EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
July 19, 2026
Saturday, July 18 EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
4:00 PM God’s Blessings & Good Health for the Colbe Family
Blessing of Chariots
Sunday, July 19 EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
8:30 AM God’s Blessings & Good Health for All Parishioners
Blessing of Chariots
Monday, July 20 ELIJAH- GREAT PROPHET- No Liturgy
Saturday, July 25 NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
4:00 PM Theodore Hoas- Monica Bergin
Sunday, July 26 EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
8:30 AM Ihor & Olympia Pasicznyk- Placek Family
Originally published in The Way on February 8, 1941 A. D.
During the month of February our minds inevitably turn to two of America’s greatest leaders, to Washington and Lincoln. Thinking of leaders, we think of some of the necessary qualities of a leader. We think of some of our own leaders of the present day and wonder if they have the qualities necessary for a leader.
Too many people when thinking of the attributes of a leader think first of the honor of it. They may think of the monetary benefits. They think of everything but the responsibility of a leader. It has well been said that many “think of leadership as the spire of the cathedral, not as its foundation.”
It would be well for leaders, and would-be leaders, to remember that there is a compulsion about success. It is not enough to be useful and active until leadership is won.
The liner which has made a fast crossing of the ocean, ever afterwards lives under obligation of its own record. Each successive voyage is compared and should the liner descent into the ruck of the six or seven day vessels there would gather around its name something of disappointment, even a tinge of shame.
So it is with high achievement in any sphere. The football team which is at the top of the league and succumbs to one almost beneath the horizon of popular knowledge becomes a target for the wits and cynics. The boxer who has had world honors and goes down to a jab from a novice becomes an object of derision. The novelist who has produced a notable work of art and then perpetrates a pot-boiler has to endure the barbs of comparative criticism. The leader who “falls down on his job” meets scorn not honor. There lies upon every man the obligation to achieve the highest and to live up to it.
To think of leadership only for the honor is to think superficially and unsoundly. Such thinking takes into consideration only the leader, and not the people to be led.
Most people need leaders, but good, sincere leaders, leaders with a sense of responsibility. They hunger for leaders as they hunger for food, for light and air. They drink the inspiration they get from a leader as the thirsty will drink cold water. The need, the desire of men and women for inspirational leadership is the fact by which all the qualities of a leader must be estimated. The need is not for someone to honor, but for someone who can give them inspiration, who can serve their needs.
Men and women often want guidance in making up their opinion. They have a deep instinctive need of someone who can touch in them the springs of action, who can make their heart beat faster or their mind work quicker.
There is not one of us but, looking back, we can see that the formative things in our life were little phrases either of criticism or approval from those above us, glimpses of action in them which became for us an example, a model upon which consciously or unconsciously our character was shaped. These things remain a need for most people to the end of their lives. Civilization and education may disguise it; but they cannot eliminate it.
This inspirational leadership was never desired and needed more than it is today. We feel the lack of good leaders. Let us help raise them for the future through the influence of our own Church, our schools and our own press.
PRAYERS: Please Pray for our leaders of today that God will lead them
and guide them.
UKRAINIAN INDEPENDENCE FOLK FESTIVAL: On Sun., Aug. 23, at 12:00 PM, the Ukrainian American Sport Center Tryzub(County Line and Lower State Rds., Horsham, PA) invites you to the Ukrainian Independence Folk Festival 2026. Commencing at 1:30 PM, , a BBQ and cool refreshments for all ages will be plentiful. Admission: $20; Free for children to age 14. Info: 267-664-3857; info@tryzub.org; www.tryzub.org. $2 of each paid admission goes to Humanitarian Relief in Ukraine. Review the website for possible offsite parking instructions.
WHY COOK WEDNESDAYS!: “Saints Peter & Paul Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church will hold the 3rd and last of their Why Cook Wednesday Dinners for the Summer with a Ukrainian Festival Food, Take-Out Dinner on Wednesday, August 12th. Order from a menu of festival foods including; a Holubtsi Dinner with 2 piggies, 3 pyrohy and green beans for $12.00, a Kovbasa Dinner with Kielbasa & Sauerkraut, Hard Roll and 3 Pyrohy for $10.00, Pagash – 3 Cuts for $6.00 or a whole tray of 12 for $22.00, Pyrohy – 6 for $6.00 or a dozen frozen for $10, Cabbage and Noodles for $4.00 a pint, and Piggie 6-Packs for $18.00. Desserts available at our bake sale. Pick-Ups from 4:00 to 7:00pm in their school hall on the corner of North River and West Chestnut Streets, near the General Hospital Parkade in Wilkes-Barre. Take-Out Only and Pre-Orders are strongly encouraged. Place your order by calling the School Hall Kitchen (570) 829-3051. Tickets will also be sold for a Basket Raffle. Remember…When Baba Cooks, Everybody’s Happy!”
A Spiritual Psalter
or Reflections on God
from the writings of
Saint Ephraim the Syrian
94
If you force yourself to be vigilant in prayer, you will gain mercy when the end comes.
Praise to the All-good One, Who because of His love has revealed glory to the sons of men!
From dust did He create a voiceless being and adorn him with a soul, a proprietress of heavenly treasures.
He gave these lips of dust the capacity to magnify Him, so that through them all creation might sing praise unto Him.
Come, ye who are endowed with speech, let us sing praise unto Him until we repose in the sleep of death.
Every night shall we contemplate death which will stop our lips and lay silence upon us.
The righteous who spent their nights in vigilance live even after death; but the lawless, who reject the glory of the Son of God, are already dead while they yet live.
Let us rouse our bodies with psalms and spiritual hymns that we might join the wise virgins whom our Lord praised, and in vigilance behold His glory in the night that will cause the world to tremble.
Let us not wallow in pleasures, that we might behold His glory in the day of His coming. Let us stand before Him as watchful servants, ready for the hour when He will bring the sons of men to the judgment.
The body that burdened itself with prayer shall soar through the air on the day of the resurrection; without shame shall it behold its Lord; with Him shall it enter into the habitation of light, where it will be cherished by the angels and by those who here burdened themselves with vigilance and prayer.
Blessed is He Who made us instruments of His glory and put exaltation in our unworthy lips! Praise be to His compassion, for He has made those who were of dust concelebrants with the angels, that every night and at all times they might sing His holy name.
There are no Altar Candles or Sanctuary light for this week.
Thank you to David Shipula for his donation to the church IMO John Ostrum.
SYMPATHY: Our heartfelt sympathy to Anna Magill and her family on the passing of her grandson, James Mahon V.
WOMEN’S SOCIETY CLOTHES & BOOK SALE: The Women’s Society will be holding a Clothes and Book sale on Friday July 31st from 9-4 and Saturday Aug 1st from 9-2. If you know of a business that can display this announcement, please take a flyer from in the back of the church. Your help in getting this information out to the public is greatly appreciated.
LABOR DAY FOOD FESTIVAL:
Transfiguration of Our Lord Church is holding a one day Food Festival on Saturday, September 5th from 11-4pm. Homemade Pyrohy, Haluski, Potato Pancakes, Clam Chowder, and Sausage sandwitches. Can you hear the polka music playing!! Save the date.
“Entrust your works to the LORD, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3.
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5.
ASK FATHER A QUESTION? Father, when I was reciting the Communion Prayer before Holy Communion, “Remember me O Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom”- I, Began to think (perhaps too much), Isn’t God in His Kingdom? I thought He was already there? The prayer is talking about Judgement Day, so there is a lot more involved then there is space in the bulletin. When a King was returning to His Kingdom after defeating an enemy, the look-outs on seeing the King at a distance would call out to the city, “The King is returning in Triumph!” The citizens and his army who remained at home would go out to meet Him and the army on the road BEFORE they got to the city. All of them would enter in triumph into the kingdom. Likewise, Yes, Jesus, Father, and Holy Spirit are in Heaven. In the worldly battle against Lucifer and his evil ones, the war is not yet complete. At the end of time, when all the dead shall rise from the grave and those still living are called to judgement-Heaven or Hell, those who inherit Hell are cast into Hell. The war is now complete and the triumphant King, Jesus Christ will return into His Kingdom surrounded by His army and citizens for all Eternity, just as the worldly King returns to His Kingdom. God remembering you into His Kingdom is calling you as a citizen to Heaven. Along with that prayer, you are asking for many things: the graces of God to battle sin in this life, to remain virtuous, to grow in humility, to grow in purity and innocence, and that your “will” will align with the Will of God for you.
SS Peter & Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church 