On March 3rd the Great Lenten Journey to Pascha begins. Our thoughts are focused on the joy of the upcoming Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  However, the immeasurable joy of His Resurrection comes with our frequent participation in the services available to us. Although we must travel through the harrowing events that lead to this joy with fasting and prayer, Great Lent is not a season of morbidity and gloominess. It is a time to “cleanse our bodies as we cleanse our souls.” This is the time for reconciliation by confession and communion. This is the time to express our remorse for our sins by using our free will, given to us by our Father in heaven, to humbly approach the church with love and desire for His mercy.

This is the time to pray. One of the most meaningful and popular prayers of the Lenten Fasting period is the short prayer ascribed to one of the great teachers of spiritual life, St. Ephrem the Syrian. It follows:  

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth, Faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk. +

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servant. +

Yea, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors

And not to judge my brother; +

For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen

In this beautiful simple prayer, we hear of our own laziness, our negativism, our drive to become haughty and overbearing to others, and our willingness to speak out our sinful thoughts. Remember the verse in Matthew 15:18: “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.”  But in this same prayer we hear of the path to our salvation: chastity, humility, patience and love.

Chastity is our goal in every area of our life because the Lord strengthens and rewards us with power to overcome sin if we practice chastity in all we do.

St. Paul teaches in Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” We ae told that God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud.

Patience is truly a divine virtue. God is patient because He sees the depth of all that exists. The closer we come to God, the more patient we grow.

God is love. In this perfect love we find the salvation of man, “for God so loved the world, that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)    The word used for love in the New Testament is Agape. This is the expression for the perfect love which comes from God, which is poured into man’s heart, and which creates a new value in him. Agape is God’s perfect love, and is a pure and sacrificial love. The Cross of Christ stands as the highest manifestation of God’s love for man.

All this is summarized and brought together in the concluding petition of the Lenten prayer in which we ask "to see my own errors and not to judge my brother."   For ultimately there is but one danger: pride.   Pride is the source of evil, and all evil is pride.   Attainment of this high calling is impossible unless we, with God’s help, work out our own salvation with fear and trembling — judging, not our brother, but ourselves.

The above prayer is said on our knees as we prostrate three times. It is our sincere Lenten appeal to God who loves us dearly and wants us to humbly return to the church He has established for our salvation.

Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner.

Happy Birthday to all those celebrating in the month of March:  Valentina Franko on March 2;   Rosemarie Petro on March 2; Sonya Finno on March 3; Lydia Bzik on March 9; Amy Kovalycsik Talley on March 11; Scott Cahayla on March 13; Robert M. Czech on March 14; Nicholas Kovalycsik on March 20; Genevieve Bobenko on March 22 and Chris Bzik, March 28.    May God grant each of you Many Years!

Helen Baron, our food basket coordinator, asks that you remember your neighbors who are unable to provide for their families in this difficult time and donate to our food basket. Helen thanks all of you who have been so generous in the past and may God bless you all.

Memorial (Soul) Saturday  will be on March 15. There are six Memorial Saturdays this year: Feb 22; March 15, March 22; March 29; June 7 and October 25. Remembering departed relatives and others among the faithful who have fallen asleep in the Lord is an act of love that we should never neglect. A Panikhida on each of these days will be served. Make a list of those you want included in the services and leave the list in the Church Office or mail it to Father Maryan at the rectory. Attend these services to experience the beauty and meaning of these days in the place where our relatives and friends worshipped before they were laid to pious rest.