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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
PYLYPIVKA (ADVENT) PASTORAL OF THE UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC HIERARCHY OF THE U.S.A. TO OUR CLERGY, HIEROMONKS AND BROTHERS, RELIGIOUS SISTERS, SEMINARIANS AND BELOVED FAITHFUL
Glory to Jesus Christ!
“Pylypivka” or Philip’s Fast that begins on November 14th is upon us. It is a time of preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are once again called to embark on a journey to welcome Emmanuel among us! In a short forty days we will celebrate the Feast of Nativity of Our Lord. At the Matins of the Nativity we will sing:
“Christ is born, let us glorify Him. Christ comes down from heaven; let us go out and meet Him. Christ lives on earth, let us exalt in joy. All you faithful sing to the Lord, for He has been glorified.” Hirmos 1, Canon Matins of the Nativity of Our Lord.
How can we prepare ourselves to welcome God among us? How will we glorify Him? Can this Christmas season be a profound and spiritual experience for me?
In order to properly prepare to meet Christ on His feast of the Nativity, Mother Church is giving us forty days to challenge ourselves to live our Christian calling and vocation: to deepen knowledge of the Word of God, to live a life of community and personal prayer, and to perform acts of charity and mercy both in the church, and in the world. In these three points, we can describe our vocation as a Christian, as well as the vocation of the entire Church.
If every parish is called to be a place to encounter the living Christ, then Christ the Teacher must have a central place in our lives and our parish life. Now is the time to daily set aside time for reading the Sacred Scripture and to meditate upon it. We are also called to learning of Divine truth, the truths of the Christian faith
and the foundations of Christian life.
Gathered together “at the breaking of the bread”, that is at the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we are mystically united among ourselves, and are also united with Christ’s sacrifice, offered to God the Father for us and by us. The Eucharist is the center of the Christian life. The parish – the community gathers for the “breaking of the bread”, that is for the Eucharistic service. The Eucharist is at the same time the culmination of the parish life and also the source of all its spiritual blessings. Let us invite a friend or neighbor to join us for the liturgical services in our parish community.
During these days, we are called both personally, and as a member of the community to pray, for oneself, and for others, to offer one’s self as a sacrifice to God, to forgive others and to ask God for forgiveness, to bless God and to be a blessing for others.
What is most important: all of us together are called to strive for holiness, to be a truly holy people. What does this mean? In parish life, every liturgical service and all of our liturgical practices and prayer life is to promote the sanctification of the time and the place where we are, and we ourselves become sanctified as well, as a gift consecrated to God. That is why during the time of preparation for coming of our Lord we should guard oneself from sin, and strive to grow in the virtue of moderation, purity of body and soul, according to one’s state in life.
We are also called to look beyond ourselves and be of service to others, especially the less fortunate among us. During the Philip Feast let us look at our community and find those who need our help and assistance. We can visit the sick, assist the poor, give food for the hungry, care for orphans, support those who suffer injustice, promote peace, and offer comfort for those grieving. We can perform all of this in our community where we live and work, as the needy live among us.
Let us start this season together! Let us pray, meditate upon the Word of God, sacrifice for one another and trust in God. Then with joy we will be able to welcome God among us!
+Stefan Soroka
Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainians
Metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States
Beirut (AsiaNews) - Maronite patriarch, Card. Bechara Raï has announced that he will visit Saudi Arabia within the next two weeks, responding to the official invitation from Saudi king Salman and the hereditary prince, and number two in the country, Mohammad bin Salman.
This is the first historic visit by a Lebanese church leader to the ultraconservative Wahhabi kingdom, which has recently launched a series of economic and social reforms, including the opening up of sports arenas and driving to women, as well as the first attempts at emancipation from the fundamentalist view of Islam.
In an interview with Lebanese State TV, Card. Raï confirmed the invitation from the highest Saudi authorities, pointing out that "no special conditions were set for the visit" which "will last one day". "My role - added the Cardinal - is not political and everyone knows who the Maronite patriarch is."
The Lebanese Christian leader remembers that in the past, in 2013, he had received an invitation to visit Riyadh from the former monarch, King Abdallah. However, this trip was never possible, he adds, "for a variety of [non-defined] issues."
In the last period, the Saudi kingdom has initiated a series of reforms, forcefully taken by the hereditary prince, in the context of the "Vision 2030" program that invests in the social, economic, cultural and religious sphere. Historians and analysts recall that Card. Raï’s will be "the first visit of a Christian religious leader since... the time of the Prophet's ". In the past the Cardinal had already made an official trip to Qatar.
An official source of the patriarchate reported that "the invitation was issued by word of mouth" in recent days to the Cardinal by the Saudi business agent in Lebanon Walid Boukhari. A historical visit, the sources emphasized, which once again raises the role of the Land of the Cedara as a "message of pluralism for the East and the West," as Pope John Paul II repeatedly referred to it.
The Maronite Patriarch and Lebanon propose their role as a “bridge" to an Arab world that opens to modernity in a regional context marked by wars - Iraq, Syria - and tensions (Iran and Saudi Arabia, Countries the Gulf and Qatar).
During the flying visit to Riyadh, Card. Raï should also raise the question of Jerusalem and peace in the Holy Land, a decade-old and unresolved problem that gives rise to all the other crises that characterize the region. (DS)
vaticah.va - The Holy Father has appointed as eparchial bishop of Mar Addai of Toronto of the Chaldeans, Canada, H.E. Msgr. Bawai Soro, transferring him from the titular see of Foraziana.
H.E. Msgr. Bawai Soro
H.E. Msgr. Bawai Soro was born on 3 March 1954 in Kirkuk, Iraq, and was baptized (with the name of Ashur Soro) in the Assyrian Church of the East. In 1973 his family left Iraq, and following a few years in Lebanon, they transferred to the United States of America in 1976. He was ordained a priest on 21 February 1982 in Chicago, United States of America, and appointed as pastor of the Saint Mary’s Parish in Toronto, Canada.
He was elected bishop of the new Assyrian eparchy of Western United States, based in San José, California, United States of America, on 21 October, and received episcopal consecration in California, with the name of Bawai Soro. From 1995 to 1999 he was bishop of Seattle, after which he returned in 1999 to the see of San José. The prelate was one of the most active promoters of dialogue between the Assyrian Church and the Catholic Church.
He studied at the Catholic University of America, Washington, obtaining a master’s degree in theology in 1992, and at the Pontifical Saint Thomas Aquinas University in Rome, where in 2002 he obtained a doctorate in sacred theology.
In June 2013, the Synod of Chaldean Bishops received him as a member and on 11 January 2014, the Holy Father Francis assigned him the titular see of Foraziana. He has served the eparchy of Saint Peter Apostle of San Diego of the Chaldeans, United States of America, as protosyncellus until the appointment of the current bishop, H.E. Msgr. Shaleta, on 1 August 2017.
In the July Aurora, Rev James Carles, in his fine contribution titled 'Of feasts and fasts: the Eastern Orthodox Church' broadly described Ukrainian Catholics as well.
Our heritage and customs and the traditions expressing our Christian faith have the same Eastern Byzantine origins as do the Orthodox and hence, we express our faith in similar ways which are different from those of the Western tradition.
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference in its 2016 booklet titled “Eastern Churches in Australia” clarifies which Eastern traditions are Catholic.
“At present, there are twenty-three groups of Eastern Christians who, with the Latin Church, form the Catholic Church governed by the successor of Peter and bishops in communion with him.”
Byzantine Rite Eastern Ukrainian Catholics are one of the twenty-three.
The following is an outline of the Western (left) and Eastern (right) emphases in expressing the same Catholic Faith and has, with permission, been taken from material published by the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, Canada.
(Radio Poland) - The southwestern Polish city of Wrocław has collected PLN 1.1 million in funds as part of a campaign to benefit the Syrian town of Aleppo.
The funds, the equivalent of some USD 300,000, will go to provide medical equipment for the St. Louis Hospital in Aleppo.
The fundraiser, part of the Aleppo Relief campaign, was a joint ecumenical initiative by four different Christian denominations, the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, the Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Catholic Church, acting jointly with the local authorities and chambers of commerce.
The Bishop of Aleppo, Georges Loutfallah Abou Khazen, is due to visit Wrocław on November 5 and deliver thanksgiving homilies in the city’s St. John’s Cathedral and two other churches. (mk/gs)
thetablet.co.uk - 'The reinstitution of the female diaconate does not constitute an innovation..but the revitalisation of a once functional ministry'
The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa is to reinstitute the ancient order of women deacons, in order to better serve the pastoral needs of the Patriarchate, which serves the entire continent of Africa.
The Patriarchate of Alexandria is currently meeting for its two-day synod, where participants led by Pope Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, are discussing “The very essential African issue: Ecclesiastical Marriage in African Affinity."
A group of nine prominent Greek Orthodox liturgists – who describe themselves as active and emeriti professors of liturgics and liturgical theology at various theological schools and seminaries in Greece and the US – has since issued a statement in support of the move.
“The reinstitution of the female diaconate does not constitute an innovation, as some would have us believe, but the revitalisation of a once functional, vibrant, and effectual ministry in order to provide the opportunity for qualified women to offer in our era their unique and specific gifts in the service of God’s people,” they write on their blog, Panorthodox Cemes.
The group point out that the restoration process requires that the role and functions of the deaconess be “identified, properly defined, and clearly stated”. They also suggest that the public attire and the method of assignment and removal of the deaconess must be addressed.
In May last year, Pope Francis told an international group of women and men religious that the Catholic Church needed women’s voices, input, and experiences.
