ST. JOSAPHAT UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH W. Union Blvd. at Kenmore Ave -- Bethlehem, PA. Archpriest Daniel Gurovich, Pastor -- Carol Hanych, Cantor Vesperal Liturgy: Sat. 6:30 PM Liturgy: Sun. 10:00 AM Vespers: Evenings before Holydays 6:30 PM Matins: Major Holydays 8:00 AM (610) 865-2521 -- Email: Yaroway@aol.com ww.stjosaphatbethlehem.us WHERE FAITH AND TRADITION MEET FEB 26 CHEESEFARE SUNDAY TONE 8 SUN FEB 26: SUNDAY OF CHEESEFARE 6:30 PM: Sat. Evening: +Wasyl Romanyshyn (Pearl Kiniuk) 10:00 AM: For the Living and Departed of the Parish 3:00 PM: FORGIVENESS VESPERS GREAT LENT BEGINS MON FEB 27: [STRICT FAST] Note: All weekdays of Lent are aliturgical 6:30 PM: Akathist to the Passion of Christ TUE FEB 28: First Tuesday of Lent Read Gen 1:1-23 and Proverbs 1:1-33 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WED MAR 1: First Wednesday of Lent [FAST] 6:30 PM: Lenten Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts -------------------------------------------------------------- THUR MAR 2: First Thursday of Lent Read Gen 2:4-19 and Proverbs 3:1-18 ---------------------------------------------------------------- FRI MAR 3: First Friday of Lent [FAST] 6:30 PM: Lenten Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts SAT MAR 4: Great Martyr Theodore SUN MAR 5: FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT SUNDAY OF ORTHODOXY 6:30 PM: Sat. Evening: +Stella Stapinski (1 Yr) (Helen Karol) 10:00 AM: +Msgr. James Mulligan (1 Yr) (Dr. William Tighe)
The Lenten Presanctified Liturgy will be served on Wednesday and Friday evening this week beginning at 6:30. You are also reminded that Monday of this week is a day of strict fast. No Meat or dairy products. READERS GREETERS FEB 25: Rybak Kadingo FEB 26: Stegura/Wetherill Buddock/Pastrick/Belzecky MAR 1: Gorsky Kadingo MAR 3: Hambor Meixell MAR 4: DeNardo Meixell MAR 5: Hambor Buddock/Pastrick/Arnold Church Cleaning this week: None this week FUTURE EVENTS MON.: First Day of Great Lent (Strict Fast) WED: Lenten Devotions (PS) (6:30) THUR. 2: 100 th Anniversary Meeting (7:00) FRI: Lenten Devotions (PS) (6:30) March 6: Monthly Tryzub Meeting (7:00) April 30: Annual Easter Dinner Spaghetti Lunch TBA May 21: Blessing of Veterans Plaque and Reception June 11: St. Josaphat Day at Coca Cola Park September 30, 2018: 100 th Anniversary Celebration. WE NEED YOUR HELP The 100 th Anniversary Committees are asking you to go through your old photos of anything connected with St. Josaphat Church. We need these photos as we begin to compile material for the Anniversary. Please put your name and phone number on the back of the photo. Give the photos to Fr. Daniel or leave them in the sacristy. They will be digitally scanned and returned. The next meeting of the Anniversary Comittees will take place Monday at 7:00 PM. Please join us. Thank you for your help. 100 th Anniversary Committee. Because of the age of the stained glass windows in the church, please do not open them under any circumstances. They are difficult to close and some of the solder joints are not holding. There is no reason to ever open the windows. Thank you. MANY YEARS Many years to Tony and Christy Rybak who were joined in holy matrimony yesterday by the blessing of Fr. Daniel. All of us at St. Josaphat congratulate you and wish you many blessed and happy years. LENTEN MITE BOXES FOR THE POOR One of the Lenten practices is almsgiving. Please pick up a Lenten Mite Box in the vestibule and fill it for distribution to the poor after Pascha. Make sure you mark your name and envelope number on the box for credit. Bring the mite box with you on Good Friday and leave it at the grave when you come to venerate the shroud. Children should be encouraged to give up some of their spare change for the poor during Lent. They should be encouraged to use a separate mite box. ANNUAL FOOD COLLECTION FOR THE POOR Place your non perishable food items on the stage in the hall. All the food collected during Lent will be distributed to the poor and hungry of the Lehigh Valley during Bright Week. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
SUNDAY OF CHEESE-FARE Commemoration of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise TROPARION (Tone 8) Of the Sunday KONTAKION OF CHEESE-FARE Tone 6 Glory be: Now and ever: O Guide of Wisdom, O Giver of Understanding, O Teacher of the Ignorant, and Helper of the Poor, strengthen and enlighten my heart, O Master, Give the word to me, O Word of the Father, that I may not refrain from crying out to You: O Merciful Lord, have mercy on me, a fallen one. PROKIMENON Tone 6 Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them. V. God is known in Judah; in Israel His name is great. ALLELUIA Tone 6 Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! V. It is good to give thanks to the Lord; and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High. V. To proclaim Your mercy in the morning, and Your faithfulness throughout the night. Reminder as the Sunday (Tone 8) Today is the Sunday of Cheese-Fare also known as the Sunday of Forgiveness. Our spiritual journey of Great and Holy Lent is about to begin. During this holy season the Church calls us to draw closer to God through fasting, almsgiving and prayer. To assist us in our almsgiving, mite boxes are available in the back of the church. The Church suggests that any money saved through fasting be placed in these boxes for later distribution to the poor. As a rule of prayer, consider attending our Lenten services. Services will be offered every Wednesday, and Friday evenings at 6:30 PM throughout Lent. BEGIN LENT RIGHT 3:00 THIS AFTERNOON VESPERS OF FORGIVENESS
WHY NO ASH WEDNESDAY In the Roman Catholic Church and some Protestant Churches, the first day of Lent is called Ash Wednesday. On that day the faithful receive smudges of ashes on their foreheads, as a sign of their mortality. The administering priest reminds them with this formula Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris which in English reads: Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shall return. The text is from Genesis 3:19. The practice reflects the Old Testament tradition of wearing sackcloth and ashes as signs of penitence. To make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes. (Daniel 9:3). In the Ukrainian Catholic Church, we start Lent on a Monday not Wednesday. Both churches number a 40 day Lent but they differ as to when it ends. In the Ukrainian Church the Great Lent ends with Lazarus Saturday (Saturday before Palm Sunday). The Holy Week stands by itself. The Roman Catholic Church ends the Great Lent on the evening of Holy Wednesday and does not separate Holy Week from the rest of Lent. The Fathers Speak..On Fasting: Fasting is an exceptional virtue; it represses bodily impulses and gives strength to the soul to fight against the poisoning of the heart through the senses, and provides it with a remedy against any past poisoning. Fasting causes the mind to be cleansed constantly. It withers up every evil thought and brings healthy, godly thoughts -holy thoughts that enlighten the mind and kindle it with more zeal and spiritual fervor. -Elder Ephraim of Philotheou Mount Athos, Counsels from the Holy Mountain Abba John the Dwarf said, If a king wanted to take possession of his enemy s city, he would begin by cutting off the water and the food and so his enemies, dying of hunger, would submit to him. It is the same with the passions of the flesh; if a man goes about fasting and hungry the enemies of his soul grow weak. -The Sayings of the Desert Fathers Beware of limiting the good of fasting to mere abstinence from meats. Real fasting is alienation from evil. Loose the bands of wickedness. For give your neighbor the mischief he has done you. Forgive him his trespasses against you. Do not fast for strife and debate. You do not devour flesh, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine, but you indulge in outrages. You wait for evening before you take food, but you spend the day in the law courts. Woe to those who are drunken, but not with wine. Anger is the intoxication of the soul, and makes it out of its wits like wine. -St. Basil, in his homilies on the Holy Spirit Fasting is absolutely indispensable for man. From the external aspect, it is a struggle of filial obedience to God, Who has given us the rules of fasting through His Holy Spirit. From the inner aspect, fasting is a
struggle of restraint and self-limitation. In this lies the great value and sense of fasting, since a strict observance of fasts tempers one s will and perfects the character of one who is firm in his religious convictions and actions. Let us not forget that Christ Himself fasted, and foretold that His apostles would also fast. -Metropolitan Philaret - On God s Law It is necessary most of all for one who is fasting to curb anger, to accustom himself to meekness and condescension, to have a contrite heart, to repulse impure thoughts and desires, to examine his conscience, to put his mind to the test and to verify what good has been done by us in this or any other week, and which deficiency we have corrected in ourselves in the present week. This is true fasting. -St. John Chrysostom. Catholic youth turn brutal attack during March for Life trip into an amazing display of faith, forgiveness You won t see this item in the Morning Call or the biased liberal news media. WASHINGTON D.C., February 7, 2017 Members of a Catholic youth group attacked during a trip to the March for Life have not let the awful experience shake their faith and in fact responded by embracing the cross. The group from Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Keller, Texas, was assaulted while walking from the Metro train station to the local parish where they were staying, sending its leader and another chaperone to George Washington Hospital with significant injuries. But despite the attack s brutality, the group remained under the protection of the Blessed Mother, its leader told LifeSiteNews, and the incident provided a valuable lesson in faith, prayer, and the precious nature of life for everyone involved. The experience was a great chance to unite with Christ in His Passion and suffering, said Chris West, Saint Elizabeth director of high school evangelization and catechesis. West told LifeSiteNews the experience demonstrated there are those who don t respect other lives, and he was disheartened that individuals would be so broken to want to attack the group. But he was grateful the worst of the assault happened to him and not the kids. The young people in his group were at the March for Life to give a voice to the voiceless, he said, and the assault ultimately became an unanticipated way for them to witness to life. Through prayer, the young people have been able to work at forgiveness and authentic regard for the spiritual welfare of their attackers. It was definitely a cross, West said. But our good and gracious Father gave us grace to be able to carry it. What happened The attack occurred about 8:30 p.m. as they were headed back to their host parish, the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in southeast Washington, where the group has stayed for the March for Life the last few years. While on the way there from the Metro stop, they were challenged for being in the neighborhood by about a half-dozen teens. The situation escalated quickly, with at least one knife being drawn, more local teens jumping in many wearing ski masks and hoods demands for some members of the pro-life group to hand over their property, and numerous physical assaults.
West was assaulted after he tried to intervene in the initial assault of another chaperone, getting punched and kicked in the face several times. He and the other chaperone were taken by ambulance to the hospital overnight. How the youth responded Roa told LifeSiteNews the youth were shaken up, most of them crying. But the young Catholics from various youth groups, many not knowing one another before the trip, immediately began to console one another. Someone suggested praying the Rosary. Instead of dwelling on the attack, the group decided to focus on getting to know each other through conversation. The students were praying for forgiveness and mercy for those who attacked them, West told LifeSiteNews. The faith and the stories, and the mercy and the forgiveness that happened even right after the attack were tremendous. Edited for the Bulletin TODAY IS FORGIVENESS SUNDAY READ THE ARTICLE ABOVE Birthdays in March Slava Harasymowych (2) Dorothy Neff (3) Ethel Bednarchek (8) Mary Sieling (8) Martha Gilly (10) Basyl Reshetylo (10) Olga Walchonski (10) Christian Clark (13) Adrian Stricky (17) Ann Rothdeutsh (18) Aija Tighe (18) Tina Miles (20) Daria Berdej (23) Madeline Diskin (24) Mary Belzecky (25) Mary Hambor (25) Jeannie Hanych Diskin (25) Leo Del Corso (26) Lubomira Derewecki (28) Jennifer Montero (28)