CLINTON TWP, Michigan — Saint Nicholas Church hosted its eighth annual Ladies Tea Party and fundraiser on Sunday, February 23. The parish gentlemen served as waiters, keeping the 160+ female guests well-plied with a variety of tea sandwiches, teas, and desserts. Following the English Tea tradition, a raffle of more than 90 gift baskets ended the afternoon’s four hours of fun, frolicking and frivolity! Thanks to all who attended, and especially to everyone who worked so hard to help make this tea party a financial and social success, i na mnohaja i blahaja l’ita!
Join the nuns of Christ the Bridegroom Monastery for the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete on Monday, March 23, at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, 1900 Carlton Rd., Parma, Ohio.The hundreds of prostrations unite our body and soul as we repent of our sins and experience God’s mercy. We will also listen to the life of St. Mary of Egypt and venerate her relic. The opportunity for the Mystery of Holy Repentance (Confession) will also be available. A simple Lenten meal will be served 5:00-5:45 p.m., and the Canon will begin at 6:00 p.m. All are invited to come for part or all of the Canon, even if you are not physically able to participate in the prostrations. The duration of the Canon is approximately 3.5 hours. If you plan to come for dinner, please RSVP by Thursday, March 19, to christthebridegroom@gmail.com or 440-834-0290.
ST. LOUIS, Missouri — On Sunday, March 1, 2020, the First Sunday of Lent, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, his Grace, Bishop Milan Lach visited the St. Louis Byzantine Catholic Mission of St. Louis, Missouri, and celebrated the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil. A nice crowd of 66 parishioners and guests attended, which included 24 children. Following the liturgy, all were invited to bring their Icon from home or to take one from the church wall and join in as all made a procession around the grounds and sang hymns to commemorate the Sunday of Orthodoxy. After the procession the people were invited to the Fellowship Room for a Lenten Luncheon. The mission’s ECF class had made a pennant banner to welcome Bishop Milan.
CLINTON TWP, Michigan — Parishioners of St. Nicholas gathered on Sunday, February 9, 2020 and packed lunches for the homeless. The parishioners got together for a classic Motor City-like experience - an assembly line - but instead of building cars, the production line fabricated sandwiches and then assembled packed lunches for the homeless! This was St. Nick's largest run to date, and the entire manufacturing volume was donated to the St. Margaret of Scotland Catholic Church’s Warming Center in St Clair Shores, MI.
"This is our mission - to be a new man and a child of God. Simeon and the Virgin Mary have in their hands the baby Jesus - they represent the Church that is bringing Jesus to the nations, to this world that is hungry for God, hungry for the Light and for the Truth. And the devil never stops proclaiming his lies and he lies always to these people. Jesus is the Truth and we know how difficult it is sometimes to accept the truth about ourselves. It is difficult to see who we are and what we are, and to say in humility: “I am a sinner.”
VATICAN — Holy Father Francis has appointed Bishop Giorgio Demetrio Gallaro as the new Secretary of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Published on Tuesday February 25, 2020 at noon Italian time in the Sala Stampa, the former Bishop of the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi di Sicilia was appointed to the rank of titular Archbishop as well.
I have been asked by many of my parishioners about the need to confess their sins, questions like, "What must I say when I come to confession? What do I have to confess? Of what I believe I do wrong, are some of them really sins? What is the definition of a grave sin? What is a venial sin? When and how often do I have to go to confession?” With those questions in mind, this article is the first in a series through which I will provide important answers to important questions in the field of moral theology and bioethics based on the teaching of the Catholic Church. READ MORE.
"God gives us the time of the Great Fast so we can pause, quiet down, and turn ourselves toward Him. We are invited to grow in our spiritual life, to get closer to our Lord Jesus Christ, and to prepare ourselves well for the celebration of the feast of Pascha – Resurrection."
As Christians, believing in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we should realize that those who are deceased are with us and are part of our church in the same way as those who live on this earth. And so we do not pray only for them, but they are also praying for us. As someone asks their friends for prayer and at the same time he prays for them, also we pray for one another without any concern that we are separated by death.
"God created human beings for great desires. If we are not seeing the necessity to be loved by God then we are not changed. In my pastoral letter at the beginning of the Church Year, I invited everyone to frequent confession. We need to have this experience of forgiveness. Many times you are not able to forgive, to forgive your husband, your wife, your children, your boss at work, your teacher, your priest, your bishop. If we lack the experience of forgiveness and being forgiven, we will always be unhappy human beings.”
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Very Rev. Mitred Archpriest Marek Visnovsky, Protosyncellus of the Eparchy of Parma, was present at the seminar on safeguarding with Fr. Hans Zollner, S.J., President of the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy.
MENTOR-On-The-Lake, Ohio — Sunday, February 9 at 2pm, Holy Resurrection Parish (merged parishes of Holy Transfiguration and St. Stephen) celebrated a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy with Bishop Milan Lach at St. Andrew’s Church in Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio.
"We live in a world and society where our friends might be asking us: 'Are you really going to Church on Sundays?' They are trying to 'silence' us. And because we care about the opinions of others we think that our status is diminished when we appear as one in need of help from another. So instead we choose a comfortable life. The position of the beggar, by the road, very close to traffic, is very good and comfortable. Even when we are not in need of material possessions, we are like this beggar because we are in this good, comfortable place where we choose to protect our well-being."
CLEVELAND, Ohio — On Tuesday, February 4th, Bishop Milan visited Catholic students at Cleveland State University’s Newman Center. He had dinner with them and then gave a talk on the love of God in prayer and answered the students’ questions.
CLINTON TWP, Michigan — On Sunday, February 2, St Nicholas Parish in Clinton Township honored its youth who are members of the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, and the American Heritage Girls. After the Liturgy, the parish hosted its 14th annual “Least of My Brethren” Luncheon to raise funds in order to provide food and other items for the local homeless.
BARBERTON, Ohio - On February 3, 2020, St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Parish welcomed Bishop Milan Lach to their study group "The Art of Spiritual Life". The group, led by Fr. Miron Kerul-Kmec, is striving to gain enhancement of the spiritual life through the teachings of Holy Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov which are found in a compilation of his writings called The Field. This study of the teachings of Holy Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov has already transformed many lives and your life can be transformed too. The sessions are recorded and published online at https://artofspirituallife.podbean.com. The study group meets on Mondays from 7:00-8:00 p.m. at St. Nicholas parish in Barberton and everyone is welcome.
EUCLID, Ohio — Bishop Milan Lach celebrated a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy on February 2, 2020 at Holy Resurrection Parish in Euclid, Ohio. The newly merged parish welcomed around 90 Roman Catholic Seminarians from the nearby Borromeo Seminary of the Diocese of Cleveland, who were present to receive a taste of Byzantine tradition and spirituality. During the Liturgy the Bishop baptized Mark Raymond Stachowiak.
Cultivate intimacy with your Savior with “Return to Me,” a Lenten formation program sponsored by St. Mary’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Whiting, Indiana. The parish will host an online webinar series on prayer Thursdays during Lent beginning February 27 at 7 p.m. CST (8 p.m. EST). Learn how scripture, the Jesus Prayer, silence, and the liturgy offer the language you need to speak with and hear the Lord who loves you.
