Saturday, Dec. 28 SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS
4:00 PM ✞Peter Phillips – Son Peter Phillips
Sunday, Dec. 29 SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
wednesday, Jan. 1 THE CIRCUMCISION OF OUR LORD
9:00 AM Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great
✞Michael & Ksenia Shaughnessy – Ulana Campbell
Anointing with Holy Oil and Myrovania
Saturday, Jan.4 Sunday before the Theophany
4:00 PM ✞Rosemary Piston – Mary Shumbris
Anointing with Holy Oil – Myrovania
Sunday, Jan. 5 Sunday Before the Theophany
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
Monday, Jan. 6 THEOPHANY OF OUR LORD
9:00 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
Blessings in the New Year
CLOSENESS WITH THE DIVINE
Let’s consider what we all run into from time to time in our spiritual journeys. It’s the feeling that we no longer seem able to pray or that our prayers don’t really mean much. Perhaps it’s because we, for some reason, feel distant from God.
Perhaps we struggle with old sins that make us feel unworthy of the Lord. Not at all. It is unfortunate that we so often feel we must move away from God before we sit down and talk with Him.
We have to remind ourselves that prayer is simply talking to God. Prayer is not determined by grammar or vocabulary; it is not measured in terms of length and creativity. It is simply speaking to God no matter what condition we are in! It may be a simple cry: “Help me, God, I’m in trouble and in need of Your help!” It may be a simple plea: “Lord, I need you.” It may be a simple word of thanks and gratitude for something good that has happened; it may be an awareness of some blessing we have forgotten. It may be an expression of gratitude; “God, you are so good to me.” All those simple expressions come from the heart, can be spontaneous, and are indeed prayers. Remember, God made us for himself. He knows we need Him. We can’t be happy without Him. Wealth, fame, pleasure, or power can never satisfy us.
At Divine Liturgy or even in private times when we may sit and talk with the Lord, we can find our minds filled with distractions. We can be discouraged because even though we intend to pray we seem weak in our efforts. Remember, prayer is in the heart, not the head. When we find ourselves distracted, we don’t fight it, we simply “drop away” and try again to be conscious of God’s presence in us. The times we are distracted do not mean that our prayer time is wasted. God is always looking at our hearts.
Perhaps you’ve felt unable to pray because you fear you can’t do it perfectly or think your efforts aren’t pleasing to God. As we begin a new year, don’t lose sight of this: Your desire is itself pleasing to God. God can read and understand your heart perfectly. That is love.
My Prayer
My Jesus, I love You with all my heart. I grieve for having so many times offended Your infinite goodness. I promise with Your grace never more to offend You in the future.
Now, miserable and unworthy though I be, I consecrate myself to You without reserve;
I give You my entire will, my affections, my desires, and all that I possess. From now on dispose of me and of all that I have as You please. All that I ask of You and desire is Your holy love, final perseverance, and the perfect accomplishment of Your will. I recommend to You the souls in purgatory; but especially those who had the greatest devotion to the most Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I also recommend to You all poor sinners.
My dear Savior, I unite all my affections with the affections of Your most loving Heart; and I offer them, thus united, to Your eternal Father, and beseech Him in Your name to vouchsafe, for Your love, to accept them. In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Lord I have no idea what’s going to happen in this New Year but all I pray is that you will guide me, and help me! Please help me to look to you always, and through everything that I do, May I give glory to You, I pray in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
FEAST OF ST. BASIL THE GREAT
On the first of January, the beginning of the civil year, our Church celebrates the memory of the death of one of the greatest and most outstanding Fathers of the Church and doctors of the faith and of monastic legislators – St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea, Cappadocia, of Asia Minor. He is in every respect extraordinary, noble, illustrious and worthy of praise. He was not only an aristocrat by birth, but also an aristocrat in spirit, character, learning and holiness. The mark of his deep faith, heroic love of God and neighbor, learning and holiness is stamped on the entire Church of Christ, on the monastic life in the East and on our people.
The holy Church justifiably gave him the title “the Great”. He is truly “Great” especially in three areas of his life; as a great archbishop of the Church, as a great legislator of monastic life, and as a man of great holiness.
His holiness, virtues and greatness are extolled by our Church in her services in honor of his feast. Here he is praised as “the holy tongue of Christ”, “the shepherd of Christ’s Church”, “the divine and holy bee of Christ’s Church”, “royal ornament of the Church”, “a rich treasure of learning”, and “invincible defender of the Trinity”. Addressing him, the liturgy proclaims, “You walked the rough road of the virtues”, “your word is angelic bread”, “you are a chalice of innocence”, “for monks a model of virtue”, “a light of piety”, and a “trumpet of theology”.
Immediately after Basil’s death, Holy Church began to venerate him as a Saint and to celebrate the day of death on the first of January.
Because the feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord is celebrated on January 1, the Latin Church honors his memory on the 14th of June, on which day he was consecrated bishop in the year 370. The church service in honor of St. Basil was composed by Anatolus of Constantinople (5c), St. John Damascene and Germanus of Constantinople (8c).
Briefly outlined are a silhouette of the immortal figure of St. Basil the Great and his everlasting significance for our Church and Ukrainian monasticism. With the words of St. Paul, “Brethren, be imitators of me as I am of Christ”. St. Basil summons us all also to imitate his deep faith, his sacrificial and all embracing love of God and neighbor, and his great holiness.
Khrystos Razhdayetsia – Christ is Born
Slavyte Yeho – Glorify Him
A brand new year 2020 to begin here,
Open your heart and be of good cheer.
A year full of promise and good things to come.
In your list of resolutions, let good deeds be one.
Help one another and give of your love,
for that will be pleasing to the Father above.
May Your New Year Be Blessed
Happy New Year
A New Year Prayer
Holy Father, God of our yesterdays, our today, and our tomorrows.
We praise You for Your unequaled greatness.
Thank You for the year behind us and for the year ahead.
Help us in Your new year, Father, to fret less and laugh more.
To teach our children to laugh by laughing with them.
To teach others to love by loving them.
Knowing, when Love came to the stable in Bethlehem, He came for us.
So that Love could be with us, and we could know You.
That we could share Love with others.
Help us, Father, to hear Your love song in every sunrise,
in the chirping of sparrows in our backyards,
in the stories of our old folks, and the dreams of our children.
Help us to stop and listen to Your love songs,
so that we may know You better and better.
We rejoice in the world You loved into being.
Thank You for another year and for new chances every day.
We pray for peace, for light, and for hope, that we might spread them to others.
Forgive us for falling short this past year.
We leave the irreparable past in your hands, and step out into the unknown New Year knowing You will go with us.
We accept Your gift of a new year and we rejoice in what’s ahead, depending on You to help us do exactly what You want..
I say it again, we rejoice!
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
SANCTUARY LIGHT: The Sanctuary light is requested to burn this week Dec.28 –Jan. 4 by Michael & Dolores Sinko in memory of Mother Mary Sinko.
THANK YOU: Through the year, many of the parishioners have volunteered for various projects. The service that you so willingly provide is greatly appreciated – whether it be the cleaning of the Church, snow removal on the sidewalks, being there for funerals to open and arrange the necessary bells etc., the baking of the Holy communion & Myrovania breads, working at our fund-raising projects, choir singing and all other service to help the Church. Your volunteer hours keep us in good running – Keep up the good work with God’s Blessings. We cannot forget to also thank the non-parishioners who come in to help with our Projects. Thanks to all for all you do. May God grant you a wonderful year 2020.
PRAYERS: Please remember in your prayers all those who are in Nursing Facilities, sick at home and all who are unable to attend the Divine Liturgy. Also we pray that we could have a better attendance in our parish.
SS Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church 