by Brent Kostyniuk As adherents to Byzantine tradition, Ukrainian Catholics place great emphasis on commemorating relatives and friends who have passed from this life. We pray their memory will be eternal, both on this earth and in God’s love. We do this in a variety of ways beginning with the moment of a loved one’s […]
by Very Rev. Archpriest David Petras The conception of the all-holy virgin Mary in the womb of Anna is celebrated on December 9 in the Byzantine tradition, for a natural reason, that the Eastern ancients thought a girl was in the womb one day less than a boy. However, in the Ruthenian Church in America, […]
by Fr. David Petras One can easily say that the greatest saint of the Byzantine Church is Nicholas the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Myra in Lycia. Yet the only thing we know of him for certain is his name, and that a holy man named Nicholas was the bishop in Myra in the fourth century. He […]
by Brent Kostyniuk A youngish man gets woken up by his wife on Sunday morning. “Time to get ready for church.” “No! I’m not going today.” “Give me three good reasons why,” his wife replied. “It’s always the same. The sermons are boring. Besides, I went last week. Give me three good reasons why I […]
by Brent Kostyniuk Some years ago there was a popular film titled My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It followed the daughter of a Greek immigrant family in her romance with a very non-ethnic boyfriend. Eventually, romance led to marriage. However, before that could take place, the boyfriend had to be baptized. The girl’s father proudly […]
THE SECOND COUNCIL OF NICEAEA – the seventh ecumenical council – which we remember every October is chiefly known for formally recognizing the use of icons as a consequence of the Incarnation. If the Word of God could take on human nature He could be depicted in images. In effect, the Council taught, the Incarnation […]
IN 1917 THE JOHN RYLANDS UNIVERSITY LIBRARY in Manchester, England acquired a third-century papyrus fragment of great historic interest. It contained the earliest known copy of a hymn to the Theotokos. The verse, still used in the liturgies of all the historic Churches, reads as follows: “Beneath your protection, we take refuge, O Theotokos. Do […]
SEPTEMBER 1 MARKS THE BEGINNING of the Byzantine calendar church Year. An important part of this annual cycle of feasts and fasts is the sequence of the Twelve Great Feasts which, together with the “Feast of Feasts,” Pascha, commemorates the major events in the life of Christ. The first of the feasts in this annual […]
FROM TIME TO TIME Eastern Christians are reproached for venerating icons because “icons are not in the Bible.” St John of Damascus, whose treatises on icons were instrumental in defeating iconoclasm, taught that the Church’s icons are “in the Bible” because they stand in the context of God’s own self-revelation to us through images. We […]
