May 13, 2021
Fortieth Day of Pascha

Luke 24:45-51 - Then [Jesus] opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. (ESV)

Be lifted up! - The ascension of Christ is our elevation. Hope for the body is also invited where the glory of the Head precedes us. Let us exult, dearly beloved, with worthy joy and be glad with a holy thanksgiving. Today we not only are established as possessors of paradise, but we have even penetrated the heights of the heavens in Christ. (St Leo the Great, Sermon 73)

Scripture Readings:
Vespers: Isaiah 2:2-3, Isaiah 62:12-63:9, Zechariah 14:1, 4, 8-11
Matins: Mark 16:9-20
Divine Liturgy: Acts of the Apostles 1:1-12, Luke 24:36-53

This is from an email sent out by Jack Figel of Eastern Christian Publications:

21st Annual Cyril and Methodius Lecture, Byzantine Catholic Seminary, May 18 at 7:00 pm
“The Liturgy of Jerusalem: History, Theology and Lessons for Today” by Deacon Daniel Galadza

https://www.bcs.edu/2021/04/13/21st-annual-lecture/

50th Anniversary Forum, Washington Theologica Consortium, May 26 at 7:00 pm
“Educating Religious Leaders to Engage in Public Life” with Archbishop Job of Telmessos, Bishop Mariann Budde of Washington, Dr. Gregory Howard of the Proctor School of Theology, and Fr. Mark Morozowich, School of Theology and Religious Studies, CUA

https://washtheocon.org/wtc_events/anniversary-forum/

Orientale Lumen XXV Conference, June 22 at 1:00 pm
“Liturgy and Scripture: Praying the Word of God”

Advance lectures and panel discussion with Archbishop Job of Telmessos, Fr. Andrew Summerson, Fr. Ted Pulcini, Dr. Sr. Vassa Larin, Fr Marco Benini, and Dr. Daniel Stevens and Brian Hyland, Curators of the Museum of the Bible; additional videos by Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia and Archimandrite Robert Taft, SJ

https://olfoundation.net/conferences/ol-xxv/

Pittsburgh - The Byzantine Catholic Seminary’s plans for a hybrid annual lecture experience have been altered. There will be no lecture delivered from the Cathedral Center as originally planned. Father Deacon Daniel Galadza will deliver only through livestream the 21st annual Ss. Cyril and Methodius Lecture entitled “The Liturgy of Jerusalem: History, Theology, and Lessons for Today.”

The Church of Jerusalem was the cradle of Christianity, influencing when and how Christendom celebrated the conception, birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ and the memorials of the Theotokos, apostles, and martyrs. For the Byzantine Catholic Seminary’s annual Cyril and Methodius Lecture, the Reverend Deacon Daniel Galadza presents Jerusalem’s liturgical year, its historical sources, and theology. His lecture will illustrate connections between the “Byzantinization” of the Eastern Patriarchates at the end of the first millennium and the Latinization of the Eastern Catholic Churches from the middle of the second millennium onward.

Father Deacon Daniel Galadza completed studies at the University of Toronto and the Sheptytsky Institute before defending his doctorate in Byzantine liturgy at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome in 2013. He has been a junior fellow at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C., assistant professor at the University of Vienna, visiting professor at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, and is currently a research fellow at the Centre of Advanced Studies of the University of Regensburg, Germany. In February of 2018, Oxford University Press published his Liturgy and Byzantinization in Jerusalem : the first study dedicated to the question of the Byzantinization of Jerusalem’s liturgy, providing English translations of many liturgical texts and hymns for the first time.

The public is welcome to attend this lecture virtually on Tuesday, May 18 at 7:00 PM via our website. The lecture can also be accessed live as well as in the future on the Seminary’s YouTube archive. www.bcs.edu

Great and Holy Pascha

4 April 2021

Christ is Risen!
He is risen indeed!

This resurrection cry is the subject of my good wishes to my friends, to whom I attribute the beautiful title of “sons and daughters of the Resurrection.”

We are sons and daughters of the Resurrection, although in the reality of our everyday life, we all carry all sorts of crosses, as do our countries, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, the Holy Land, Palestine… We all bear the cross of illnesses, Coronavirus, handicaps, prison, loss of parents, vagrancy, emigration, deportation, hunger, suffering, homelessness and hopelessness.

Despite that, we are children of the Resurrection, of hope and joy. We believe in the Resurrection and in the Salvation of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead!

Psalm 73: 12 (LXX) makes allusion to this real, true spirituality, “But God is our King of old; he has wrought salvation in the midst of the earth.” I like to link the meaning of this verse with the Holy Land, Jerusalem and the Church of the Resurrection, where Jesus wrought his saving work “for us and for our salvation,” as we state in the creed.

This is what we see when we look at the cross: Jesus, the tree of life (like the tree in paradise), a cave under the cross, the symbol of all our sufferings, the skull of Adam, who transgressed the law of the Lord, whence the name Golgotha, the place of the skull.

That symbolises a theological reality: Jerusalem is the centre of the world; Paradise is at the centre of Jerusalem. Sin is in the world, the human heart and in our life, yet salvation is still at the centre of the world and of our life, in Jerusalem and in the life of every person.

This salvation is there for everyone, for every creature, for every man and woman. And it is to this salvation that the Resurrection is calling us. And we shall always be sons and daughters of the Resurrection!

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

Gregorios III

Patriarch Emeritus of Antioch and All the East,
Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
For the Melkite Greek Catholic Church

Great Lent and Holy Week Renewal of Our Baptism Commitment

Let us enter the season of the radiant Fast with joy,
Giving ourselves to the spiritual combat.
Let us purify our spirit and cleanse our flesh. As we fast from food,
let us abstain from every passion. Rejoicing in the virtues of the Spirit, may we persevere with love
so as to be worthy to see
the solemn Passion of Christ our God, and with spiritual gladness
to behold His holy Resurrection.
(Forgiveness Vespers)

In the early Church baptisms took place in connection with the glorious feast of Christ’s Resurrection. The one to be baptized, the catechumen, was plunged into the baptismal pool, symbolic tomb of Christ, only to be raised with Christ from the tomb which now symbolized a womb to new life. Catechumens studied the Christian faith for one to three years, and the last forty days before their baptisms were given more intense instruction on how to live the life of Christ through prayer, fasting and good works, – the basis for a Christian life. So this season was not dismal or sad and gloomy but rather joyful – living Christ was filled with joy.

Sybertsville, PA

Father Anthony Skurla, O.F.M., fell asleep in the Lord after a short illness on December 28, 2020. A friar of Holy Dormition Byzantine Catholic Friary in Sybertsville for more than 72 years, he was well known for his ministry at the friary and his service to many Byzantine churches.

Father Anthony was born to Andrew and Mary Uchal Skurla in Syracuse, New York May 27, 1928. His early education, both elementary and secondary, was in the public schools of Chisholm, Minnesota. He was prepared for the priesthood at St. Basil College, Stamford, and St. Mary Seminary, Norwalk, both in Connecticut.

After making his solemn profession on September 7, 1952, he was ordained to the priesthood on June 14, 1954 by Most Reverend Constantine Bohachavesky at Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Philadelphia.

At the friary, Father Anthony held the following offices and appointments: Master of Novices, Custodial Counselor, Local Superior, Provincial Counselor, and Provincial Custos. From 2011 to 2017 he served as chaplain to the Byzantine Carmelite Nuns of Sugarloaf, and upon retirement in 2017, he resided at Mt. Macrina Manor Nursing Home in Uniontown.

A kind and gentle priest, Father Anthony was blessed with a most pleasant disposition marked by his constant smile, an out-going personality, and a pleasing sense of humor. He was preceded in death by his brothers, George and John, He is survived by his nephew, Archbishop William C. Skurla, Metropolitan Archbishop of Pittsburgh; and many nieces and nephews and their families.

Visitation will be from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, January 2, in Mt. Macrina Monastery Chapel with all COVID-19 restrictions applying. The Panachida Service will follow with limited space for visitors, then interment in Mt. Macrina Cemetery.

All arrangements are under the direction of the DONALD R. CRAWFORD FUNERAL HOME.

Eternal Memory! Vičnaja jemu pamjat!

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Lk. 2: 14
“The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Mt. 20: 24

Dear Friends,

The first verse is the song of the angels on the night of the Nativity of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It’s the programme of heaven for us, the inhabitants of earth.

The second verse is the programme of Jesus, who “for us humans and for our salvation, took flesh and became human” as we state in the Nicene Creed.

The Church Fathers expressed the meaning of these verses – the incarnation, salvation, the passion, the resurrection – in the expression “the economy (or plan) of salvation.”

These salutary verses are the answer to the question that theologians and we ask ourselves, “Cur Deus homo?”

It is also our question about the mystery of the incarnation, the cross and salvation, about the mystery of our life, problems, sicknesses, wars, catastrophes, earthquakes and Coronavirus epidemics.

We shall all continue for ever asking these questions, and the real answer is always that of Jesus and the Gospel. My life has meaning when I realise in my life the angels’ song and Jesus’ word. That means that my life consists of glorifying God and being an agent of peace and joy among human beings. And I shall also act in solidarity with men and women on this earth, together to build a better world, based on the values of faith, hope and charity.

That is Christmas. Happy Feast! Holy year 2021!

Gregorios III

Bishop Gerald Nicholas Dino, Eparch Emeritus of Phoenix, fell asleep in the Lord on November 14, 2020. Born in 1940 in Binghamton, New York, he was ordained a priest for the Eparchy of Pasaic on March 21, 1965. On December 6, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him bishop of the Eparchy of Van Nuys, and on March 27, 2008 he was consecrated a bishop and served until his retirement at age 76 in 2016.

Syriac Patriarch Gregoire III Laham of Damascus is pictured in a file photo during the consecration service of a chapel in the Jesuit College Sankt Georgen in Frankfurt, Germany. Germany's bishops have pledged to improve the integration of Eastern Catholics in their church, as part of ongoing plans to help migrants and refugees. (Credit: Harald Oppitz/KNA via CNS.)

CruxNow.com - (Jonathan Luxmoore, Oct 19, 2020, catholic news service)

Germany’s bishops have pledged to improve the integration of Eastern Catholics in the predominant Latin-rite church, as part of ongoing plans to help migrants and refugees.

“The Catholic Church in Germany is changing and the life of our parishes becoming more diverse — faithful from Eastern Catholic Churches are living with us and finding their home here,” the bishops’ conference said. “This diversity of Catholic Church traditions should be kept alive, so migrants and refugees can be integrated into our community without losing their own identity.”

“They belong to the Catholic Church but come from different Eastern church traditions. Their developed patterns of liturgy and church law deserve to be valued and cherished.”

The statement, signed by Archbishop Stefan Hesse of Hamburg, chairman of the bishops’ Migration Commission, and Auxiliary Bishop Dominicus Meier of Paderborn, the bishops’ representative for Eastern Catholics, accompanied new guidelines for pastoral care of Eastern Catholics lacking their own priests and pastors.

Vatican.va - The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the Eparchy of Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto of the Byzantine Rite Slovaks (Canada) presented by His Grace, Marián Andrej Pacák, C.SS.R., and appointed as Apostolic Administrator to the vacant see of the same circumscription His Grace, Kurt R. Burnette, Bishop of Passaic of the Ruthenians (USA).