SAINT BASIL THE GREAT СВ. ВАСИЛІЯ ВЕЛИКОГО

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1 SAINT BASIL THE GREAT СВ. ВАСИЛІЯ ВЕЛИКОГО Ukrainian Catholic Parish Парафія УГКЦ 202 HARCOURT STREET, WINNIPEG, MB R3J 3H3 Parish Office: Parish Hall: Parish Office Address: Rev. Fr. Ihor Shved о. Ігор Швед Phones: Cell: Home; Address The Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian O Lord and Master of my life, drive from me the spirit of discouragement, negligence, ambition and idle talk. (Prostration). Grant me, your servant, the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and charity. (Prostration). Yes, my Lord and King, grant me to see my own sins, and not judge my brother, for you are blessed forever, and ever. Amen. (Prostration). SUNDAY LITURGY 10:00 a.m. (Rosary at 9:30 am) OFFICE HOURS (MON-WED-FRI) 10:00 am 1:00 pm CONFESSIONS Before Divine Liturgies BAPTISIMS By appointment FUNERALS By arrangement MARRIAGES By appointment at least six months in advance WEBSITE: PARISH OFFICE ADDRESS: parish@saintbasilwpg.ca BULLETIN SUBMISSIONS: bulletin@saintbasilwpg.ca Lent is Time of Joy for Eastern Catholics Joy is not a word people usually associate with strict fasting and penance unless they are Eastern-rite Catholics. In the Eastern church, the penitential period that prepares believers to celebrate Easter, is called Great Lent, and its prayers invite the faithful to recognize their need for forgiveness and to delight in the joy of the fast. Mother Theodora, the hegumena or abbess of the Byzantine Catholic Christ the Bridegroom Monastery in Burton, Ohio, describes the Lenten disposition as bright sadness. We recognize our weakness and sinfulness, but rejoice in the mercy of God, she told. Unlike Lent for Latin-rite Catholics, Great Lent does not begin on Ash Wednesday, but after Forgiveness Vespers. For Eastern churches using the Gregorian calendar, the vespers are held on the Sunday before the Roman church s Ash Wednesday.

2 The Great Fast is meant to be a challenge which brings out the real struggles of the spiritual life, so that they can be confronted, said Mother Theodora. In addition to emptying ourselves in order to be filled with God, the purpose of fasting is also to discipline ourselves and to gain control of our passions, she continued. Fasting liberates us from worldly dependence and helps us to realize our dependence on God. The fast has two aspects: spiritual and physical. The spiritual involves abstaining from evil thoughts, words and deeds, she said. The physical fast traditionally includes eating less (or nothing at all during set periods) and abstaining from meat, fish with backbones, all dairy products, eggs, oil and wine for all of Great Lent. Stefano Parenti, a liturgy professor at the Pontifical University of St. Anselm in Rome, said, at one time, fasting was also common in western Christianity. However, historical events, such as war, led church leaders to grant dispensations from fasting. Then the war would end, but the dispensation would remain, so that dietary abstinence became perceived in the West as no longer characteristic of Lent, he explained. Eventually, fasting and abstinence diminished in the West as a church-wide practice and became personal. Today, Western Catholics can choose when to fast and from which foods to abstain, except for on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, when fasting and abstinence are obligatory, and on the Fridays of Lent when they abstain from meat. In the Byzantine church, fasting is not individual but ecclesial, Parenti said. The entire church fasts together and the food restrictions are set by the church, offering a context that encourages growing in obedience and humility for one s own good and the good of others, he said. The communal aspect is emphasized in the liturgies and prayers, found in a book called the Lenten Triodion, which accompany the faithful through Great Lent and explain the meaning of the fast, said Parenti. Prayer services and liturgies are longer and more frequent and the faithful are called to additional personal prayer at home. T he Prayer of St. Ephrem, which asks God for mercy and for the spiritual gifts of integrity, humility, patience and love, is also characteristic of Great Lent. Using the prayer, people also ask for the grace not to judge others. In this prayer, we ask to become aware of our sins and to lose our illusions about ourselves. The prayer is accompanied by three prostrations, which is a physical expression of one s openness to conversion, explained Parenti. The entire congregation crouching on the floor and touching their heads to the ground is an expression of our smallness before God, he said. All Catholics are urged to give alms during Lent. In the East, Father Van Parys said, the emphasis is perhaps less on material goods than on giving of one s time: being more present to others, devoting oneself to the needy and visiting the sick. Giving alms is being Christ to others, said Mother Theodora. Drawing on the eastern theology of iconography, Parenti offered a metaphor: Great Lent is about diving into reality, putting yourself in front of a mirror that gives you the honest image of what you are seeking to restore this icon that time, sin, mistakes and fatigue have blurred. This is a time to restore the icon of the one who created us, that is, the icon we are called to be in the world. That is the meaning of Great Lent.

3 DIVINE LITURGY REQUESTS Time Feast or Intention, requested by 11 th Feb. Sunday 10:00 AM All parishioners 12th Feb. Monday 10:00 AM Health of Joan Merko offered by Adeline Shymanski 13 th Feb. Tuesday 10:00 AM For the Health & Blessings of Walter & Mary Shurraw offered by UCWLC 14th. Wed. 5:30 PM Liturgy of Presanctified Gift. (Ukrainian) 6:30 pm Stations of the Cross followed by UCWLC Tea Membership Meeting 15th Feb. Thursday 10:00 AM Health & Blessings of Rose Swidinsky offered by UCWLC 16th Feb. Friday 10:00 AM Liturgy of Presanctified Gift followed by Parastas (Sorokousty) 17th Feb. Saturday 10:00 AM + Soul of Elexander Blake NO CLASSES 18th Feb. Sunday 10:00 AM All parishioners NOTE: All the 10:00 am Divine Liturgies scheduled on the calendar are all open for your intention requests. If you would like to request please contact the office and book your preferred date. These names will be published in the bulletin the following week EPISTLE READERS :- Feb. 18 th Sonia Wawryk Feb. 25 th - Andy Labay USHERS & GREETERS: Feb th - Merv & Cathy Cherewyk Feb Nick Labay & Raymond Yakimik Mar th - Iris Sawchuk & Al Kowal Mar 18 - Harry & Nellie Fediuk Tatsa counters: Parishioners willing to help count/process the Sunday envelopes, please contact Linda Labay Church Cleaning Please feel free to volunteer a few hours a week for one month of this 2018 year to enhance our church interior. Choose the month which will be convenient for you and your family. Book early to avoid disappointment. I hope I don t have to wait too long for your call. Sonia Wawryk Church Cleaning Chair DONATIONS God bless you for supporting your parish Sunday collection for February 4,

4 PLEASE REMEMBER IN YOUR PRAYERS CALL AND VISIT - our many parishioners that are ill or experiencing various challenges in life. Remember: If anyone wishes to receive the Sacraments at home or in the hospital or nursing home please contact the parish office or Fr. Ihor directly, at the numbers given above, and we will be happy to visit. KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS NEWS This month we have several functions. Our pancake breakfast on February 11, 2018 after Divine liturgy. We have coffee houses on February 18, & 25. We have our monthly Perogy Supper on Friday February 23, :00 pm. We are looking for assistance to get everything ready for Friday with peeling of potatoes on Monday February 19, :00 pm. All are welcome to come down and enjoy our pancake breakfast, coffee houses, and perogy supper and visit with fellow parishioners and friends. Submitted by Andrew Labay Grand Knight UCWLC News The UCWLC Executive for 2018 is as follows: Past President Rose Olynyk President - Gwen Dankewich Vice President Linda Gardner Recording Secretary - Ariel Kulchyski Financial Secretary - Olga Twerdun Treasurer - Phyllis Fedorchuk Auditors - Doreen Musick, Linda Gardner, Edna Bazarkewich The UCWLC Membership Tea and meeting will be Wednesday, February 14 th. We extend a warm welcome to all ladies of our parish and invite you to join us. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts The Divine Liturgy is a festive and joyous celebration. It is an occasion for expressing joy and as such is somewhat incompatible with the somber character of the weekdays during the Holy Great Fast. Thus in keeping with the penitential and ascetical character of the weekdays of the Great Fast, while still recognizing our spiritual need of being fed with the Divine Eucharist, our Church therefore offers the faithful a Communion service the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts be celebrated on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout Lent. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts strikes the perfect balance necessary for the season of the Great Fast. It may be characterized, without exaggeration, as the heart, the center, of the services of Great Lent. This beautiful service with its unique music, is essentially not a liturgy in the sense of the Liturgies of St. John Chrysostom or St. Basil the Great, but is rather a special rite of Communion. This liturgy provides us with the much needed spiritual Food of the Holy Eucharist, yet it maintains the penitential character of the season. It is meant to strengthen us as we travel the Lenten journey. During this service there is no consecration of Eucharistic gifts. Holy Communion is reserved from the previous Sunday s Divine Liturgy; therefore the term presanctified is used. This liturgy takes place in the context of Vespers. As the congregation kneels during the psalms of Vespers, the presanctified gifts are prepared for communion. They are transferred from the tabernacle on the altar where they have been reserved since the Divine Liturgy, and are placed on the table of preparation.

5 After the evening hymn, Old Testament scriptures usually of Genesis and Proverbs are read, between which the priest blesses the congregation with a lighted candle and the words: The Light of Christ enlightens all, indicating that all wisdom is given by Christ in the Church through the scriptures and sacraments. After the readings, the evening Psalm 141 is solemnly sung with the offering of incense. It consists of a solemn incensing of the altar together with fervent prayer while we kneel. We pray to be made worthy of receiving the Body and Blood of the King. The rising incense reminds us of our prayer rising to the throne of the King. Then, after the litanies of intercession, the presanctified Eucharistic gifts are brought to the altar in a solemn, silent procession. This is very solemn entrance, which we greet on our knees, for it is not bread and wine that is carried in, but the Lord Himself who comes as food for all to bring eternal life. After the litany and prayers, the Our Father is sung and the faithful receive Holy Communion to the chanting of the verse from Psalm 34: O taste and see how good is the Lord. Alleluia. The post-communion hymns are sung and the faithful depart with a prayer to God who has brought us to these all-holy days of purification of our souls and bodies, for control of our passions and for hope in the Resurrection to fight the good fight, to run the course of the fast, to keep the faith to attain without reproach the worship of your holy resurrection. The Presanctified Liturgy gives us a profound sense of the great reverence that is due our God. The service s connection to The Great Fast is reflected in its special mournful character. The Altar Table and sacred vessels containing the Holy Gifts are covered with dark coloured vestments. Prayers are read with a sense of humility and tenderness. Overall, the entire service is marked by a special sense of mystery. We join all the saints who are around the throne of God, falling down before Him and giving Him glory! The Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts instructs and fortifies us in our Lenten journey to Holy Pascha. It is an integral part of the spiritual journey taken during the Holy Great Forty-Days Fast. By hearing the Word, we are instructed as to what God expects of us; and by participating in the Eucharistic Banquet, we are given the spiritual Food that fortifies us in order to accomplish our goal. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is celebrated every Wednesday and Friday during Great Fast. It is also celebrated on Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week. St. Basil s continues to collect warm winter wear for Winnipeggers in need. Our current challenge is to provide socks for everyone at the Lighthouse Mission downtown. Give with your heart, and let s fill the donation box at the back of the church. God Bless you.

6 Saint Basil s Travelling Icon of the Blessed Mother of Pochaiv She will reside in the home of the following Parishioners Jean Derhak February 11 th Al & Wanda Prychitko February 18th- 24th MNOHAYA LITA - GOD S BLESSINGS FOR MANY MORE YEARS OF LOVE & HAPPINESS HAPPY ANNIVERSARY To anyone that is not registered with the Parish God s Blessings for your Happiest Birthday Mnohaya Lita HAPPY BIRTHDAY:- Elliott (George) Hotel - Feb.13 th Dorothy Maksymchuk - Feb.14 th Brian Moore - Feb. 15 th Tillie Zyla - Feb.15 th SANCTUARY LIGHT This WEEK INTENTION OFFERED February 11 TH 17 TH +Soul Peter & Mary Woychyshyn Morley & Evelyn Luhowy Sanctuary Light burns eternally to indicate the presence of the Holy Eucharist in the tabernacle. The icon is a detail of the Explusion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Because we did not fast we were banished from paradise. So then let us fast so as to return back to paradise. (St. Basil) Renewal/Pastoral Committee Our Tuesday evening sessions are continuing alternating Cathechism and Lexio Divina. Tuesday Feb.13 th at 7 p.m. we will continue with the study of the mystery of the Holy.Eucharist. Last week we discussed # Please plan to attend these very informative, inspiring classes.note: NO CLASSES FEB.20 TH DUE TO PARISH COUNCIL MEETING. Keep in mind Feb.27 th 11:00 am to 5:00 p.m. we will hold a day of prayer VIGIL. God wants us to Love him and to know him. Spend an hour of ½ hr. in the presence of the Holy Eucharist. Yours in Christ Dorothy Labay. Parish Council We will return to having the regular monthly meetings every third Monday of the month beginning on February 20. March 4/18 is our annual meeting and all reports should be submitted to the Parish office by the 15 of February. To help the nominating committee, a sheet will be distributed for your assistance in submitting your name or someone you know that would be willing to take on an executive position on the parish council. Place your suggestion in the box at the entrance to the church. Rose President, Parish Council