Our Eparchial Sobor Took Place April 18-20 Please Continue to Pray For
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The May Issue of The Sower will bebe dedicateddedicated toto ourour Epa Eparcrchialhial Sobor.Sobor. OFFIICIIAL PUBLIICATIION OF THE UKRAIINIIAN CATHOLIIC EPARCHY OF STAMFORD ССіівваачч SSoowweerr VOL XXVIIIIII; No.. 4 STAMFORD,, CONNECTIICUT 06902 APRIIL 28,, 2013 www..stamforddiio..org www..stamforddiio..org OOuurr EEppaarrcchhiiaall SSoobboorr ttooookk ppllaaccee UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AApprriill 1188--2200 Major Archbishop of Kyiv – Halych PPlleeaassee CCoonnttiinnuuee ttoo PPrraayy Kyiv His Excellency Most Reverend BA13/137 Paul Chomnycky, OSBM February 11, 2013 Eparch of Stamford ffoorr tthhee PPaarriisshh DDeelleeggaatteess,, Your Excellency: PPaarriisshhiioonneerrss,, Thank you for your letter informing me that, according to your decree, from April 18-20, 2013 you are holding an Eparchial Sobor on the theme: The Vibrant Parish – a place of encounter with the living Christ. HHiieerraarrcchhyy,, In the beginning of the third millennium, in the context of all of the challenges and CClleerrggyy aanndd RReelliiggiioouuss opportunities, the Church of Christ is searching for new venues for spreading the Word of God. The Synod of our Church took up this issue and has been asking to search for a way to implement into life different forms of preaching through which contemporary society can ooff spread the faith in Christ. the Stamford Eparchy Your Excellency and Delegates to the Stamford Eparchy Sobor! I wish you fruitful the Stamford Eparchy labors during your deliberations, that through the action of the Holy Spirit you can find important answers to the challenges and opportunities that face the church and in creating the Vibrant Parish you all will be able to encounter with the Living Christ. In these days I will pray to the Lord our God for an abundance of blessings and grace for all of you and bestow upon you my Arch-Episcopal blessing. May the blessing of our Lord be with you! April 15, 2013 +SVIATSLAV EEppaarrcchhiiaall SSoobboorr PPrraayyeerr Catholic Eparchy of Stamford will be conducting an Eparchial Assembly at St. Basil Seminary in Stamford, Connecticut from OGod, Creator of heaven and earth! Because of your indescrib- Thursday, April 18th through Saturday April 20th, I have the special honor to convey able love for us, you sent your Only-begotten Son, Our Lord and to you as Eparch of Stamford as well as to the clergy, religious and laity present for Savior, Jesus Christ – the Way, the Truth and the Life – our life this important gathering the warm greetings and spiritual closeness of His Holiness and our salvation. Pope Francis. In His name, we turn to You: In this Year of Faith, as you prayerfully reflect together on the theme “The Vibrant Parish - a place to encounter the living Christ,” the Holy Father is truly confi- Strengthen our hearts and dent that, in the words of his Predecessor, you will “rediscover a taste for feeding minds in Christian love and (yourselves) on the Word of God, faithfully handed down by the Church, and on in unity of purpose, as we the Bread of Life, offered as sustenance for His disciples (cf. John 4:14). Indeed, prepare for the upcoming the teaching of Jesus still resounds in our day with the same power: ‘Do not Eparchial Sobor. labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life’ (John 6:27)” (Porta Fidei, “the Door of Faith,” Pope Benedict XVI, October 11, Give us the grace to 2011, no. 3). model our lives accord- Commending ail of the participants in this Eparchial Assembly to the loving ing to the Word of God. intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, His Holiness Pope Francis cordially his nstill in us the desire to Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of strength and joy in the Risen Christ. I Offering my own prayerful best wishes for grace-filled days, I remain, pray and to celebrate the Holy Mysteries as one Christian family in our parish com- Sincerely yours in Christ, munities. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano Inspire us to follow your great command to be a servant to the Apostolic Nuncio less fortunate among us! Grant this, O Lord, through the mercies and love for humankind of Your Only-begotten Son with whom You are blessed, togeth- HIS EXCELLENCY MOST REVEREND PAUL CHOMNYCKY, OSBM EPARCH er with Your all-holy, good and live-giving Spirit, now and for OF STAMFORD ever and ever. Amen. 22 APRIIL 28,, 2013 SOWER HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS Basilica of Saint John Lateran LLIIGGHHTT OONNEE CCAANNDDLLEE Second Sunday of Easter -- Jerry Costello Divine Mercy Sunday for The Christophers April 7, 2013 THE MIRMIRACLEACLE OF ST. BRIGID’S It is with joy that I am celebrating the Eucharist for the first Often when a Catholic parish or a school is in the news time in this Lateran Basilica, the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome. these days, it’s either closing or on the verge of it. Pastors frequent- I greet all of you with great affection: my very dear Cardinal Vicar, the auxiliary bishops, the diocesan pres- ly have no choice. It all comes down to numbers: to enrollment or byterate, the deacons, the men and women religious, and all the lay faithful. I also greet the Mayor, his wife attendance, to profit and loss, to dollars and cents. When a closing and all the authorities present. Together let us walk in the light of the risen Lord. is the only alternative, aggrieved people are likely to be left in its 1. Today we are celebrating the Second Sunday of Easter, also known as "Divine Mercy Sunday". wake, but it’s just as likely that the priest--or an administrator, or the What a beautiful truth of faith this is for our lives: the mercy of God! God’s love for us is so great, so deep; diocese itself--can’t do anything else. The money is simply not it is an unfailing love, one which always takes us by the hand and supports us, lifts us up and leads us on. there. 2. In today’s Gospel, the Apostle Thomas personally experiences this mercy of God, which has a And then there’s St. Brigid’s. concrete face, the face of Jesus, the risen Jesus. Thomas does not believe it when the other Apostles tell him: St. Brigid’s is a small parish on the Lower East Side of "We have seen the Lord". It isn’t enough for him that Jesus had foretold it, promised it: "On the third day I Manhattan in the New York Archdiocese. Founded in 1848 by will rise". He wants to see, he wants to put his hand in the place of the nails and in Jesus’ side. And how does Irish immigrants, the parish served successive waves of Poles, Jesus react? With patience: Jesus does not abandon Thomas in his stubborn unbelief; he gives him a week’s Ukrainians and Puerto Ricans. Twelve years ago, St. Brigid’s got time, he does not close the door, he waits. And Thomas acknowledges his own poverty, his little faith. "My the grim news: the old church building was in terrible shape. The Lord and my God!": with this simple yet faith-filled invocation, he responds to Jesus’ patience. He lets him- back wall was pulling away from the rest of the building, and engi- self be enveloped by divine mercy; he sees it before his eyes, in the wounds of Christ’s hands and feet and neers said the roof could collapse at any minute. The church, the in his open side, and he discovers trust: he is a new man, no longer an unbeliever, but a believer. archdiocese announced, would have to be demolished. Only a mir- Let us also remember Peter: three times he denied Jesus, precisely when he should have been clos- acle could save it. est to him; and when he hits bottom he meets the gaze of Jesus who patiently, wordlessly, says to him: "Peter, Frances Robles’ story in The New York Times told what don’t be afraid of your weakness, trust in me". Peter understands, he feels the loving gaze of Jesus, and he happened in the intervening years. Parishioners raised some of the weeps. How beautiful is this gaze of Jesus – how much tenderness is there! Brothers and sisters, let us never $300,000 they thought would cover the repairs, but their estimate lose trust in the patience and mercy of God! was woefully short. “A ridiculous number, which I think was made Let us think too of the two disciples on the way to Emmaus: their sad faces, their barren journey, up,” said Joseph Zwilling, archdiocesan spokesman. (Even the their despair. But Jesus does not abandon them: he walks beside them, and not only that! Patiently he explains archdiocese’s estimate, $8 million, proved to be only about half of the Scriptures which spoke of him, and he stays to share a meal with them. This is God’s way of doing things: what was needed in the long run.) he is not impatient like us, who often want everything all at once, even in our dealings with other people. The archdiocese actually began the demolition work, but God is patient with us because he loves us, and those who love are able to understand, to hope, to inspire members of the parish were determined to keep their church open. confidence; they do not give up, they do not burn bridges, they are able to forgive. Let us remember this in They hired lawyers and went to court but nothing seemed to work. our lives as Christians: God always waits for us, even when we have left him behind! He is never far from They lost in the courts, and parishioners were beginning to feel us, and if we return to him, he is ready to embrace us.