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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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April 8, 2007
Our Brother Bishops, Reverend Clergy, Religious, Seminarians, and Faithful,
CHRIST IS RISEN!
The women who ran to the empty tomb on that first Easter morning were met by an angel who told them to gather the apostles because the Risen Christ was to appear among them. Specifically, the angel asks that the apostles, “and Peter” be told to be there.
Peter was one of the apostles who could not stay awake with Jesus in those final painful prayerful hours at Gethsemane. Peter reacted with rage in defense of Jesus when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, and cut off the ear of one of the temple guards. It was Peter who denied Jesus three times as Jesus was being interrogated by the chief rabbis. And yet, this apostle Peter is specifically invited by name to be present for Jesus’ appearance with the disciples.
We have journeyed through the Great Fast and are approaching our personal meeting with the Risen Christ at Pascha! Like Peter, many of us have probably not stayed awake or been faithful in our Great Fast promises of prayers and sacrifices. Some of us have undoubtedly even reacted to others in less than charitable ways, especially when “pushed” with our own limited personal resources. Like Peter, we too have failed to stand up for truths and teachings given by Jesus, and have denied Him in our words and in our manner of life. Have we responded in charitable and caring ways when invited to help? Have we been people of nurture to those in chaos and need? And yet, you and I are also specifically invited by name to be present for Jesus’ appearance at Easter.
Jesus Christ walked through solid walls to greet His disciples, and Peter, at the first Easter. The Risen Christ walks through our personal walls to come to you and to me, to us, at Easter. We, like Peter, are invited to make ourselves present to the Risen Christ this Easter. Jesus Christ thirsts to be present to you and to me, despite our failings, our sinful behavior, and our denials. Jesus Christ offers His forgiveness to you and to me through the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession), and comes to us fully alive in the Holy Eucharist.
It is the prayerful hope of the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the United States of America that all our clergy, religious and faithful will hear God’s angels calling each of us by name to receive the forgiveness offered by the Risen Christ, and to receive the Risen Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
The disciples on the road to Emmaus came to recognize the Risen Christ amidst them “in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24: 31, 35). Let us all gather in our parish communities and joyously celebrate the resurrections of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Risen Christ is amidst us and wants to transform us like He transformed Peter and the early Christians. The Risen Christ wants us to meet Him amidst our parish community like He desired the disciples to gather. The Risen Christ is amidst us when we gather together in prayer as a spiritual family, a Church. Our faith in Jesus Christ becomes life giving and is nourished and stays alive when we gather together in community for prayer. We thank you for your prayerful participation within your parish family, in your spiritual family. We need one another in our journey of faith, and something is lost when some do not participate as regularly as needed.
Our Easter Blessings upon all of our brother bishops, clergy, religious, seminarians and faithful.
Most Reverend Stefan Soroka
Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the U.S.A.
Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainians
Most Reverend Robert M. Moskal
Bishop of the St. Josaphat Eparchy in Parma
Most Reverend Richard Seminack
Bishop of the St. Nicholas Eparchy in Chicago
Most Reverend Paul Chomnycky, OSBM
Bishop of the Eparchy of Stamford
Most Reverend John Bura
Auxiliary Bishop of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia
Easter, 2007
www.ukrarcheparchy.us
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Prot. N. 182- April 8, 2007
Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers and faithful of our God-saved Diocese:
CHRIST IS RISEN! CHRISTOS VOSKRES!
“And they said among themselves, ‘Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?’”
Mark 16:3
On that Resurrection morning, while it was still dark, this was the question and the problem that perplexed those myrrh-bearing women disciples of the Lord. We know that the stone was “very large” and cumbersome according to the Gospel account. From historical and cultural knowledge of the times, we know that it was a massive stone disk that was rolled into a groove in the ground before the entrance of the tomb. Once it was set in place, it was not meant to be moved. It certainly could not be rolled up and out of that groove easily. It would take several strong men to accomplish the task. How then could this small group of fragile, tired, and aging women do it? They were worn out from the tragic events of the past few days and were still in the throes of grief at the death of their Master and their Friend. And now they were even more troubled and plagued by the thought that they might not be able to complete the traditional burial ritual of their people upon their beloved Lord. The stone barred their way! You can imagine, then, what joy and excitement filled their hearts and minds as they approached the tomb, looked up, and found the stone ALREADY rolled back. And then news rang out in their ears, “He is not here; He is risen as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay!” (Matthew 28:6)
That stone, that boulder, sealed the Tomb most tightly, sealing within it a crucified corpse and all the characteristics that accompanied It: darkness, despair, decay, sorrow, loneliness, sin, and death. These same attributes have haunted mankind since the beginning, since the very fall of our first father and mother, Adam and Eve. Our Lord shared in, experienced, and was subjected to every one of these “mysteries” of life. He endured all of these evils, all of these negative aspects of our earthly existence because He became one of us! Every enemy that has terrified and threatened humanity has our Lord also encountered and done battle with! These enemies of mankind are still at work today, but they no longer have the same power and effect that they once held over us!
We, also, as did the myrrh-bearers, may ask when these troubles attack us, “Who will roll away the stone from the tomb for us? Who will remove the stone of the tomb from my life, from my body, and from my soul? As Christians, we ought to aware of the answers, but sometimes we need to be reminded of them. This present GLORIOUS and JOYOUS FEAST OF FEASTS affords us the opportunity to recall to our minds the answers that we so desperately need when we are faced with the difficulties of this earthly life. In this confused, perverted, faithless and fallen world, we struggle to overcome our common enemies, but WE DO NOT DO IT ALONE!
WHO WILL ROLL AWAY THE STONE OF DARKNESS FROM MY LIFE?
CHRIST, of course. CHRIST the LIGHT! He Himself testified, “I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me, shall NOT WALK IN DARKNESS, but have the LIGHT OF LIFE!” (John 8:12) The radiant burst of the light of the Resurrection comes forth from the tomb and fills us and the world. Even in the extreme darkness of a room totally cut off from any light source, it takes only a single candle flame to penetrate every corner of it. How much more, then, can the Light of Christ extinguish the darkness!
WHO WILL ROLL AWAY THE STONE OF DESPAIR FROM MY LIFE?
CHRIST our HOPE! The Holy Apostle Paul begins his first epistle to Timothy, “by the commandment of God our Saviour and the Lord Jesus Christ, our HOPE…” While the world challenges each one of us with fears, anxieties, trials,
tribulations, temptations, doubts, and more, Jesus Christ told us that this would happen, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” Again we hear from Paul, this time to the Romans, “Now may the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)
WHO WILL ROLL AWAY THE STONE OF SADNESS FROM MY LIFE?
CHRIST our JOY! Christ says, “Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:24) From the very night that our Saviour was born, the angels announced tidings of great joy, that the Messiah was born. Simply being in the presence of the One Who loves us and Whom we love in return is an occasion for great joy! In His High Priestly Prayer on the night before He died on the Cross, Jesus informs us, “These things I have spoken to you, that My JOY may remain in you, and that your JOY may be full.” (John 15:11)
WHO WILL ROLL AWAY THE STONE OF LONELINESS FROM MY LIFE?
CHRIST our FRIEND. In the garden of Gethsemane, on the night before His Crucifixion, our Lord said to His disciples, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command You.“ (John 15: 14) “I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father, I have made known to you.” (John 15: 15) We, too, are His disciples and He confides the truth in us and offers to us all that is necessary for salvation, to be with Him for all eternity!
WHO WILL ROLL AWAY THE STONE OF SIN FROM MY LIFE?
CHRIST the SINLESS ONE; our SAVIOUR. He Who bore our sins on the Cross removes them from us! St. Andrew of Crete in his Great Canon of Repentance eloquently sums it up: “We have sinned greatly; we have transgressed; we have done evil in Your sight; we have not kept or followed Your commandments; but reject us not utterly, O God of our Fathers.” (Ode 7) But on Great Friday, we hear once again the Prophet Isaiah’s message of the Suffering Servant, the Christ, in these words, “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5)
He has given us His very Body and Blood; first upon the Cross, and then for all time to eat and to drink “for the remission of sins.” Our sins were buried with Him in the Tomb, and He rolls away the stone from the tomb of sin, and it is wiped away!
WHO WILL ROLL AWAY THE STONE FROM THE TOMB OF DEATH?
CHRIST our LIFE! The final indignity for mankind is death itself. Yet Christ, in His extreme love, even overcame that for us! Shortly before the Nativity celebration on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers, we hear the words of St. Paul to the Colossians, “When Christ WHO IS OUR LIFE appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4) He died, but HE LIVES! Jesus announces to each of us, “I am the way, the Truth, and the LIFE. (John 14:6) And to His followers, to those who have obeyed His commandments, even when we are in the graves, we “will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of LIFE!” (John 5:28-29) That is why we sing repeatedly during this season: “CHRIST IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD, TRAMPLING DOWN DEATH BY DEATH, AND TO THOSE IN THE TOMBS, BESTOWING LIFE!” to which we in our Slavic tradition, when we sing it for the final time at the end of each service, add the phrase: “And to us He granted life eternal; let us glorify His third-day Resurrection!” so that, not only those in the graves, but also we who are still alive, remember that glorious fact!
Christ, then, has become all things for all people: our LIGHT, our HOPE, our JOY, our FRIEND, our SAVIOUR, and our LIFE! May you experience every Divine aspect in your renewed life in Him!
On your behalf, I send PASCHAL greetings to His All-Holiness, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios, Exarch of the Ecumenical Throne, all of our Very Reverend and Reverend Fathers, Deacons, Monastics, Seminarians, and the beloved Faithful, one to another, of our God-saved Diocese.
With my Episcopal blessing, I remain
Most sincerely yours in our Risen Lord,
+METROPOLITAN NICHOLAS
Metropolitan Nicholas Smisko is the Bishop of the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of Johnstown, PA
www.acrod.org
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At 9.15 p.m., the Holy Father travelled to the Colosseum where he led the 'Via Crucis' or Way of the Cross. The meditations this year were prepared by Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, prefect of the Ambrosian Library of Milan, Italy.
Benedict XVI carried the cross for the first and last stations. Over the other stations, it was carried by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome, a family from the city, four young women from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Korea, China and Angola, a young man from Chile and two Franciscans from the Custody of the Holy Land.
At the end of the ceremony, the Holy Father made some off-the-cuff remarks to those present: "Following Jesus on the way of His Passion we see not only the Passion of Jesus, but all the suffering people of the world. This is the profound intention of the 'Via Crucis' prayer: to open our hearts and to help us see with the heart.
"The Fathers of the Church considered insensitivity and hardness of heart as the greatest sin of the pagan world, and they used to like this prophecy of the prophet Ezekiel: 'I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.' Conversion to Christ, becoming Christian, meant receiving a heart of flesh, a heart sensitive to the passion and suffering of others.
"Our God is not a distant God, untouchable in His beatitude. Our God has a heart. Indeed, he has a heart of flesh, He became flesh precisely so as to suffer with us and to be with us in our suffering. He became man in order to give us a heart of flesh and to reawaken in us the love for the suffering and the needy.
"At this time," he concluded, "we pray to the Lord for all those suffering in the world. We pray to the Lord that He may truly give us a heart of flesh, that He may make us messengers of His love not only with words but with all of our lives. Amen."
BXVI-HOLY WEEK/GOOD FRIDAY/...VIS 070411 (430)
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Opens on Anniversary of John Paul II's Death
VIENNA, Austria, APRIL 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The first world congress on mercy will open on the third anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II, announced the archbishop of Vienna.
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn revealed Monday in a press conference that the 1st World Apostolic Congress on Mercy will be held April 2-6, 2008, in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.
The cardinal said that the opening date of the congress was chosen purposely to coincide with the anniversary of the death of John Paul II as the call to be "witnesses of mercy" was an essential message of the Pontiff.
During statements to the press, Cardinal Schönborn repeated the words of the Pope at the consecration of the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakau-Lagiewniki in 2002: "Apart from the mercy of God there is no other source of hope for humanity."
Lagiewniki is where the nun and mystic St. Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) lived with her congregation. John Paul II canonized the Polish religious April 30, 2000, and announced on the same day that "throughout the world, the second Sunday of Easter will receive the name of Divine Mercy Sunday."
Cardinal Schönborn said: "Many believers took it as a sign the fact that John Paul II died on the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday."
A bridge
The cardinal said that the Divine Mercy event will have an interreligious component through the participation of Jews, Muslims and Buddhists: "The congress is to be a bridge to other religions, but also reaching out to agnostics and atheists."
Cardinal Schönborn added that the Church is often criticized for its "doctrinal narrowness" and "moral rigidness."
That is why, the cardinal said, the first world congress on mercy is intended to give a "very radical encouragement" to rediscover the core of the Gospel, that is to say, mercy.
Father Patrice Chocholski, the secretary-general of the congress, said that the aim of the event is to spread the message of mercy to the greatest number of people, "because mercy can change the world."
Father Chocholski also reported that many other Christian churches and other religious communities, including representatives of Buddhism and Hinduism, have manifested an interest in the congress.
The priest added that he presented the congress to Patriarch Alexy II of the Russian Orthodox Church, and that he was very enthusiastic.
Cardinal Schönborn said that the idea for the initiative was proposed during the Vienna City Mission in 2000.
The idea for a World Congress on Mercy then matured during a meeting in Lagiewniki in 2004 to promote the spiritual testament of John Paul II, namely the "call to divine mercy."
Code: ZE07040620
Date: 2007-04-06
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VATICAN CITY, APRIL 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).- According to the preacher of the Pontifical Household, the women present at Calvary accompanying Jesus were more than pious individuals, they were "mothers of courage."
Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa delivered that message today in his Good Friday homily at the Celebration of the Lord's Passion, in St. Peter's Basilica.
The preacher of the Pontifical Household, speaking of the important role of women in Christianity said: "There has been animated discussion for quite some time about who it was that wanted Jesus' death: Was it the Jews or Pilate? One thing is certain in any case: It was men and not women.
"No woman was involved, not even indirectly, in his condemnation. Even the only pagan woman named in the accounts, Pilate's wife, dissociated herself from his condemnation."
"Jesus said: 'Blessed is he who is not scandalized by me.' These women are the only ones who were not scandalized by him," said the preacher.
He continued: "We must ask ourselves about this fact: Why were the women untroubled by the scandal of the cross? Why did they stay when everything seem finished and even his closest disciples had abandoned him and were secretly planning to go back home?
"Jesus had already given the answer to this question when, replying to Simon, he said of the woman who had washed and kissed his feet, 'She has loved much!'"
Reasons of the heart
Father Cantalamessa said that the pious women "followed the reasoning of the heart and this did not deceive them. Their presence near the crucified and risen Christ contains a vital teaching for today."
He said: "Our civilization, dominated by technology, needs a heart to survive in it without being dehumanized. We have to give more room to the 'reasons of the heart,' if humanity is not to fail.
"The improvement of man's intelligence and capacity to know does not go forward at the same rate as improvement in his capacity to love.
"The latter does not seem to count for much and yet we know well that happiness or unhappiness on earth does not depend so much on knowing or not knowing as much as it does on loving or not loving, on being loved or not being loved."
"It is not hard to understand," continued the preacher, "why we are so anxious to increase are knowledge, but so worried about increasing our capacity to love: Knowledge automatically translates into power, love into service."
"Love alone redeems and saves, while science and the thirst for knowledge, by itself, is able to lead Faust and his imitators to damnation," remarked Father Cantalamessa.
Pro-woman
The Capuchin priest continued: "Everyday experience shows us that women can 'lift us up,' but they can also cast us down. She too needs to be saved, neither more nor less than man.
"But we must avoid repeating the ancient gnostic mistake according to which woman, in order to save herself, must cease to be a woman and must become a man."
"Pro-male prejudice is so deeply rooted in society that women themselves have ended up succumbing to it," said Father Cantalamessa.
"To affirm their dignity, they have sometimes believed it necessary to minimize or deny the difference of the sexes, reducing it to a product of culture," added the preacher.
Offering the women at Calvary as models for what women should be, Father Cantalamessa continued: "The pious women must not only be admired and honored, but imitated.
"How grateful we must be to the pious women! Along the way to Calvary, their sobbing was the only friendly sound that reached the Savior's ears; while he hung on the cross, their gaze was the only one that fell upon him with love and compassion."
Code: ZE07040601
Date: 2007-04-06
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VATICAN CITY, APRIL 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).- It is likely that Jesus followed the calendar of the Essenes of Qumran, possibly explaining some contradictions within the Gospel accounts of the Passover, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope made this observation Holy Thursday in his homily during the Mass of the Lord's Supper at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
In his address, the theologian commented on the historical investigations on the manuscripts of Qumran, found in the Dead Sea in 1947.
"In the narrations of the Evangelists, there is an apparent contradiction between the Gospel of John, on one hand, and what, on the other hand, Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us," said Benedict XVI.
The Pope continued: "According to John, Jesus died on the cross precisely at the moment in which, in the temple, the Passover lambs were being sacrificed. His death and the sacrifice of the lambs coincided.
"This means that he died on the eve of Passover, and that, therefore, he could not have personally celebrated the paschal supper, at least this is what it would seem."
The Holy Father said that according to an interpretation of the texts, "still not accepted by all," Jesus "celebrated Passover with his disciples probably according to the calendar of Qumran, that is to say, at least one day earlier -- he celebrated without a lamb, like the Qumran community who did not recognize the Temple of Herod and was waiting for a new temple."
Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, former rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome, explained that in Jesus' time the calendar of the Essenes was more traditional that the one more recently adopted by the priests of Jerusalem. He said that this doesn't signify that Jesus formed part of the Essenes.
The new lamb
Benedict XVI, however, said that it does imply that Jesus "celebrated Passover without a lamb, no, not without a lamb: Instead of the lamb he gave himself, his body and his blood."
The Pope continued: "And he himself was the true temple, the living temple, the one in which God lives, in which we can find ourselves with God and adore him.
"His blood, the love of he who is at the same time Son of God and true man, one of us, this blood has the power to save. His love, this love in which he gives himself freely for us, is what saves us."
Benedict XVI urged those present to "ask the Lord to help us to understand ever more deeply this marvelous mystery, and to love it more and more."
The Pope added: "And within it, to love him more and more. Let us ask him to attract us more and more to him with holy Communion. If you're addicted to gamble this article help you how to stop playing pokies
"Let us ask him to help us not to keep our lives for ourselves, but to surrender them to him, and in this way, to work with him so that all people find life, the authentic life that can only come from he who is the way, the truth and the life."
Code: ZE07040602
Date: 2007-04-06