CHEESEFARE SUNDAY
February 27, 2022
Saturday, Feb. 26
4:00 PM Michael Kane, Many happy years, God’s blessings
Sunday, Feb. 27
9:00 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
3:00 PM Forgiveness Vespers – Transfiguration of Our Lord
Friday, Mar. 4
4:00 PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
Saturday, Mar. 5
4:00 PM ✞Albert Piston – Stephen Piston & Family
Sunday, Mar. 6 FIRST SUNDAY OF THE GREAT FAST
8:30 AM God’s Blessings and Good Health for all Parishioners
LENT: Lent begins at sundown on Sunday February 27th, which is the beginning of Monday Liturgically (in Church life). Monday is a day of strict fast. We abstain from all meat and dairy, for those who are able to fast thusly. Please keep in mind that Fridays during Lent are a fast from meat, and you should also abstain from meat on Wednesdays. For those able to attend the Forgiveness Vespers, Monday begins at the singing of “O Joyful Light.”
According to Byzantine tradition, the Lenten discipline consists of three separate parts:
The Great Fast
Fast is one of the oldest and most venerable practices in the Church, which came to us through an uninterrupted 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 the Feasts of Feasts, Our Lords Resurrection.
The Great Fast, as we know it, is the result of a complicated organic development, not all stages of which have been sufficiently explained. It seems that up to 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 A.D.). From that time, the Forty Days Fast is discussed by many Church Fathers, and St. Athanasius (d. 373 A.D.) 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 A.D.) 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” (The 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, O 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 Western Church, 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: No Request.
ST. VLADIMIR’S UKRAINIAN CHURCH: The final Divine Liturgy in St. Vladimir’s Church, Edwardsville, PA will be celebrated this Sunday, February 27, 2022 A.D. at 10:30 AM. Sorry to say the church will be merged with Saints Peter and Paul in Plymouth from this date. Parishioners of St. Vladimir’s Parish are instructed by our Metropolitan Archbishop Borys that they are directed to SS Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church where all the parish records of St. Vladamir will be kept and Ss. Peter and Paul will also take care of St. Vladamir’s Cemetary. We joyfully welcome all the parishioners from St. Vladamir during a heartfelt moment in your life.
PYSANKY CLASS: Ss. Cyril’s and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church, Olyphant, PA will be continuing with the tradition of making Ukrainian Pysanky in time for Easter 2022. Classes will be held at the Parish Hall at 207 River Street, Olyphant with free parking. The beginner’s classes will be taught by Tammy Budnovitch (for over 10 years at St. Cyril’s) on Sunday, March 6th, and Sunday, March 27th starting from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.All supplies and eggs will be included at the cost of $25.00 per person per class. Classes are limited in size!!!! Mask are optional Contact Tammy Budnovitch at 570-766-1919. Please, leave a message.
LITURGIES: Please keep in mind that there are no liturgies during the week in the Lenten Season in the Ukrainian Catholic Church. The Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts will be in held on Wednesdays at 6:30PM at Transfiguration of Our Lord Church and on Fridays at 4:00 PM at Saint Peter & Paul Church in Plymouth. If there should be the need for a funeral during The Great Fast, the service during this 40 days is the Funeral Service, The Sorokousty will be celebrated.
SS Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church 