November-17-Bulletin
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Holy Angels Byzantine Catholic Church November 17, 2019 23rd Sunday after Pentecost Our Holy Father Gregory the Wonderworker, bishop of Neocaesarea Passing into Eternal Life (1947) of Blessed Josaphat Kotsylovsky, Bishop of Peremyshl and Martyr November 17, 2019 Schedule of services for the week of November 18 - November 24 Wednesday, November 20 7PM – Great Vespers with Lytia Thursday, November 21 The Entrance into the Temple of the Most Holy Theotokos 9AM – Divine Liturgy For all parishioners Saturday, November 23 The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Matthew 9AM – Divine Liturgy Heath and Blessing for Health & blessing for Alla, Yuriy, Yuriy, Antonina, Tetyana, Yuriy, Svetlana, Magdaliina, Nadya, Valya 5PM – Great Vespers Sunday, November 24 24th Postfeast of Entrance into the Temple;The Holy Great Martyr Catherine of Alexandria; The Holy Great Martyr Mercurius 8:40 AM – Third Hour 9AM – Divine Liturgy For all parishioners We welcome all visitors and guests. Please join us in our hall for refreshments and fellowship after the Divine Liturgy! “Deported” into eternity Bishop and Martyr “I came to Protection Monastery and the Josaphat Kotsylovsky hegumena [prioress] told me the story. When they was born on 3 March arrested Bishop Kotsylovsky they arrested their 1876 in the village of Orthodox bishop of Kyiv at the same time. When Pakoshivka, Lemkiv they brought a package to Chapaivka, that District. He graduated Orthodox bishop said: ‘Uniate Bishop Josaphat with a degree in Theology Kotsylovsky is confined in the same camp with me.’ from Rome in 1907, and And he asked those nuns, if they could, to bring a later on October 9 of that package to Bishop Josaphat as well. So they year he was ordained to brought a package for the one bishop and for the the priesthood. Not long other … Once when she brought a package, the after that he was bishop said that Kotsylovsky had died. And he appointed vice-rector and asked her, because the dead were all thrown into professor of Theology at one hole, if they could borrow some money or get the Ivano-Frankivsk seminary. In 1911 he entered the some money somewhere. He asked her ‘to bury novitiate of the Basilian order. He was ordained a him in a separate grave, because this was a holy bishop on 23 September 1917 in Przemysl upon the man.” return of Metropolitan Andrey (Sheptytsky) from captivity in Russia. In September of 1945 the Polish –From the testimony of Father Josaphat Kavatsivo communist authorities arrested him and on 26 June 1946, after his next arrest, they forcibly took him to the USSR and placed him in a prison in Kyiv. Throughout his life he showed his perseverance of service, to make the Christian faith firm and to grow in human souls. He died a martyr for the faith on 17 November 1947 in the Chapaivka concentration camp near Kyiv. Vocation Icon Program “I Have Chosen You” The icon ” I Have Chosen You ” portrays many Prayer for Vocations aspects of discerning a spiritual vocation. The title O Lord our God, older than all creation, you comes from the words of Jesus in the Gospel of have made us in your image and likeness. John: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and You have given us the gift of the Holy Spirit appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and through your servants who proclaim the good that your fruit should abide” (John 15:16 ). news of your Church all that is necessary for our In the icon, Christ is shown in dialogue with sanctification. a man and a woman, representatives of all who We humbly beg you, do not leave your people are invited to serve through ordination or deprived of spiritual gifts, but grant us an religious life. abundance of vocations to your holy priesthood, Both individuals are moving out of the world, the diaconate and consecrated life, and to lives symbolized by the woman partially in the border, dedicated to your service. towards Christ. The scroll in Open the hearts of men and Our Lord’s hand represents His women to hear your words, teachings. An angel, holding a “Come, follow me!” scroll that reads “discernment,” Indeed, do not leave us guides and protects those orphans, but be with us contemplating the request of through your Holy Spirit, who the Lord. The entire scene takes is present everywhere and place on desolate ground. A fills all things, and who raises single tree, symbolic of vitality, up mere mortals to divine breaks the barren landscape. service by the mystery of his This setting reveals several grace. more characteristics of Truly you will never forget discerning a vocation: your promise to be with us First, it takes place always, until the end of the outdoors, in a place without world, but forgive us if we walls, symbolic of the Church have, in our weakness, failed not being an earthly to follow you as we should. institution of buildings and For you alone are holy now structures but a new life in and ever and forever. Christ. Second, as Jesus saw Nathaniel under Amen. the fig tree and called him to discipleship (John 1:48 ), Jesus intimately knows those whom He calls. Third, the tree’s lower branch connects the man and woman to the trunk, representing the Parishioners are encouraged to take vocations as the branches of Christ’s vine the icon home and pray daily for (John 15:5). An individual does not choose to serve vocations to the priesthood, diaconate Christ, but rather is chosen by Him specifically and monastic life. A sign-up sheet is for His service. One is called to blossom and available in the Narthex, and families bear fruit through the grace received in can sign up for more than one week in a ordination or religious life, and not to be fruitless and cut off by the Divine Gardner row if desired. (John 15:2). Forty Shopping (And Fasting) Days Until Christmas From OCA.org / By Fr. Steven Kostoff On November 15, we observed the first day of become rather overwhelming. the 40-day Nativity/Advent Fast, meant to prepare Certainly, these are some of the joys of family us for the advent of the Son of God in the flesh. life, and we feel a deep satisfaction when we For some/many of us, this might very well catch us surround our children with the warmth and security unaware and unprepared. However, as the saying that the sharing of gifts brings to our domestic goes, “it is what it is,” and so the Church calendar lives. Perhaps, though, we can be vigilant about directs us to enter into this sacred season on that knowing when “enough is enough”—or even day. This indicates an intensification of the better, when “enough is a feast.” An awareness— perennial “battle of the calendars” in which every combined with sharing—of those who have next to Orthodox Christian is engaged—consciously or nothing is also a way of overcoming our own self- unconsciously. The two calendars – the ecclesial absorption and expanding our notion of the and the secular – represent the Church and “the “neighbor.” world” respectively. Therefore, to be both an ascetic and a Often, there is an underlying tension between consumer is indicative of the challenges facing us these two spheres. Because of that tension, I as Christians in a world that clearly favors and believe that we find ourselves in the rather peculiar “caters” to our consumerist tendencies. To speak situation of being ascetical and consumerist honestly, this is a difficult and uneasy balance to simultaneously. To fast, pray and be charitable is maintain. How can it possibly be otherwise, when to lead a simplified life that is based around to live ascetically is to restrain those very restraint—a certain discipline and a primary choice consumerist tendencies? I believe that what we to live according to the principles of the Gospel in are essentially trying to maintain is our identity as a highly secularized and increasingly hedonistic Orthodox Christians within the confines of a world. That is what it means to be ascetical. It culture either indifferent or hostile to Christianity. If further means to focus upon Christ amidst an ever- the Church remains an essential part of the increasing number of distractions and diversions. buildup toward Christmas, then we can go a long Even with the best of intentions and a firm resolve, way in maintaining that balance. that is not easy! Although I do not particularly like putting it this From our historical perspective of being alive in way, I would contend that if the Church is a place the 21st century, and leading the “good life” where of choice that at least “competes” with the mall, everything is readily available, practicing any form then that again may be one of the modest victories of voluntary self-restraint is tantamount to bearing in the underlying battle for our ultimate loyalty to a cross. Perhaps fulfilling some modest goals which a consumerist Christmas season awakens based on the Gospel in today’s world, such as it is, us. The Church directs us to fast before we feast. amounts to a Christian witness, unspectacular as Does that make any sense? Do we understand the those goals may be. Yet, as our society counts theological/spiritual principles that are behind such down the remaining shopping days until an approach? Can we develop some domestic Christmas; and as our spending is seen as almost strategies that will give us the opportunity to put a patriotic act of contributing to the buildup of our that into practice to, at least some extent? Do we failing economy; and as we want to “fit in” – care enough? The final question always returns us especially for the sake of our children – we also to the question that Jesus asked of his disciples: are prone (or just waiting) to unleashing the “Who do you say that I am?” If we, together with “consumer within,” always alert to the joys of St.