DIVINE LITURGY SCHEDULE: Saturdays 4:00 PM; Sundays 8:30 AMSaturday, Jan. 20
4:00 PM ✞Ronald Kachinko – Tom, Joanne, Genny Hewitt
Sunday, Jan. 21 SUNDAY OF THE PUBLICAN & THE PHARISEE
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
Wednesday, Jan. 24
9:00 A:M ✞Ronald Kachinko ( 40th Day) – The Kachinko Family
Saturday, January 27
4:00 PM ✞Alyssa Baumann – Nelson & Donna Warren
Sunday, January 28 SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
The Publican and the Pharisee
Before the soldier goes to battle, he undergoes a long period of military training to prepare himself physically and psychologically for combat and to enable him to bear the burdens and inconveniences of military life.
In like manner, holy Church, our good Mother, prepares us, her children, spiritually for the struggles we must undergo before she imposes upon us the strict Great Fast (Forty-Days Fast). This is precisely the aim of the four pre-Lenten Sundays, which begin with the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee and end with Cheese fare Sunday. In the Church services of those Sunday’s, holy Church places before our eyes several biblical scenes: the proud Pharisee and the humble Publican, the conversion of the Prodigal Son, the scene of the Last Judgment and the expulsion of our First Parents from Paradise. These dramatic scenes have the power to move us to the depths; they reveal God’s mercy and justice, and convince us of the need for conversion and penance for our salvation. Meditation on these events should evoke in us a serious attitude toward fasting; convincing us of its necessity and benefit as it gradually prepares us for the Fast itself.
Lent, The Season of Repentance
The Great Fast, or Lent, begins on the Monday, seven weeks prior to Easter Sunday. It is regarded as a time for doing penance through the means of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The Ukrainian Catholic Church has always considered the doing of penance a necessary condition for salvation.
In the past faithful were required to conduct severe forms of fasting and abstinence during the forty days leading up to Easter Sunday. However, the Church has recognized the continuous change in society and as such has called for different expressions of penance. As such there has been a greater relaxation of the laws of fasting and abstinence but in its place a greater attention to prayer, meditations and almsgiving has been made.
Ukrainian Catholics are today obliged to observe Lent in the following manner. On the first day of Lent and on Good Friday, persons between the ages of 14 and 60 are obliged to abstain from all meat and dairy products. Every Friday during Lent is a day of abstinence from meat, as are all Fridays. Public dancing, parties and other loud secular entertainments are to be avoided.
As an expression of penance during Lent, Ukrainian Catholics are required to conduct prostrations (called poklony in Ukrainian). A prostration is an accentuated form of bending the knee – an act of inclining the whole body to the ground. These penitential prostrations are performed as the following penitential prayer of St. Ephraem Syrus is sung or recited:
St. Ephraem PRAYER
”O Lord and Master of my life, grant me not a spirit of slothfulness, of negligence, of lust of power, of vain babbling. [poklony] But vouchsafe unto thy servant the spirit of continence, of meekness, of patience and of love. [poklony] Yea, Lord and King, grant that I may perceive my transgressions and judge not my brother, for You are blessed forever and ever.” [poklony]
SANCTUARY LIGHT: The Sanctuary Light is requested to burn the week of
Jan. 20-27 by The Halloway Family in memory of Deceased members of the Halloway Family.
THANKS: Our thanks to those who so faithfully came out last Sunday to dismantle the Nativity. Your time and efforts were greatly appreciated. God bless you all.
MYASOPUSNA 2018: Transfiguration of Our Lord Church is pleased to announce that dinner tickets are now available for our Annual Myasopusna Festival, held at the church’s banquet hall at 240 Center Street, Nanticoke, on Sunday, February 4, from noon to 4 pm. The Myasopusna (Meatfare) Festival is the parish’s pre-lenten celebration, preceding the Great Fast. Dinner (a platter of holuptsi, kobasi, pyrohy, borscht, black bread and butter, and a homemade dessert) will be served from 12:30 to 2:00 pm, followed by live Ukrainian dance performances by Saint Mary’s Ukrainian Dancers. A variety of Ukrainian crafts will be on display and for sale. Dinner tickets are $13 if purchased by January 29 ($15 at the door).
BLESSING OF HOMES: You may still have Father bless your home. If you would like to have your home blessed please call Father Walter at 735-2262 – Cell Phone 202-603-2607 or place your name and address and phone number in the collection .
BUS TRIP: Scranton’s St. Vladimir Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is sponsoring a springtime bus trip to New York City on Saturday, May 19, 2018. There will be two stops in Manhattan: the 911 Memorial Museum at Ground Zero and the 42nd annual St. George Ukrainian Street Festival on the Lower East Side. Adults $70.00; Seniors 65+ $64.00; Youth 7 to 17 yrs. $62.00. Further information will follow next week.