortable isolation and to be changed by our contact with human suffering. That is the meaning of dignity.
By his actions, the Good Samaritan showed that the existence of each and every individual is deeply tied to that of others: life is not simply time that passes; life is a time for interactions.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
Sunday, October 4, 2020
At the center of the Church’s attention is the human person and his or her activities that possess social, political, and spiritual dimensions. Human action is seen in the light of the transfiguration of the world and Christ’s salvific mission. For “Christ is now at work in human hearts through the energy of his Holy Spirit, arousing not only a desire for the age to come, but by that very fact animating, purifying, and strengthening those noble longings too by which the human family makes its life more human”. (Vatican Council II, Constitution Gaudiu, et Spes
{The Church in the modern world, 38}.
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.
Christ – Our Pascha # 913)
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Let us continue to grow in the awareness that we all live in a common home as members of a single family!
Almighty God, present in the entire universe and in the smallest of Your creatures, fill us with the strength of Your love so that we might take care of life and beauty.
Let us not go back to the "normality" sick with injustice, inequality and environmental degradation. The normality to which we are called is that of the Kingdom of God, where there is bread for all and the social organization is based on contributing,
sharing and distributing
We see the face of Jesus in the faces of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, strangers and prisoners; Christ calls us to help.
Pope Francis, @Pontifex on Twitter
Sunday, September 27, 2020
We call the life in Christ a spiritual life since its source is the Holy Spirit, and it is brought to fulfillment by his grace. Grace is the action of the Holy Spirit in a person, that is, the Spirit’s unconditional gift. Grace in no way constrains a person, nor does it restrict one’s freedom. The apostle Paul emphasizes this when he writes: “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3, 17). The Spirit of God invites us and call us to growth in Christ, and makes this growth possible.
(Catechism of the Ukrainian Catholic Church. Christ
– Our Pascha # 710)
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Everyone is important in God’s eyes,