Saturday, April 18 SUNDAY OF THE OINTMENT BEARERS
4:00 PM God’s Blessings & Good Health for All Parishioners
Sunday, April 19 SUNDAY OF THE OINTMENT BEARERS
8:30 AM Michael Hubiak- Louise Hubiak
Saturday, April 25 SUNDAY OF THE PARALYTIC MAN
4:00 PM Alex Szumskyj – God’s Blessings and Health
Sunday, April 26 SUNDAY OF THE PARALYTIC MAN
8:30 AM Baptism of Julia Kate Johnson, daughter of Joshua Kieth and Oksana Palashchuk Johnson.
Entering into Solitude for Prayer
Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door. – Matthew (6:6)
In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ taught us that during prayer we should “go into our room and shut the door.” The Fathers of the Spiritual Life frequently offered interpretations of these words. They understood them as an injunction to direct our intention deep within ourselves. This is the interior intention to which St. Basil the Great refers in his appeal to “Attend to yourself!” The Liturgical Words “Let us be attentive!” continually reminds us of this. The most important reaction to this call is to increase our attention to what is going on within ourselves. CUCC 699/700
Evil Thoughts
We are constantly under the influence of various thoughts, ideas, and views, and we choose from among them those that we consider important. These thoughts can be either good or evil, and so they affect our spiritual life in different ways. In the book of Genesis, we read how the serpent deceived mankind, saying that they will become like God if they reject God’s commandment. Temptation is a “nudge” or incitement to sin. Confronted by such instigation, mankind can either succumb or resist it. Adam and Eve succumb to the sinful temptation and become, therefore, personally responsible for the sin. The same occurs in our life. If we give our ascent to evil thoughts then we sin. The beginning of every sin is the acceptance of an evil thought coupled with the desire to bring it to life. If a person does not take possession of an evil thought, this thought is not a sin but only a temptation. St. John of Damascus distinguishes various stages in the process by which evil thoughts penetrate the heart. Among these are: suggestion, internal conversion, struggle, ascent, and passion (captivity). *n.b. Demonic forces can influence mankind through thoughts, as can angels guide you through thoughts. Every thought that runs through your mind did not necessarily begin with you. Pray often and pray well so that good thoughts may originate with you and you learn to follow angels and not devils.* CUCC 788/789
PRAYER FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE CHURCH
O glorious St. Michael, guardian and defender of the Church of Jesus Christ come to the assistance of the Church, against which the powers of hell are unchained, guard with especial care her august Head, and obtain that for Him and for us the hour of triumph may speedily arrive. O glorious Archangel St. Michael, watch over us during life, defend us against the assaults of the devil, assist us especially at the hour of death; obtain for us a favorable judgement, and the happiness of beholding God face to face for endless ages. Amen.
The Altar Candles for April are requested by Michaelene Ostrum IMO father Michael Sirak.
The Sanctuary Light is requested by Carol Bosack-Kosek IMO The Bosack Family.
SVIACHENNE: IT’S THIS WEEK! The Sviachenne will be this Sunday, April 19, 2026 12:15PM. It is a Covered Dish Sviachenne between Transfiguration of Our Lord Church & Ss. Peter & Paul Church! There is no charge for the Sviachenne Dinner and it will be held at Transfiguration of Our Lord Church basement. Thank you to everyone who signed up!
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CONTRIBUTED TO THE HEATING SYSTEM REPAIR: I express my deepest appreciation to everyone who contributed the repair for the heating system. The total bill was $8,106.50. Parishioner donations were a total of $2,200 and the Women’s Society donated the remainder of the cost, $5906.50. May God grant you many happy years, peace, health and salvation, in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
WALKING PILGRIMAGE: Save the date Saturday, June 13. Seven mile trek from St. Mary’s Church, Mocanaqua to St. Nicholas Church, Glen Lyon. More information is on the flyer in the vestibule.
FLEA MARKET: Transfiguration of Our Lord Church will be having a Flea Market, Bag Day is Sunday, April 19thfrom noon to 1PM.
Ask Father a question? Father, the following passage is confusing “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people,” could you help me with this? Does this mean that individuals other than Christ have risen from the dead and are in heaven? What does “appeared to many people” refer to, spirits? No, just as Lazarus was raised from the dead, Lazarus died a second time and was buried a second time. So too all those who rose from the dead, died a second time and were buried a second time. This is a reminder to us that at the end of days with the second coming of Christ, all the dead will rise from their tombs, their soul being re-united with their perfect (finished) body. That little passage “returned to life” means that they went back to living as they were before they died and were buried in a tomb. Each of these people lived for a time and died a second natural worldly death. They too will rise at the end of time for judgement with all the dead. I believe your difficulty in understanding this, is the common concept today that salvation is being in heaven with God is your bodiless soul floating around in the sky eternally. This is simply wrong. Everyone will bodily rise from the dead, even the people who were vaporized by the atomic bombs of Japan at their epicenter will receive back their physical bodies with their soul reunited, and then judged for Heaven or Hell. A little side note, did you know that the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima had the highest populations of Catholics in Japan? This is an indication, and a reminder, to us of our end that God has in store for us. Your body and your soul both matter. So let’s go to Revelation Chapter 20:12-15:
“And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”
We were given a fore taste of the general resurrection with the dead that rose from their tombs with Christ. From Luke Chapter 24:37-41:
“They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
SS Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church 