December 20, 2015 CHRIST IS BORN! LET US PRAISE HIM! God is with us, rejoice all you nations and be humbled, for god is with us!

Transcription

1 CHRIST IS BORN! LET US PRAISE HIM! God is with us, rejoice all you nations and be humbled, for god is with us!

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3 SAINT BASIL the GREAT PARISH 202 HARCOURT STREET, WINNIPEG, MB R3J 3H3 Parish Office: Parish Hall: Parish Priest: Rt. Rev Canon Walter Klimchuk The Nativity of the Lord The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:14 From Father Walter Merry Christmas! Today is the day when we celebrate the light of Christ, a light that pierces all our darkness! While some of us find it easy to rejoice today, others may struggle to celebrate. Still, the truth remains: the Word became flesh for all of us. His grace and truth and glory are available for everyone. And so, whatever darkness seems to enfold you, God calls out: Come into my light! Darkness has not, and cannot, overcome it. To all of us He says, I came for you. Lord, I m so worried about my children. SUNDAY DIVINE LITURGY 10:00 a.m. (Rosary precedes each Liturgy by one half hour) WEEKDAY SERVICES (Tue-Fri) 8:30 a.m. Rosary followed by Liturgy CONFESSIONS Before Divine Liturgies BAPTISIMS By appointment FUNERALS By arrangement MARRIAGES By appointment at least three months in advance WEBSITE: PARISH OFFICE ADDRESS: parish@saintbasilwpg.ca BULLETIN SUBMISSIONS: bulletin@saintbasilwpg.ca I came for you and for them! Lord, I m locked in a prison cell all by myself. I came for you; let me join you and keep you company. Lord, I can t find my way out of sin. I feel guilty, ashamed and too afraid to go to Confession. Don t be afraid. I come to light the way for you.

4 Lord, life feels so overwhelming and I don t seem to have time for you. That s okay. Come to me whenever you can. I always have time for you. Lord, I m struggling to believe that you love me. Don t worry. I have enough love for both of us. Come rest your head on my shoulder. Lord, I don t love the people who will be at my dinner table today. Let me help you love the unlovable. Lord, I m all alone today. I have no one to celebrate with. I m here with you. Let s celebrate together, just you and I. On this great day, listen as Jesus cries out, I came for you. Now come to me! Let me walk with you so that you can know my peace. Thank you Jesus for shining your light in my life! Thank you for lighting my way when darkness makes it hard. Lord, I rejoice in you! A young man in London aspired to be a writer but everything in life seemed to be against him. He had only four years of school to his credit. His father was in jail because he couldn t pay his debts. The young man often went to bed hungry. At the tender age of 12, he was able to secure a job pasting labels on bottles in a rat-infested shoe polish factory warehouse. He slept in a dismal attic room with two rough boys from the slums. The young man had so little confidence in his ability to write, that he sneaked out and mailed his first manuscript in the middle of the night so nobody would laugh at him. Story after story was rejected. Finally, the day came when one of his stories was accepted for publication. He wasn t paid anything for the story, but the editor praised his work. One editor had given him recognition,

5 showed appreciation. The young man was so thrilled that he wandered aimlessly around the streets of London with tears rolling down his cheeks. That one bit of expressed appreciation changed the young man s whole life and career. (The story just goes to show how words of recognition and appreciation that we might show to others, especially to young people, might serve to change the whole course of their lives. So let us not withhold words of appreciation and recognition. We have the power to changes lives! But back to the story.) The young man in the story, was Charles Dickens, one of the world s most beloved writers. No other writer has inspired more movie, TV, and stage adaptations of his works. More than 320 movies dramas, musicals and cartoons have been inspired by Dickens novels. All of Dickens work was adapted for the stage during his own lifetime, and often he was in the cast himself. Dickens sympathized with and advocated for the poor and oppressed. He never lost his interest in and never stopped advocating for those in prisons (remember, his father had been in debtors prison), orphanages, and institutions for the insane. When traveling through the southern United States, Dickens was appalled at the sight of southern slavery and became an outspoken voice for abolition. Dickens advocacy and efforts to change social injustices and inequities come through in the novels he wrote. When Dickens came to America for his first reading tour in 1842, he drew huge crowds. Ticket scalpers worked his appearances like they do today at rock concerts and Super Bowl games. People flocked around Dickens like he was an idol. His second American tour attracted more than 100,000 people at his 76 public readings, earning him $95,000, which is equivalent to about $1.5 million in today s money. Dickens works continue to be reprinted and reprinted, selling in the millions of copies. In 2010, Oprah Winfrey chose his A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations for her book club. A Christmas Carol is probably the second most popular Christmas story in the English language, being trumped possibly only by the story given in the Gospel. "Marley was dead: to begin with." Those are the first words in Charles Dickens' story A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens liked dramatic and unusual opening lines to all of his stories. Who, after all, can forget the opening words to A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times; it was

6 the worst of times." Dickens wrote that, as A Christmas Carol unfolded as he wrote it, he wept and laughed, and wept again as he walked the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed. The beginning to A Christmas Carol introduces us to a ghost story. The central character is Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy businessman who is the surviving partner of the firm Scrooge and Marley, Stockbroker s. Scrooge is interested most in making money. Business is his main concern. Scrooge is mean and hard. He bullies his clerk, Bob Cratchit. All sentiment, kindness, generosity, tenderness, he dismisses as humbug. We need to know that Jacob Marley, Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner is long dead and buried. The stage is set for night-time visits by spirits that walk the earth. Dickens wrote the story about Ebenezer Scrooge at a very important turning point in his life. A few years earlier his wife's sister had died and Dickens' subsequent grief caused him to venture on a religious journey. In 1842 he traveled to the United States. Dickens hoped to find progressive religious bodies freed from state control. He discovered that the churches in the U.S.A. at that time were hardly any more broad-minded than the ones in Europe. He noted though that one denomination was markedly different the Unitarians. In the United States he met with Unitarian ministers and decided to attend a Unitarian church when he returned back to England. In 1843 Charles Dickens started attending the Little Portland Street Chapel, a Unitarian congregation in London. He began writing letters about his new-found faith to his friends in the United States and in Britain. He wrote that his friend the English Unitarian minister, Edward Taggert, had "that religion which has sympathy for men of every creed and ventures to pass judgment on none." Writing to an American friend Dickens said, "I have carried into effect an old idea of mine and joined the Unitarians, who would do something for human improvement if they could; and practice charity and toleration." Therein lies the heart, the spirit of Dickens' story, A Christmas Carol. Dickens wrote his story about Scrooge when he was at the height of his enthusiasm and activity in the Unitarian church on Little Portland Street.

7 A Christmas Carol is a story about Christmas but little mention is made of the story in the Bible. Were you to thumb through A Christmas Carol you would find no specific mention of the birth of Jesus or any theological interpretations. Two passages do allude to events from scripture but they are not packed with theological importance. Tiny Tim likes to go to church and mentions that he hopes that his lame body will remind others of "him who made lame beggars walk and the blind to see." Yes, Tiny Tim does bespeak of miracles but the importance to us, the readers, is that though we cannot perform miracles or feats of similar wonder, we do have the capacity to care for the sick and the poor. We do have the capacity to do good. That is the underlying assumption in A Christmas Carol. The nineteenth century Unitarians did not believe in any specific religious doctrine but they did believe that religion was more about living than believing. The nineteenth century Unitarians were well-known in their time for their catch-phrase, "Deeds not creeds." They found that many people believed in religious ideas but had little interest in how one's beliefs influenced their lives or the lives they lived with others. In other words, one can subscribe to all the traditional creeds in Christendom and still be a thoroughly rotten person or a true saint. The nineteenth century Unitarians believed that Christianity was more important as a religion about living a generous and charitable life than it was a religion about particular religious doctrines. They subscribed to Christian ethics in the belief that the ministry of Jesus was to care for others. Their religion was about ethics. Early Christianity was less a religion about belief than it was about a new way of being. It is just such a new way of being that we witness in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Like most of Dickens' stories, A Christmas Carol is about society and ethics. It's about the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots. The story begins with Ebenezer Scrooge encountering his nephew who arrives at his firm on Christmas Eve to wish him a Merry Christmas. Scrooge dismisses Christmas with a "Bah, humbug!" Scrooge's nephew defends Christmas thus: There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say... Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think the people below them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle,

8 though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it! After his nephew leaves two men arrive collecting money for the poor. Scrooge dismisses them as well, saying that he does not need to give to the poor because there are enough prisons and workhouses to take care of their needs. He dismisses them summarily. Scrooge feels he has discharged his full duty to society in contributing the taxes that pay for the prison, the workhouse, the operation of the treadmill and the Poor Laws. After a miserable day, troubled by his nephew Fred, the local businessmen who sought a benevolent donation, and his clerk Bob Cratchit who was shivering in the cold, Scrooge, rugged in his dressing gown, did not sleep that Christmas Eve. At midnight he heard a clanking noise, and into his room swept the eerie ghost of his old partner Jacob Marley. Marley's ghostly form is covered by chains that he drags along. Attached to Marley's chains are "cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds and heavy purses wrought in steel," representing the things Marley placed value on when he lived and are now burdens upon his spirit. We learn through their conversation that Marley and Scrooge were cast from the same mold. And what is that mold? They both valued only money and security. They never shared their wealth with anyone, nor did it really ever bring any joy to each of them. They led lives of miserable disconnection from their fellow humans. Scrooge says to Jacob Marley s ghost, But you were always a good man of business, Jacob... To which Marley s ghost replies, Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. Marley explains to Scrooge that he has arranged for three ghosts to visit him on Christmas eve. Marley explains to Scrooge that this will happen so Scrooge will not make the mistakes that Marley did when he lived.

9 The Spirit of Christmas Past arrives and takes Scrooge to the village of his childhood. He saw old school companions. Scrooge is presented as a poor young man with a sickly but happy sister. He saw his joyous meeting with his sister Fran, who died later giving birth to her son, leaving Scrooge his only relative, his nephew Fred, to whom he had been so rude earlier that day. He sees himself as a young apprentice at a great Christmas party hosted by his employer. In Christmas past, Scrooge was happy. Scrooge was visiting scenes of earlier days that had influenced him, contrasting his earlier Christmas experiences with what he was dealing out to others. He was recalling his roots, retracing earlier events, reliving the formative influences on his life and being inwardly troubled. The Spirit of Christmas Past left him back in his cold bedroom to await the second Spirit. Then with the Spirit of Christmas present, Scrooge visited the homes of many across the world and discovered the connections that the season brings. He visited the home of his nephew and found his nephew defending his mean, old uncle against the complaints of the rest of the family. The Spirit of Christmas Present then took Scrooge on another visit, this time to the home of his clerk, Bob Cratchit and his family. Mrs. Cratchit was excited at the prospect of Christmas dinner. Their daughter Martha arrived worn out from work in a hat-maker s sweatshop. Then Bob Cratchit came in the door with their crippled son, Tiny Tim on his shoulders fresh from attending Church. Here Scrooge learns of the spirit of Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim was carrying his crutch, and said that he hoped people noticed he was in church because they would realise Christmas Day meant the coming of Jesus who made the cripples walk and the blind see. Instead of being bitter and

10 withdrawn about his disability, Tiny Tim sees in it the possibility of connection with others. So filled with love is he that he proclaims, "God bless us, everyone!" At the Cratchit home, Christmas dinner was a feast! They were grateful for every meagre portion. As Scrooge watched, Bob toasted Christmas Day, then said: I give you Mr. Scrooge and raised his glass to his absent employer and toasted Scrooge s health. When the Ghost of Christmas Present prepares to leave him, two children, a boy and a girl, are revealed from underneath the Ghost s robe. The children are wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, and miserable. Spirit! Are they yours? Scrooge asks. They are Man s, said the Spirit. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both. In other words, the passage is a call to social reform to see to the needs of the world s children who are victims of ignorance and want. The Spirit of Christmas Past then took an emotionally exhausted Scrooge back to his room. In the dark another Spirit appears. I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come? said Scrooge. The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its hand. You are about to show me shadows of the things that have not happened, but will happen in the time before us, Scrooge pursued. Is that so Spirit? Ghost of the Future! I fear you more than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose is to do me good, and as I hope to live to be another man from what I was, I am prepared to bear you company, and do it with a thankful heart. With the Spirit of Christmas Future, Scrooge learns that he and Tiny Tim are fated to die. The Spirit of Christmas Future took him to a dirty second hand rag shop where a filthy old man was buying clothing, blankets and bed-curtains from a charwoman who had stolen them from a dead man s house, from a laundress selling his linen which need never be returned, and an undertaker who had recently stripped a body. Without a word the Spirit of Christmas Future took him to a dark and bare room similar to his own. The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with any accuracy, though Scrooge glanced

11 round it in obedience to a secret impulse, anxious to know what kind of room it was. A pale light, rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed and on it, plundered and bereft, unwatched, unwept, uncared-for, was the body of this man. It was he! Scrooge was devastated. In his death the only people who have much to say about him are the women who stole his property when they discovered his cold, dead body. Nobody regretted his death. People laughed at his meanness. How he wished he might see people who were loving and tender to a dead person. So the Spirit took him to Bob Cratchit s house where the family were grieving over the death of poor crippled Tiny Tim. That wrung him out even more. No scenes touch the heart more than the death of the crippled Tiny Tim, foreshadowed to Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In the mid-1800 s child mortality was common and many readers suffered firsthand the loss of a child. One observer of a public reading by Dickens of A Christmas Carol in Boston in 1867 noted that the passage on Tiny Tim s death brought out so many pocket handkerchiefs that it looked as if a snow-storm had somehow gotten into the hall without tickets. Then the Spirit took Scrooge into a wild and unkempt cemetery and in the darkness to one tomb and pointed to Scrooge to look at it. He replied: Before I draw nearer to what stone to which you point, answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of the things that May be, only? The Spirit remained silent. Scrooge crept towards the gravestone, trembling as he went, and following the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name, EBENEZER SCROOGE.. Scrooge shook from head to toe. He clutched at the Spirit of Christmas Future: Good Spirit, assure me that I may change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life. I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone! Scrooge was at the point of utter despair of every person who realises the burden of his own guilt and earnestly repents of his past and seeks God s forgiveness and the opportunity to start all over again. Scrooge was at the point of conversion from selfishness to concern, from greed to generosity, from self to others. He was recognising his own sin and his need for pardon.

12 It was then that he awoke in his own room, threw open the widows and called to a boy in his Sunday clothes in the street: What is today? Today, replied the boy, Why, Christmas Day! I don t know what to do! cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath. I am as merry as a schoolboy, I am as giddy as a drunken man. A Merry Christmas to everybody! A Happy New Year to all the world. Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo! He paid a boy to rush to the poulterer s shop to see if the big turkey was still in the window, bought it, and had it delivered by cab to Bob Cratchit s house. Then he dressed in his finest and walked around the streets calling out to everyone: Merry Christmas, Sir. A Merry Christmas to You! like a man who had just been released from death row, for indeed, he had been. He went to church and prayed to God, then walked about the streets and never realised that anything could give him so much happiness. Scrooge went round to his nephew s and called out Fred, It is I. Your Uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner. Will you let me in? And what a day of celebrating they had. The next day he went into work early and as soon as Bob Cratchit arrived gave him a princely rise in his salary. A Merry Christmas Bob, my good fellow. I ll raise your salary and endeavour to assist your struggling family. In the December 1992 issue of the American Journal of Diseases of Children Dr. Donald Lewis, an assistant professor of Paediatrics and Neurology at the Medical College of Hampton Roads in Norfolk, Virginia, theorized that Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit s ailing son suffered from a kidney disease that made his blood too acidic, which meant that every joint pained as though he had gout. Dr. Lewis studied the symptoms of Tim s disease in the original manuscript of The disease, distal renal tubular acidosis was not recognized until the early 20th century but therapies to treat its symptoms were available in Dickens time. Dr. Lewis explained that Tim s case, left untreated due to the poverty of the Cratchit household, would produce the symptoms alluded to in the novel. According to the Ghost of Christmas Present, Tim would die within a year. The fact that he did not die, was due to Scrooge s new-found generosity, which brought him proper medical care. Tim s symptoms would have been treated with alkaline solutions which would counteract the excess acid in his blood and recovery would be rapid. Scrooge was a changed man. What had happened?

13 Scrooge through life in the counting house had become more and more divorced from his connections with humanity. He could see human beings only in economic terms and had forgotten the love and care and connections which were also part of his own past. He had closed himself off from the joy and the suffering of humanity. He possessed wealth but took no real benefit from it because his love of it and unwillingness to part with it separated him from all the emotions involved with human beings. By appealing to his memories, the noble feelings that his fellow men had for him even in his stinginess, and with his inevitable mortality, Scrooge was forced to recognize that he does care about others as much as he has been cared for by them in the past. He is forced to recognize that his love of money blinds him to the suffering of others. In a sense, we are all at risk of becoming Ebenezer Scrooge. With a mobile and technological culture, with a nation covered by suburbs without sidewalks or front porches, with a national philosophy that emphasizes rugged individualism more than community, we are at risk of becoming like Scrooge. We are always at risk that our personal concerns, our narcissistic tendencies, will take over and we will lose the ability even to communicate meaningfully with each other or even understand how others live. The nineteenth century Unitarians believed that human nature was innately good. They also believed that the technological innovations of their era, the new industrial society, were breaking apart the connections that had existed in British society for centuries. One of their guiding concerns was for education about the ills of society. They felt that if everyone knew about the poverty in industrial revolution Britain, that the good in human nature would be appealed to and that society might change. Unitarians believed that if mill owners knew about conditions for mill workers, and as Scrooge's nephew put it about Christmastide, "... to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think the people below them as if they were really fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys," that they would care about the Tiny Tim s of the world. Today the Cratchitts of the world are still with us. We may think that our fellow humans are distinct creatures, so different from ourselves that we have nothing in common. Yet, whether it is acknowledged or not, every child born has a father and mother. Every person knows joys and sorrows. Were we to walk invisibly through the homes of other people the world round we would discover the fullness of the human condition singing and dancing like Scrooge's nephew to the beats of African drums, Asian flutes and Andean pipes sorrows at the loss of children and close friends and lovers. We would find in equal measure in the homes of the rich and the poor a share of fools and sages, kindness and coldness, intelligence and stupidity, happiness and misery. Were we but able to walk with a spirit guide through such places we would know that

14 though we are not all alike, we are still all human. In the words of Chief Seattle, "what befalls one, befalls all." The truth is that we are all like Scrooge. We are all mortal and when we think of death it is common to think of the things we have contributed to humanity. Some people are gifted with the ability to lead others to the good. Others have generosity of spirit that lives on in and sustains their families and friends. All cannot give of their lives great things like curing diseases or writing great poetry to last the ages. But whatever good we can do here and now, it is our blessing and our opportunity to do it. Through recognizing our interconnections, we can build a better world and that it is our duty to try to do just that. We need to hear again that the true Spirit of Christmas does not lie in the acquiring or giving of things, nor in coming out of Christmas with hangovers, either physical or financial. Many need to learn the lesson that changed the life of Scrooge. How we need to understand the key point to the whole story: if you understand the Spirit of Christmas, your life must be changed. Conversion is the only true response to a true understanding of Christmas. When you understand the difference between how we live and how God wants us to live. When you see what the consequences are of how we are living now, you want to ask God to give you a chance to change, and be a different person. It might not be a bad idea to face up to our own ghosts: the ghosts of our past, both our individual pasts, and our shared past as one of the wealthiest countries in the world; to face up to the true reality of our present; and to look ahead at what the future might hold for us if we keep on going on the way we ve been going on. As a society, we are becoming more like the unreformed Scrooge every day: unforgiving, uncharitable, unpleasant, and even unkind. It is sad that this season is a time only for a moment in the headlong rush of our lives. We hope not to become as separated as Scrooge from human contact. We long to find the redemptive spirit of generosity as Scrooge later did. We hope that we will have the spirit of connection to care for each other and the planet we live upon in all our days that the natural connections between people will not be packed away with the twinkling Christmas tree lights only to be unpacked next year. The African-American theologian Howard Thurman characterized our needs as the "work of Christmas": When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and the princes are home,

15 When the shepherds are back with their flocks, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among brothers, To make music in the heart. Could we hope for anything more? Every day we are at risk of becoming the worst of Scrooge and the best as well. Whether we live the spirit of Christmas in the seasons to come is up to our generosity and connections with life on this planet. A Christmas Carol is a call for the reader to examine his or her own life and make sure that Christmas is being celebrated in the heart and demonstrated through acts of charity and benevolence to the poor. Dickens tells us that Scrooge was a changed man from his Christmas encounter and that he made Christmas a central nexus of his life thereafter. Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he became a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and he little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him. He had no further intercourse with Spirits... and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! Amen and Amen!

16 LITURGIES & INTENTIONS INTENTION OFFERED BY December 20 th 10:00 am Health of Paulette Father Walter Health of Father Walter Health of Dorothy Labay Health of Cathy & Angela Stoyansky Vicki Bugera Vicki Bugera Vicki Bugera Health of Brian Moore +Soul of Victor Yasinski (40 day) +Soul of Max Melnyk +Soul of Anne Rebenchuk +Soul of Marie Dohan +Souls of Darlene & Alex Bugera Cathy Stoyansky Lesia & Family Roxy Melnyk & Family John & Leona Solomon Vicki Bugera Vicki Bugera December 21 st NO MASS December 22 nd 8:30 am +Soul of Stanley Stoyansky Angela & Cathy Stoyansky December 23 rd 8:30 am Health of Bill & Lesia Boyczuk Father Walter +Soul of Travis Praznik Ron & Marlene Pawluk December 24 th 4:45 pm December 25 th 10:30 am CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE CHRISTMAS DAY Divine Liturgy & Myrovania December 26 th 10:00 am December 27 th 10:00 am SYNAXIS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY & JOSEPH Health & Blessings Gwen Dankewich Catechism Program +Soul of Anne Rebenchuk +Soul of Nick Kukrudza +Soul of Marie Dohan +Soul of Micheal Solomon +Soul of Pearl Solomon Rose & John Wasyliw Rose & John Wasyliw John & Leona Solomon John & Leona Solomon John & Leona Solomon December 28 th NO MASS December 29 th 8:30 am Health of Bill & Lesia Boyczuk Father Walter

17 +Soul of Marie Dohan Mary Turko December 30 th 8:30 am +Soul of Marie Dohan Sam & Sylvia Szwaluk December 31 st 8:30 am Health of Paulette Elkon Father Walter +Soul of Mike Tanchak +Soul of John Zamrykut Anne Tanchak & Family Anne Tanchak & Family CONFESSIONS On Friday December 18 th at 7:00 p.m., Father Kowch will assist with hearing confessions. On Sunday December 20 th, we will have the Community Celebration of Penance.

18 SANCTUARY LIGHT WEEK OF INTENTION OFFERED BY DECEMBER 20 TH +SOUL OF STANLEY STOYANSKY ANGELA & CATHY STOYANSKY DECEMBER 27 TH +SOUL OF DARLENE BUGERA VICKI BUGERA JANUARY 3 RD HEALTH OF ROSE JOHN & DOUGLAS WASYLIW ROSE WASYLIW JANUARY 10 TH HEALTH & BLESSINGS FOR MILDRED KALYNIUK PRAYER PARTNER JANUARY 17 TH + SOULS OF ROSE & ROMAN SOLOMON ELSIE GALAY & FAMILY JANUARY 24 TH + SOULS OF POLLY & MIKE GALAY ELSIE GALAY & FAMILY JANUARY 31 ST + SOUL OF EUGENE KOLOCHUK BETTY KOLOCHUK FEBRUARY 7 TH + SOUL OF ANNE REBENCHUK BETTY KOLOCHUK FEBRUARY 14 TH +SOUL OF OLGA MUSHALUK ANNE TANCHAK & FAMILY FEBRUARY 21 ST +SOUL OF ANTHONY NAHULIAK VIRGINIA MOORE MARCH 6 TH +SOUL OF DANIEL NAHULIAK VIRGINIA MOORE MARCH 13 TH + SOULS OF CATHERINE & DMYTRO MANDZIE FAMILY MARCH 20 TH +SOULS OF CATHERINE & DMYTRO MANDZIE FAMILY MARCH 27 TH +SOUL OF WALTER GALAY ELSIE GALAY & FAMILY APRIL 3 RD HEALTH INTENTIONS FOR FAMILY SOPHIA ANDRINIUK APRIL 10 TH +SOUL OF ANNE NAHULIAK VIRGINIA MOORE APRIL 17 TH +SOUL OF JOHN ZAMRYKUT ANNE TANCHAK & FAMILY MAY 1 ST +SOUL OF MIKE TANCHAK ANNE TANCHAK & FAMILY MAY 22 ND +SOULS OF MIKE & JEAN NECHWEDIUK MARTIN & LEONA NECHWEDIUK JUNE 12 TH +SOUL OF HUSBAND BORIS MUSICK (28 YEARS) DOREEN MUSICK & FAMILY JUNE 19 TH +SOULS OF SISTERS CHRISTINE, MARY & PEARL DOREEN MUSICK & FAMILY JUNE 26 TH +SOULS OF BROTHERS PAUL, WALTER & NICHOLAS DOREEN MUSICK & FAMILY JULY 10 TH +SOUL OF TONY NAHULIAK VIRGINIA MOORE JULY 24 TH +SOUL OF EMILY STOYANSKY ANGELA & CATHY STOYANSKY A Sanctuary Light burns eternally to indicate the presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist in the Tabernacle. It is a marvelous thing that we can actually be in His presence! "You come to me and unite Yourself intimately to me under the form of nourishment. Your Blood now runs in mine, Your Soul, Incarnate God, compenetrates mine, giving courage and support. What miracles! Who would have ever imagined such!" - St. Maximilian Kolbe

19 And the angel said unto them, "Fear not! For, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. "F or unto you IS b o r n t h i s d a y i n t h e c i t y o f D a v i d a S a v i o r, w h i c h i s C h r i s t t h e L o r d. / The story of the origin of the Christmas creche rests with the very holy man, St. Francis of Assisi. In the year 1223, St. Francis, a deacon, was visiting the town of Grecio to celebrate Christmas. Grecio was a small town built on a mountainside overlooking a beautiful valley. The people had cultivated the fertile area with vineyards. St. Francis realized that the chapel of the Franciscan hermitage would be too small to hold the congregation for Midnight Mass. So he found a niche in the rock near the town square and set up the altar. However, this Midnight Mass would be very special, unlike any other Midnight Mass. St. Bonaventure (d. 1274) in his Life of St. Francis of Assisi tells the story the best: It happened in the third year before his death, that in order to excite the inhabitants of Grecio to commemorate the nativity of the Infant Jesus with great devotion, [St. Francis] determined to keep it with all possible solemnity; and lest he should be accused of lightness or novelty, he asked and obtained the permission of the sovereign Pontiff. Then he prepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the place appointed. The brethren were summoned, the people ran together, the forest resounded with their voices, and that venerable night was made glorious by many and brilliant lights and sonorous psalms of praise. The man of God [St. Francis] stood before the manger, full of devotion and piety, bathed in tears and radiant with joy; the Holy Gospel was chanted by Francis, the Levite of Christ. Then he preached to the people around the nativity of the poor King; and being unable to utter His name for the tenderness of His love, He called Him the Babe of Bethhem. A certain valiant and veracious soldier, Master John of Grecio, who, for the love of Christ, had left the warfare of this world, and become a dear friend of this holy man, affirmed that he beheld an Infant marvellously beautiful, sleeping in the manger, Whom the blessed Father Francis embraced with both his arms, as if he would awake Him from sleep. This vision of the devout soldier is credible, not only by reason of the sanctity of him that saw it, but by reason of the miracles which afterwards confirmed its truth. For example of Francis, if it be considered by the world, is doubtless sufficient to excite all hearts which are negligent in the faith of Christ; and the hay of that manger, being preserved by the people, miraculously cured all diseases of cattle, and many other pestilences; God thus in all things glorifying his servant, and witnessing to the great efficacy of his holy prayers by manifest prodigies and miracles. Although the story is long old, the message is clear for us. Our own Nativity scenes which rest under our Christmas trees are a visible reminder of that night when our Savior was born. May we never forget to see in our hearts the little Babe of Bethlehem, who came to save us from sin. We must never forget that the wood of the manger that held Him so securely would one day give way to the wood of the cross. May we too embrace Him with all of our love as did St. Francis. The lesson of Bethlehem From the Child in the manger, we are given the answer of the spirit that we need: we are taught love, not hate; forgiveness, not bitterness; we are shown that we should make ourselves poorer to help those who have less than we. If we want peace in our hearts, in our homes, our country and our world, we must come to Bethlehem and learn from Christ. A Child shall lead us. He has come to direct our feet in the way of peace.

20 NEWS FROM UCWLC On behalf of the UCWLC, we wish all our parishioners a Blessed Christmas and a happy, healthy & prosperous New Year. Dates to Remember: January 12 th Caroling at Holy Family Home. Please call Rose Olynyk at if you are willing to participate in this exciting and festive event to bring joy to the Senior residence. January 20 th UCWLC Annual Meeting. Please have all your reports ready for presentation. January 24th Parish Christmas Dinner. All parishioners are invited to attend & celebrate this festive occasion with caroling and good food. January 27 th Perogy Bee January 29 th Perogy Supper Submitted by Rose Olynyk, President Dear Parishioners As it was in the past years, we have had a Christmas Bake Sale. This year we have decided to have a NO BAKE SALE instead. What this means What you would spend in cost and time to make your baking for the sale, just make a monetary donation. Envelopes will be available. Drop your donation in the Sunday collection. Your participation will be appreciated. Nellie Fediuk Sonia Wawryk Knights of Columbus December is here and our Christmas season is upon us with the celebration of the birth of Baby Jesus. Keep Christ in Christmas. The Knights are involved in The Tabs for Wheelchairs program and anyone with Tabs can drop them off at the back of the church in a container we have set up.

21 Annual Christmas Carolling within the parish, I am looking for anyone who is interested in joining a team to go out for one or two days over the Christmas Season to carol at fellow parishioners home s. Please call myself Andrew and I will make up lists, If you want to carol with specific people please indicate when you call. Carolling has been changed up a bit, we have a new format. So that we do not miss you this year we will have a signup sheet at the back of the church for parishioners who want carollers to come to their homes over the Christmas season. Carolling will be done over the Christmas season starting Dec. 26, Please sign up by Sunday Dec. 20, 2015 if you would like to see our carollers. Respectfully submitted by Grand Knight Andrew Labay WE INVITE THE CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS WHO ARE ATTENDING THE CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE AT 4:45 P.M. TO JOIN IN THE ENTRANCE PROCESSION TO PLACE BABY JESUS IN THE MANGER. WE WILL MEET IN THE AUDITORIUM AT 4:30 P.M.. FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL GWEN DANKEWICH AT A big thank you to Nellie Fediuk, Linda Gardener, Harry Fediuk and Gus Groen for their help in decorating the auditorium and the altar nativity display and the traditional décor throughout the church. Everything looks wonderful and festive. God Bless you all for your help, cooperation and input. Have a beautiful and blessed Christmas Season. Thanks again, Decorating Committee Chair Pearl Groen. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED FROM DECEMBER 16 TH UNTIL JANUARY 4TH. SHOULD THE NEED ARISE, PLEASE CONTACT FATHER WALTER AT OR JOHN SOLOMON AT

22 Winter Clothing Drive As the weather chills, the need for warm outdoor clothing increases. There are many in our city without proper winter wear. At the back of the church is a box labelled "Winter Clothing Collection". Please bring whatever winter items you can spare - boots, mitts, gloves, hats, snow pants, jackets/coats. Clothing donations (for children and adults) will be collected from now until February, and will be divided between the Main Street Project and Siloam Mission. Please let your children be involved in the collecting of donated items from home, as this is an important lesson in giving to those less fortunate. Thank you and bless you for giving. This Advent Season The Welcome Home is collecting donations of travel sized toiletries and adult socks that can be shared at Christmas with our neighbours. If you are able to donate any toiletries or socks you can leave them in the box in the vestibule or call Justine at to make other arrangements. Non-perishable food items for Welcome Home are also being collected at the back of the church. Monetary donations would also be gratefully accepted. CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE, DECEMBER 24 TH 4:45 P.M. Bethlehem Peace Light from the birthplace of Jesus We are fortunate to have the flame in church again this year. It will be distributed to all parishioners during the Christmas Eve service which begins at 4:45 pm. At that time, the flame will be passed to attendees in the first pews and we will each in turn light our candles from our neighbours candle. The candles we will be using have been blessed. Please take the candle and protective cover home with you. If you wish to have the flame in your home, bring a lantern or votive with you to the Christmas Eve service. The Peace Light originates from Bethlehem the Church of the Nativity. Every year it is received by Boy Scouts in Austria and distributed all across Europe and recently North America. It will be flown in by an Austrian airline to New York and Toronto. The Boy Scouts of America and Plast members are receiving the Peace Light in New York and then it will start its journey westward. Plast Winnipeg will receive it from the Boys Scouts of America in Fargo, North Dakota. They are bringing it by car from New York. Plast in Ukraine has been taking part in the distribution of the Peace Light across Ukraine and into neighbouring countries. Come join us in sharing this symbol of peace, love and hope!

23 CHRISTMAS DAY DIVINE LITURGY & MYROVANIA 10:30 AM DECEMBER 26 TH SYNAXIS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY & JOSEPH 10:00 AM CHRISTMAS IS FOREVER NOT JUST ONE DAY! THE HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS TO: MARGARET HADUBIAK who will be celebrating on December 20th MARY SHURRAW who will celebrate on December 22nd LESLIE VEALE who will celebrate on December 23rd STEPHANIE MANDZIE who will celebrate on December 26th GUS GROEN who will celebrate on December 27th TONY MAKSYMCHUK who will celebrate on December 28th MNOHAYA-MNOHAYA LITA! GOD GRANT YOU MANY HAPPY YEARS!

24 COMMUNITY CALENDAR. Knights of Columbus Calling All Sir Knights of Canon Luhovy Assembly #0 374 CHRISTMAS GATHERING KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS Tuesday January 12, 2016 St. Anne s Ukrainian Catholic Parish 35 Marcie Street Moleden Service 6:00 pm. Reception 6:30 pm. Surviving Christmas Game Tickets are $7.50 each For Tickets call Bro. Robert or Bro. Rick Carols! Carols! Carols! Carols! Carols! Carols! UR Youth The Annual Ukrainian Christmas Caroling at Holy Family Nursing Home & For Metropolitan Lawrence Sunday, December 27, pm - 6pm We will start at the chancery, 233 Scotia St at 2:45pm and Continue on to Holy Family Nursing Home for 4pm. Please join us for a fun afternoon! World Youth Day 2016! CUCP ~ Canadian Ukrainian Catholic Pilgrims Ukrainian Catholics from Canada will be joining together to experience WYD July 12-August 3, 2016 July ~ Lviv, Ukraine July ~ Zarvanytsia, Ukraine July ~ Days of the Eparchy in Przemysl, Poland July ~ World Youth Day Week in Krakow, Poland August 1-3 ~ Wrap Up Retreat Days in Krakow, Poland Cost Approx $3800-$4200 For more information on the Pilgrimage you can either Sarah at uwitness2youth@gmail.com or Millie at youth@edmontoneparchy.com Please join us for a Pilgrimage of a Lifetime! (Register early, space is limited)

25 HOLY FAMILY HOME LADIES AUXILIARY PRESENTS A LADIES NIGHT OUT FUNDRAISING DINNER. ROUND UP THE GALS & SADDLE UP WITH THE SISTERS. FRIDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2016 HOLY EUCHARIST PARISH CENTRE 460 MUNROE AVENUE, E. WINNIPEG. APPETIZERS 6:15 P.M. DINNER AND DRAW TO FOLLOW. WESTERN ATTIRE ENCOURAGED. COST $70 PER TICKET. FOR TICKETS CONTACT DIANE SNIDAL AT November December 2015 January Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Knights of 4 5 Children s Columbus Meeting Confessions 6:45 pm 6 Children s Liturgy Knights of Columbus Pancake Breakfast UCWLC meeting 6:00 pm Christmas Pageant Knights of Columbus Coffee House Confessions 7:00 pm Community Celebration of Penance Christmas Eve Service 4:45 pm 25 Christmas Day Divine Liturgy & Myrovania 10:30 am 26 Synaxis of the Blessed Virgin Mary & St Joseph 10:00 am New Years Eve Divine Liturgy of Thanksgiving & Benediction 10:00 am Notes: More Calendar: Jan, Feb, PDF Calendar

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