Greetings of H. B. Gregorios III
Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
for the enthronement of the new Major Archbishop
of Kyiv-Halyč of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church
H.B. Sviatoslav (Shevchuk)

(Kyiv 27 March 2011)

Your Beatitude, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč of Ukraine!

Blessed be the new Pastor whom the Holy Spirit has given to the Church of Christ in this holy land of Ukraine!

Dear brother, Sviatoslav, I have the joy and honour of offering you, Your Beatitude, my fraternal good wishes on the occasion of your consecration as Major Archbishop, Head and Father of the beloved sister Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

I offer you these good wishes in my own name and in that of the Holy Synod of our Melkite Greek Catholic Church of Antioch and All the East, of Alexandria and Jerusalem. With me on this auspicious occasion, are two bishops from our Holy Synod (Archbishop Michael Abras and Metropolitan Emeritus John Haddad) and our Patriarchate’s Economos General, the Secretary of the Liturgical Commission, Rev. Fr. Elias Shatawi.

Today these greetings and good wishes reach you, through us, from Jerusalem, the Mother Church of all Churches, and from the Holy Land, where our Lord Jesus Christ was born and from the Middle East, cradle of Christianity.

I greet you in the name of the Church of the East, Church of the Arabs, and in the name of my colleagues, the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches, who constitute the Council of Eastern Catholic Patriarchs.

Personally, I am very happy at how the ecclesial, brotherly communion between our two (Ukrainian Greek Catholic and Melkite Greek Catholic) Churches has developed, largely due to a long-standing friendship (of more than twenty years) with our dear brother and friend, His Most Eminent Beatitude Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, that great hero of the Christian East, its tradition, heritage and ecumenical mission! He will always be known as a Father of this Church of yours and a great defender of the ecumenical mission of the Eastern Catholic Churches, that are in full communion with the Church of Rome that presides in charity and with the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, (who showed his love for the Christian East by holding the Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops), while remaining faithful to the Eastern tradition and maintaining cordial relations with the Orthodox Churches that are our sisters, ever present in all ecumenical work.

We have come to strengthen our brotherly communion with this Church that we love and respect, through you, dear brother, Your Beatitude, Sviatoslav! I think that the Melkite Greek Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church are both called to play a very significant role in ecumenical work, since they are the two largest Churches of the Byzantine rite (Greek and Slavonic) in communion with Rome.

We shall remain in contact with each other, since we ought to integrate our efforts for that greatest service to the Church and to the world, which is to realise Christ’s prayer, “That they may be one…that the world may believe.”

Axios! Eis polla eti, Sevasmiotate! Makariotate, mnohaya lita!

Gregorios III

Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
Of Alexandria and of Jerusalem

Remembering Death

As Christians we are constantly living in world of materialism, secularism, and atheism. We are told to we need to have the best clothes and lots of money for only in this can we be happy. We never remember that we are all going to one-day fall asleep (the Byzantine Catholic/Orthodox term for passing away). Modern society tells us not to think about this but to have it all before we die.

As Christians we must always remember death. We know that one day we will face our creator and be judged by our life we live. Christians must always been keenly aware of this and repent of their sins so that we may obtain the homeland of our hearts desires- Paradise aka Heaven. Having a peaceful, sincere remembrance of death will help us repent of our sins and live a peaceful Christian life. To help me have a peaceful remembrance of death I have been listing to the Eulogetaria for the Dead from the Eastern Christian (both Orthodox & Catholic) funeral service. It is beautiful and really made me aware of our lives goal as Christians- eternal life with God in Paradise.

Eulogetaria for the Dead

Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.

The Choir of the Saints has found the Fountain of Life, and the Door of Paradise. May I also find the way through repentance: the sheep that was lost am 1; call me up to You, O Savior, and save me.

If there are more than three priests, each repeats after each “troparion “: “Let us pray to the Lord,” followed by “For You are the Resurrection and the Life.”

Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.

You Who of old did fashion me out of nothingness, and with Your Image divine did honor me; but because of transgression of Your commandments did return me again to the earth where I was taken; lead me back to be refashioned into that ancient beauty of Your Likeness.

Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statute..

Image am I of Your unutterable glory, though I bear the scars of my stumblings. Have compassion on me, the work of Your hands, O Sovereign Lord, and cleanse me through Your loving kindness; and the homeland of my heart’s desire bestow on me by making me a citizen of Paradise.

Blessed are You, O Lord; teach me Your statutes.

Give rest, O God, unto Your servant, and appoint for him (her) a place in Paradise; where the choirs of the Saints, O Lord, and the just will shine forth like stars; to Your servant that is sleeping now do You give rest, overlooking all his (her) offenses.

Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

The Trinal Radiance of One Godhead with reverent song acclaiming let us cry; Holy are You, O Eternal Father, and Son also Eternal, and Spirit Divine; shine with Your light on us who with faith adore You; and from the fire eternal rescue us.

Both now and ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Hail, O Gracious Lady, that in the flesh bears God for salvation of all; and through whom the human race has found salvation: through You may we find Paradise, Theotokos, our Lady pure and blessed.

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia; Glory to You, O God.

Tone 8

With the Saints give rest, O Christ, to the soul of servant where there is not pain, nor any sorrow, nor any sighing, but Life everlasting.

An Edifying article on vocations and discipleship

Fr. Robert, my parish Priest sent me this article. It relates to vocations (clerical, married, religious/monastic life, and the single life) and discipleship. Written by a Roman Catholic Priest, Fr. Damian Ference. I found it to be very edifying to me as a Young Adult director and also as a man living out the vocation of marriage.  I have posted below a few of my favorite quotes from the article. 

 The vocation of marriage has taken the worst beating, as over half of the marriages in our country end up in divorce, Catholic marriages included.

This for me as a young married man is worrisome. Marriage is about sacrifice and martyrdom. How many marriages could be saved by remembering the sacrificial love of Christ on the Cross and how we living the vocation of marriage are called to show that love of Christ to our spouse.  Father sums out the root of the problem with vocations here. 

The root of our current vocation problem is a lack of discipleship. Of course, a disciple is one who encounters Jesus, repents, experiences conversion and then follows Jesus. All too often those of us in positions of Church leadership presume that all the folks in the pews on Sundays, all the children in our grade schools, high schools and PSR programs, all the kids in our youth groups, all the men in our Men’s Clubs and all the women in our Women’s Guilds, and all the members of our RCIA team are already disciples. Many are not. (The same can be said of staffs and faculties of Catholic institutions.) Our people may be very active in the programs of our parishes, schools and institutions, but unfortunately, such participation does not qualify for discipleship.First, an important principle to keep in mind is that  disciples beget disciples. In other words, if we are really serious about fostering better marriages, holier priests, more devoted religious, and generally a more faithful and dedicated Church, then those of us who are already married, ordained, and consecrated, and who identify ourselves as Catholics must take a good, hard look at our own lives and evaluate how our discipleship measures up. How long has it been since we last experienced real conversion and transformation? How often do we repent of our sins? Do we really allow Jesus to rule our lives, or have we fallen into the ancient trap of Pelagianism, ultimately believing that we save ourselves? Do we really know Jesus? Do we allow him to really know us? These questions are important ones, for unless we as a Church can offer true models and exemplars of discipleship with our own lives, very few will seriously consider living the kind of life we live.

 

The inspiration to consider a vocation rarely comes from vocation literature; it comes from real people living out their vocations in the real world. In order to know what it means to be a good family, a good priest, a good religious, and a good Catholic, one needs to have living, breathing examples of each. I would have never considered the priesthood if I had not known some great priests as I was growing up; the seminarians I teach continue to tell the same story about their call. Disciples beget disciples—good marriages beget good marriages, good religious beget good religious, good priests beget good priests, and good Catholics beget good Catholics. When discipleship is modeled well, it becomes an invitation for others to become disciples themselves.

  

Second, we need to reevaluate how our parish groups, ministries, and programs operate. We have to ask if these groups are truly fostering discipleship, or if they are simply social groups that happen to meet on parish grounds.

  

 

I had never thought of this before- that the Churches vocation problem is a problem of discipleship.  How then does Father suggest we make disciples?  Fr. Damian gives an example of this in practice.

 

Let us take the example of a parish youth group to serve as a microcosm for our current situation. A youth group has a similar structure to most parish groups, in that most parish groups identify themselves in four ways: spiritual, service-oriented, social and catechetical. For a parish youth group to be what it is supposed to be, the first priority of the group must be to make disciples of young people who do not know Jesus, and to make stronger disciples of the ones who already know him. Such a suggestion seems quite basic and even simplistic at first glance, but this is precisely the point. Far too often we as a Church have failed with the most basic principle of discipleship while loading up on service projects and social activities, and the parish youth group becomes just one more line on a young person’s college résumé, without ever calling that young person to real conversion. 

It is true that young people tend to stay out of trouble while socializing with peers from the parish, and that service projects help build character and allow young people to move beyond themselves, but without being disciples, such activities never allow for true transformation and human flourishing. Over and over again we as a Church have fallen into the subtle trap of settling for results that can be easily calculated, photographed, and documented in a parish bulletin or website, rather than getting down to the basics of discipleship. Granted, opportunities for socializing and service projects are goods that the Church offers young people, but young people can find these goods outside the Church as well, which is why youth groups that don’t get beyond social gatherings and service projects aren’t very good youth groups. A youth group that is primarily about the work of making disciples is another story indeed. 

Youth groups that are filled with disciples and are about making new disciples are youth groups that allow their young people an opportunity to fall in love with Jesus. Again, I realize such a claim seems simplistic and perhaps a bit pious, but nonetheless it is true. Coming to know Jesus is foundational; not just knowing his ideas or teachings or his history, but really coming to know him. If a youth group is able to offer a young person an opportunity to know Jesus, to know transcendence, intimacy, depth, and a real sense of mystery and being part of a something greater than himself, it will be hard to find a space big enough to gather the young people together. 

If youth ministers and, more specifically, priests take the time to teach their young people how to pray alone, in community, liturgically, before the Blessed Sacrament, with an icon or crucifix, in nature, with Scripture, or with a journal, disciples will emerge. Don’t be fooled; young people desire to learn to pray and to pray well, and they want their leaders to teach them.

Moreover, it’s all too common that those working with youth soft-step around difficult or controversial Church teachings in an attempt not to drive young people away. Gone are the days of young people defining themselves as liberal or conservative Catholics. The stakes are much higher today: either you believe in God or you don’t. As the Southern novelist Walker Percy said upon his Catholic conversion, these days it is either “Rome or Hollywood,” there is no more middle ground. As such, young people want to be challenged. They want to think and understand and wrestle with big ideas. So why not spend time teaching them about the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Paschal Mystery, the Liturgy, and the Last Things? It is no secret that the Church’s teachings on sexuality are counter-cultural, but this is precisely the draw for so many young people—that the human person is more than simply an object of pleasure, and that there is something beautiful about God’s creating us male and female, in his image and likeness, and that there is a divine plan for the way we express ourselves.

When young people come to know Jesus, they will develop a deeper appreciation for the Eucharist. And when young people finally find their identity in the Eucharist (and not a pizza party, bowling or laser tag), young people will naturally want to socialize and do service projects, because these activities will flow out of their discipleship. When their lives are formed by the self-giving love of Jesus in the Eucharist, they will want to make themselves a gift for others, and their service projects will take on new meaning as acts of justice. Once young people become disciples, they will want to come to Mass, to spend time at the parish, to serve those in need, to gather for recreation, and to read good books and articles about the faith, and to really help build the Kingdom of God. But none of this can ever happen without the most foundational, and often forgotten, principle of discipleship.

Take any parish group or any Church institution and apply the discipleship principle, and the story will be the same as it is with the youth group. No matter how well-crafted a mission statement is, or how well group facilitators have been trained, or how well-developed a program may be, no matter how much time and effort and money was put into a lesson plan, workshop, meeting, or retreat, it is all for naught without discipleship. We may get things done, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that things are being done for the sake of the kingdom. 

The real sign of discipleship ultimately shows up in vocations. So why don’t vocations programs seem to work? Because vocation programs all too often presume their target audience to be disciples, and many arenot yet there. The real remedy to our vocation problem isn’t a bigger and better vocation program. Rather, the remedy will be found at the most basic level of discipleship, the universal call to holiness: knowing Jesus. Once people come to know Jesus, repent of their sin, experience conversion, and become disciples, they will naturally draw others to follow him too, in whatever vocation they are called.

Disciples beget disciples. If more married couples, priests, religious and faithful begin to take discipleship seriously, there won’t be a vocation problem, because ultimately our vocation problem is a lack of discipleship. The solution to this problem is so fundamental that is often overlooked and misdiagnosed, but the remedy is as old as the Gospel itself. If we, as Christ’s Church, take the call to discipleship and evangelization more seriously, the vocation problem will be lessened. Let us continue to pray for reform and renewal and, ultimately, for the Holy Spirit’s pouring himself out on his holy Church, the Bride of Christ.

 

I feel that this is a challenge that the young generation of Catholics are ready and willing to take up. We need to challenge our youth (myself included) to become more committed disciples of the Lord and then we will beget more disciples. Marriage, the Priesthood, the religious life, and the single life will be sanctified by the Love of Christ show by his disciples who take up their cross and follow him in their God given vocation. 

 

 

(Source: hprweb.com)