SS Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church

Saturday, February 21
4:00 PM All Deceased of Lotrick Family – Katherine Lotrick

Sunday, February 22 FIRST SUNDAY OF THE GREAT FAST
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
4:00 PM Deanery Stations of the Cross – SS Peter & Paul, Wilkes-Barre, PA

Friday, February 27 Lenten Services
6:00 PM Stations of the Cross & Sorokousty

Saturday, February 28
4:00 PM Gloria Suscavage – Mary & Wayne Thomas

Sunday, March 1 SECOND SUNDAY OF THE GREAT FAST
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
4:00 PM Deanery Stations of the Cross – SS Peter & Paul, Plymouth, PA

LENTEN SERVICES: Father Popyk asks that you PLEASE try to attend the services during Lent: Station of the Cross and Sorokusty on Friday evenings 6:00 PM. Lent is a time for prayer, penance and sacrifice.

DIVINE LITURGY SCHEDULE: Saturdays 4:00 PM; Sundays 8:30 AM
SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY
The first Sunday of Lent is called “Sunday of Orthodoxy,” it was instituted by the Eastern Church as a reminder of her victory over the Iconoclasts.
About 726 the Byzantine emperor Leo the Isaurian started a heresy known as “Iconoclasm” or image breaking. He published an edict whereby he forbade rendering honor to the icons (images) of our Lord, and the Blessed Mother of God and the Saints. He also began a ruthless persecution of their defenders. Countless precious icons were destroyed and many statues were demolished.
In 787 the Holy Fathers of the Church assembled at the second Council at Nicaea and defined, that the veneration of the holy icons (pictures) is by no means idolatry and that a relative honor should be paid them for the sake of their prototype.
On this Sunday the Church exhorts the faithful to purify the image of their souls by a true sorrow and penance. Thus on the first Sunday of Lent the Eastern Church commemorates the victory of the true Orthodox faith over the heresy of the Iconoclasts.
`On this day in some churches, the Sunday of Orthodoxy is observed with a procession with holy icons.

Lenten Penances and Prostrations:
Closely connected with our Lenten services are inclinations. These inclinations are made either by bowing from the waist or to the ground and they are performed at all Lenten services. The Prayer of St. Ephrem with accompanying prostrations merits special consideration. This prayer can be regarded the official Lenten penitential prayer of our Church, expressing as it does the whole content and purpose of the Great Fast as follows.
“O Lord and Master of my life, drive from me the spirit of discouragement, negligence, ambition and idle talk. (Prostration). “Grant me, your servant, the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and charity. (Prostration). “Yes, my Lord and King, grant me to see my own sins, and not judge my brother, for you are blessed forever, and ever. Amen.” (Prostration).

SANCTUARY LIGHT: No Request

FELLOWSHIP: NEXT Sunday, March 1, the Deanery Stations of the Cross will be held in our parish and we will be serving the fellowship after the stations. If you will be contributing to the dessert table, please either sign the paper in the vestibule or tell Ann Beshada or any member of the Women’s Society. This is necessary so that we can be sure to have enough desserts to serve.

DEANERY STATIONS OF THE CROSS 2015 at 4:00 PM each Sunday
Feb. 22 Wilkes-Barre, Ss. Peter & Paul
Mar. 1 Plymouth, Ss. Peter & Paul
Mar. 8 Glen Lyon, St. Nicholas
Mar. 15 Nanticoke, Transfiguration
Mar. 22 Edwardsville, St. Vladimir

Saturday, Feb. 14
4:00 PM Stanley Mytych & Irene Spock – Steve Spock & Rose Mytych
FORGIVENESS SUNDAY PRAYER

Sunday, Feb. 15 CHEESEFARE SUNDAY
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
FORGIVENESS SUNDAY PRAYER

Friday, Feb. 20
6:00 PM STATIONS OF THE CROSS – SOROKOUSTY

Saturday, Feb. 21
4:00 PM All Deceased of Lotrick Family – Katherine Lotrick

Sunday, Feb. 22 FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT (ORTHODOXY)
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2015 IS ALSO CALLED FORGIVENESS SUNDAY
FORGIVENESS OF SINS
The forgiveness of sins can be viewed from many different aspects. The spirituality of the West tends to accentuate man’s activity in receiving the sacraments, performing
good works and believing in Christ. These are all part of the total response; but Byzantine spirituality has the peculiar emphasis of seeing the forgiveness of sins effected through praise of God.
Christ’s act of love in His passion and resurrection is a victory over the forces of evil and over sin itself. We share in this victory when we acknowledge it and praise the Victor. We actually enter into the Kingdom as we recognize Him, in praise, to be the source of our sanctification, and we participate in His glory and holiness when joyful praise cleanses our hearts while celebrating His victory:
We beg forgiveness for our stumbling, Christ God; because you chose, of your own free will, to ascend upon the cross in the flesh in order to deliver from the enemy’s yoke those you had created. For this reason we cry out to you in thanksgiving: ‘You our Savior have filled all things with joy when you came
to save the world.’ (Feast of the Ikon of Christ)
Sts. Basil and Chrysostom and many other Fathers of the Church often repeat that one of the effects of praising God is to “forgive sins” “purify the soul,” “bring down the grace of God.” St. Cyril of Jerusalem insists that “by our spiritual hymns our sins are forgiven, and we sanctify ourselves.” St. Basil says “when the day is breaking (his community) sings together with one mouth and one heart the psalm of confession (Ps. 51) to the Lord, each making his own the words of repentance and thus having his sins forgiven him.” St. John Chrysostom explains, “Psalm 141 has the effect of purifying a soul and forgiving sins. This evening psalm is a medicine that removes all defilement of sin. By stirring up the soul it enkindles a desire for God. Once the soul has burst into flame and overflows with joy and love, sins are removed and forgiven. Where there is love, every evil vanishes from the soul. When God is thus remembered, sins are forgiven and evil destroyed.”
Confession, therefore, is not only an acknowledgement of man’s misery and of his need for help, it is also (and perhaps more so) a joyful proclamation of God’s saving goodness; it is an act of worship:

THE GREAT FAST
Fast is one of the oldest and most venerable practices in the Church, which came to us through an interrupted tradition (St Basil, Horn on Fast I, S). The Great Fast can be described as a forty-day period of prayer, penance, and spiritual exercises in preparation for the proper celebration of Easter.
The Great Fast, as we know it today, is the result of a most complicated historical development, not all stages of which have been sufficiently explained. It seems that in the second century, the Church knew only a very short fast (a day or two) before the Pasch. During the third century the pre-paschal fast was extended to the entire week known to us as the Passion or Holy Week. The first mention of the Forty Days Fast is made in the fifth canon of the Council of Nicaea (325). From that time, the Forty Days Fast is discussed by many Church Fathers and St. Athanasius (d. 373) does not hesitate to say: “Anyone who neglects to observe the Forty Days Fast is not worthy to celebrate the Easter Festival’ (cf. Festal Letters XIX, 9)
The Synod of Laodicaea (about 360) imposed the strict obligation of fasting for forty days before Easter for the first time. By the end of the fourth century, the Great Fast, known to the Greeks as the “Tessaracoste” (forty Days) and the Romans as ‘Quadragesima”, was generally observed by the entire Church.
Originally, the forty-day period was computed from Good Friday, the day the Pasch of Crucifixion was celebrated, and then extended to six weeks. In Constantinople, when they transferred the solemn Baptism from Easter to the Saturday of Lazarus, the Lenten season of preparation also had to be anticipated by one week. Thus, according to the Byzantine practice, the Great Fast began seven weeks before Easter and ended on the Friday before the Saturday of Lazarus. At the Vespers of Lazarus we sing: “We have concluded the beneficial Forty Days (Lent) and we implore You, 0 Lover of Mankind, make us see the Holy Week of Your Passion and praise Your work (of redemption).” Liturgically, then, the Great Fast ends on the Friday before the Saturday of Lazarus and is exactly forty days long.
In the Roman Rite, Holy Week was included in the Lenten season and the Lenten season was of six-week duration. But later, when the Sundays in Lent were exempt from fasting in the West, Lent became only thirty-six days long. This situation was remedied in the seventh century by adding four more days of fasting at the beginning of the Lenten season with the first day of Lent on Ash Wednesday. This is the reason for the difference in the first day of Lent between the Byzantine Rite and the Roman Rite.

SANCTUARY LIGHT: The Sanctuary Light is requested to burn this week February 14 – 21 by Mike Kane in memory of Joseph Kane.
Many weeks are available for requests for the weekly Sanctuary Light.

FIRST DAY OF LENT: Monday, February 16th is the First Day of Lent. Please remember ages 14 to 57 cannot eat Meat and Dairy products on this day and all Fridays during the Lenten season. No music and dancing also during this time.

LUC MEETING: For our next LUC meeting we need to depart somewhat from the more typical Sunday afternoon meeting time due to so many upcoming Sundays already filled with Pre-Lenten dinners and Lenten Stations of the Cross.
Therefore, our next meeting will be held at 6:00pm, Tuesday March 17th at Grotto Pizza Private Dining Room, 36 Gateway Shopping Center on South Wyoming Avenue, Edwardsville.

DEANERY STATIONS OF THE CROSS 2015 4:00 PM on all Stations
Feb. 22 Wilkes-Barre, Ss. Peter & Paul
Mar. 1 Plymouth, Ss. Peter & Paul
Mar. 8 Glen Lyon, St. Nicholas
Mar. 15 Nanticoke, Transfiguration
Mar. 22 Edwardsville, St. Vladimir

Saturday, Feb. 7
4:00 PM  John & Anna Rudeski – Daughter Ann Marie &
husband Joseph Onderko

Sunday, Feb. 8 SUNDAY OF MEATFARE
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners

Thursday, Feb. 12
9:00 AM Gloria Suscavage – Paul & Betty Suscavage

Saturday, Feb. 14
4:00 PM Stanley Mytych & Irene Spock – Steve Spock & Rose Mytych
FORGIVENESS SUNDAY PRAYER

Sunday, Feb. 15 CHEESEFARE SUNDAY
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
FORGIVENESS SUNDAY PRAYER
DIVINE LITURGY REQUESTS: If you have a request for a Divine Liturgy, you will please call Father Popyk at the rectory in Nanticoke.  Father has his book for the listings and the Divine Liturgy can be entered as you call. Thank you.

Meatfare Sunday
What do we mean by “meatfare”?
The week following the Sunday of the Prodigal Son is called Meatfare week and it terminates on the Sunday called Meatfare Sunday . Meatfare Sunday is the last day on which it was still permissible to eat meat before the Great Fast. Meatfare means “farewell to meat.” Hence, the name “meatfare” Sunday. Of course, we are speaking here of the time when the Great Fast was observed in all strictness.

CHEESEFARE SUNDAY

What is meant by “cheesefare”?
Holy Church in gradually preparing us for the fast, permits us to eat meat for the last time on Meatfare Sunday. During Cheesefare week, however, she permits us to eat only dairy products. Just as we bid farewell to meat on Meatfare Sunday, so too we bid farewell to dairy products on Cheesefare Sunday. Hence, the name Cheesefare Sunday. Our people called this week cheese or butter week. This Sunday was the last day for pre-Lenten amusements.
The practice of Cheesefare week and Cheesefare Sunday is very ancient. It was mentioned by Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria. However, it is known that even before that time Meatfare week and Meatfare Sunday had already been established. The synaxary of Cheesefare Sunday states that in the opinion of some writers Cheesefare week received the force of law under the Greek Emperor Heraclius. For six years he had carried on war with the Persian King, Chosroes, without success. Finally, he made a promise that if he won the war, he would abstain from eating meat for a whole week before the Great Fast.
On the Saturday before Cheesefare Sunday, in order to provide us with an example and an incentive for fasting and penance, holy Church celebrates the memory of those men and women who from earliest times, devoted their lives to prayer, fasting and penance in monasteries or as hermits in the desert.
The liturgical service of Cheesefare week begins more and more to embody the theme of fasting, especially on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
February 14th

Let’s Put the Saint back in Valentine’s Day
Saint Valentine did “die of love”, to be sure — but not of the romantic sort! Strange also, considering its enormous popularity, that this saint’s feast no longer appears on the Church’s calendar.
How did the “Saint” disappear from Valentine’s Day? Can we “re-Christianize” the celebration of this popular holiday? Who is Saint Valentine, anyway?
There are at three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, mentioned in the early metrologies for the date of February 14th.
One is described as a priest in Rome, another a bishop (of Interamna, the modern Terni). Both apparently were martyred in the second half of the third century and buried at different places on the Flaminian Way outside of Rome. The third St. Valentine was martyred in Africa with a number of companions. Almost nothing is known about any of these early Christian men — except that they died for the love of Christ!
“Christianizing” Valentine’s Day:
On Saint Valentine’s Day, we Christians have an opportunity for some real “enculturation” — that is, planting seeds of Christ’s truth into the culture in which we live.
When we remember that the heart of Saint Valentine was, like other Christian martyrs, “pierced” by the love of Our Lord, and he shed his blood for this, it seems appropriate that the red heart is a symbol for this powerful love. We think about the power of the deeds of extraordinary courage – even unto death – to bring the truth of faith to others. We are reminded; too, that suffering that often accompanies genuine love.
In our Catholic families, we can focus our thoughts, this day, not only in expressing our love for our friends and families (and yes, sweethearts) by gifts and loving greetings; but also in prayer and meditation on Scripture.
SANTUARY LIGHT: The Sanctuary Light is requested for Feb. 7 -14 No Request.

LUC MEETING: The meeting for The League of Ukrainian Catholics, North Anthracite Council was cancelled last Sunday, February 1st because of the weather. The next meeting will be announced.

MYASOPUSNA 2015: Transfiguration of Our Lord Church Myasopusna (Meat-Fare Sunday) will be held in the church banquet hall (in Nanticoke) this Sunday, February 8th, dinner will be served from 12:30 to 1:30 PM.

PRAYERS: Please remember Anna Magill in your prayers for a speedy recovery of a hip operation. Remember all those in hospitals, nursing facilities and ill at home.

DEANERY STATIONS OF THE CROSS: The Deanery Stations of the Cross schedule will be posted as soon as we receive the schedule. I was told that our church will be scheduled for March 1st. We will be serving the fellowship after the Stations and will need help to prepare and serve and for our good bakers and dessert makers to contribute, if possible, to this cause.

Saturday, Jan. 31 BLESSING OF CANDLES
4:00 PM Helen Sawka – Michael Kane

Sunday, Feb. 1 SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners

Monday, Feb. 2 ENCOUNTER OF OUR LORD WITH SIMEON ANOINTING OF HOLY OIL – MYROVANIA
4:00 PM Theodosia Rembish – Cramer Famiy

Saturday, Feb. 7
4:00 PM John & Anna Rudeski – Daughter Ann Marie &
husband Joseph Onderko

Sunday, Feb. 8 SUNDAY OF MEATFARE
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners

Sorokousty: Lent will begin on February 16th. The Stations of the Cross will be held on all Fridays of the Lenten Season. Your Sorokousty envelopes are available for the request to have your loved ones remembered in prayer at this time.
EXPENSE REPORT FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY 2015

Archbishop’s Chancery – Monthly Remittance
For December paid in January $923.00
Health Insurance for Pastor $629.50
Priest Beneficial Fund Monthly 75.00
Metropolitan Stphan Soroka Birthday donation 150.00
Phllips Supply, Inc. drinking cups 3.15
PAWC – Water 39.90
UGI Energy – Gas 680.14
Verizon – Telephone & Internet 121.01
UGI – Electric 995.07
Rev. Volodymyr Popyk Salary & Expense 1,405.91
Church Budget Envelope Co. 517.73
Postmaster – PO Box Rental 140.00
Donation for Plymouth Holiday lighting 10.00
Transfiguration of Our Lord, U.C.C. for Rectory Utilities 300.00
Snow removal of parking lot 100.00
Outflow $6,090.41
Collection Inflow for January $4,247.00
– $1,843.41
SANCTUARY LIGHT: No request for this week.

ALTAR CANDLES: The Altar Candles will burn at all services in the month of February in memory of all deceased members of the Bosack Family requested by Anna Bosack, Carol & Bernard Kosek.

CANDLES: The blessing of candles was Friday, if you did not get candles, they are still available. Plain set of two candles donation is $6 and the decorated ones are $12. The candles are used in the home for many purposes and every home should have one.

MEETING: The LUC North Anthracite Council will meet on Sunday, February 1st, 2:00 PM at St. Vladimir’s Church, 430 North 7th Ave, Scranton, PA. A meeting and fellowship will follow at the Parish Center.

HOLUBTSI DINNER: Saints Peter & Paul Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Wilkes-Barre will hold a take-out Piggie / Holubtsi Dinner on Sunday, February 15th, 2015. Dinners may be picked up between 11:30 am and 2:00 pm at the Parish School Hall, corner of North River and West Chestnut Streets, Wilkes-Barre. Dinner includes Piggies (meat stuffed cabbage), mashed potatoes, vegetable, bread and butter and dessert. Dinners will be $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for children (12 and under). Walk-Ins Welcome but Reservations are encouraged.