2024 Christmas Cards now available! Income goes to help refugees through the Eparchy of Mukachevo in Transcarpathian Oblast of Ukraine – https://www.missionboronyavo.org/ Picture of the card cover is below. Your recipients will be prayed for at the Cathedral in Uzhhorod on Christmas Day. As has been the case since 2022, the income from the Christmas ..read more

Often at Thanksgiving tables in America, people are asked “what are you thankful for?” This can be an exercise in futility on the part of the person who poses the question. Sometimes the answer consists of “Uh …”. Or the answer can be “Dinner today.” We are supposed to be a thankful, grateful people. The ..read more

In the gospel today, Luke writes in verse 13 that “Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”   What was this? A man who had the responsibility of splitting their inheritance among his siblings has apparently disinherited them – he’s not following the rules of either ..read more

Our martyr Bishop Theodore was not shot by a firing squad on October 31, 1947, nor was he killed after giving a brave defense before a hostile tribunal. He had survived an assault on October 27 so violent that the survivor who I interviewed years later said that he never saw so much blood in ..read more

Galatians 6: 11-18 and Luke 16: 19-31 Jesus says in the parable today that “it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom” that is, the soul of Lazarus rests with Abraham in glory. And then he says abruptly that the “rich man died and was buried.” When ..read more

The cross is our hope and our glory ..read more

The Church commemorates the conception, birth, and death of only two human beings on its calendar – the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. Jesus Himself calls John the greatest man born of a woman (Luke 7:28, Matthew 11:11), and he stands as the last of the prophets, and the greatest prophet – in him we find the fulfillment of the role of Elijah as the precursor of the messiah, the one who announces the coming of the Christ. Even in his mother’s womb, he leapt up in joy to worship the Messiah in the womb of the Virgin Mary – one of the greatest statements we can use for those Christians who su ..read more

In the Letter to the Romans today, we heard this sentence from Saint Paul: Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. As Catholic Christians, we must be a people of hope, a people rooted in the trust of the Holy Spirit. One of my teachers in seminary emphasized to us that at the end of each Divine Liturgy, we should have felt God’s love, and as priests, we should have prayed, preached, and celebrated in such a way that the congregation would go out knowing that they were loved by God. Saint Paul ..read more

There are a lot of legends about Saint George, who is the patron saint of soldiers, as well as the patronal saint for England, Georgian republic, and numerous other places. Today is also the day on which farm fields are blessed, and in the Carpathian Mountain region where our Church has its origins, this is the day when herds are moved into the pastures after a long winter stuck in barns. George is seen as a protector of livestock and domestic animals. The icons show him as a soldier, and usually on horseback, killing a dragon while a princess looks on from a distance. What we can glean from ..read more

Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans 5: For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.  God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.  The Catholic Church is born on the Cross. Catholic means universal, and Pilate had the famous inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” written in ..read more