St. Luke Byzantine Catholic Church
Ruthenian Eparchy of Parma
Ruthenian Eparchy of Parma
Liturgies
Sunday Divine Liturgy at 10:00 am
Saturday Great Vespers at 4:30 pm
All Souls Days - Liturgy for the Deceased
Saturday, May 18 - Divine Liturgy at 9:00 am
Mystery of Repentance:
By appointment
To schedule an appointment, contact Fr. Michael at
Liturgy for the Deceased:
Contact Fr. Michael to offer a Divine Liturgy or Panachida for a deceased loved one.
Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearers is celebrated on the second Sunday after Pascha. This year it falls on April 14.
Liturgies:
Saturday, April 13 - Festal Vespers at 4:30 pm
Sunday, April 14 - Divine Liturgy at 10:00 am
The second Sunday after Pascha is the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearer Women. These women were disciples of Christ and accompanied Him when he was preaching. They went to the tomb to Our Lord’s tomb to anoint his body with myrrh oil and therefore are called the Myrrh-Bearers. They found an empty tomb and an angel appeared to an said to them: ‘’Why do seek the living One among the dead? Christ is Risen!”
The Icon the Myrrh-Bearer Women depicts the Myrrh-Bearers at the tomb of Christ with their flasks to anoint his body. An angel dressed in white sitting on a stone slab at the entrance to the tomb pointing to the white linen shroud in the tomb and proclaimed the resurrection.
Mark 16 1:8 tells us: And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome brought spices so that they may anoint Him. Very early, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb after the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, “Who will roll back the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” And looking up, they saw that was rolled back, for it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right side, dressed in a white robe and they were amazed. And he said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter the He is going to Galilee; there you will see him as he told you.” And they went out and fled the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.
Troparion (Tone 2):
The angel standing by the tomb cried out to the myrrh-bearing women, Myrrh is fitting for the dead, but Christ has shown himself not subject to corruption. So now cry out, The Lord is risen, bestowing great mercy upon the world.
Kontokian (Tone 2):
By your resurrection, O Christ our God, you told the myrrh-bearers to rejoice; and you stilled the weeping of Eve, the first mother. You commanded your apostles to proclaim: The Savior is risen from the tomb.
Pascha is celebrated on March 31 this year.
Liturgies:
Sunday, March 31
- Resurrection Matins at 8:30 am
- Diving Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom at 10:00 am
Followed by the Blessing of Easter Basketam
Saint John Chrysostom's Sermon on Easter
Three incredible wonders – not known from the beginning of time and beyond our natural understanding – are intertwined, and remain unbroken and immovable. For a triple-braid cord is not quickly ripped apart. These are: the virgin mother giving birth, the resurrection after the three-day passion, and the ascension of flesh into heaven. Time knows of a barren woman giving birth, but not without marital relation; it knows of dead who have come back to life, but not into life unending; it knows of a prophet taken up, but only as it were into heaven, that is ‘as if’, not in truth. For Elijah passed from place to place, but the Savior ascended, to whence he descended; while many men and women looked on, and grew weary gazing up at the sky, and angles bore witness to the spectacle, and disclosed the second coming; “And behold,” it is written, two men in white robes stood beside them and said; Men of Galilee, why do you stand there looking into the sky?”
Oh how much has the Good One accomplished for the salvation of wicked servants! He descended from heaven; he ascended into heaven; from heaven he will come again. How then, will he come? Not as some other divided hypostasis, but in the likeness of flesh, inhuman form; not however in a lowly manner as formerly – not sleeping in a boat, not detained by weariness from thirst next to a well, not seated on the colt of an ass – but carried by colts in the form of clouds; not bringing fishermen with him, but accompanied by a guard of angels; not standing before the judgement seat, but he himself will be judging the uttermost ends of the universe, granting judicial authority to the fishermen, as he himself taught the disciples, saying: “When the son of man will sit on this throne of glory, you will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” And to the Jews: “If I cast out demons by Beelzeboul, by whom then do your sons cast them out? For this reason, they will be your judges” – since those who were of the Jews, did not heed the things of the Jews, but preferred the sufferings of Christ, and the marks of their relatives, the slayers of the Lord.
What a great wonder! What a strange tribunal: to see a fisherman judging, and a Pharisee being judged, a tent maker boldly sitting as judge, and a high priest groaning, being convicted. Why then were they slapping the Master’s face, and punching him around the head, until in the end they murdered the heir outside the vineyard? Why did they imprison Peter? Why did they torture Paul five time with forty lashes less one? Yet the admirable high priest Ananias commanded his servant to strike Paul’s mouth, the mouth of Paul, the mouth of grace, the mouth of truth, the plectrum of life, the noblest of all trumpets, the most harmonious of all harmonies, the instrument of Christ, the flute of the Spirit; for those things which are known through the Holy Spirit, Paul made public with his tongue. And so, I think David was characterizing Paul when he wrote: “My tongue is the pen of a swift-writing scribe.” What then did Paul say to Ananias, foreseeing this impending judgement? “God will strike you, whitewashed wall!” For a whitewashed wall is an ornamented tomb; an enemy without, and dead within.
Since therefore the account of life’s actions and the universal court lies ahead, the demand of the work of the talents, the spurn of the mystical wedding, the illumination of the bridal chamber, the seed’s increase, the fruit of the vineyard, and all that he revealed to us through parables – let us weigh up our life, and change our ways, not acting like money-changers, or gold diggers, or predatory lenders – for these things the judge also rejects - but supporting the poor, practicing hospitality, calling on God and doing all that you know will soften the Judge’s wrath. Learn the profit of hospitality, looking to Abraham, reckoning on the benefit of the supplication of the Ninevites, considering Tabitha, the treasury of mercy, stretched out lifeless on the bed, about to be buried. But the widows surrounding Peter and showing him the dead woman’s gifts, pulled her up from Hades.
If then, widows’ tears brought life back to a dead body certain to have died again, what sort of good rewards to you think the judge is ready to give to those who habitually feed the poor with a generous hand and do not reject their testimony? For at that time the gift cannot be taken away, no longer will death interrupt, but life will continue unbroken. “For a trumpet will sound, “it is written, “and the dead in Christ” will rise “incorruptible” and unchangeable, in imitation of the Lord, And just as clouds carried him, so we too, in Paul’s words, “will be snatched up in the clouds.” And just as he ascended with a joyful shout and the sound of a trumpet, in the same manner, we also, at the sound of the archangel’s trumpet, will shake off the cloud of death like sleep, and be joined to the author of life. “And so,” he says, “we shall always be with him, “intent on the things of the Lord, keeping his commandments. May we all hear that blessed, esteemed voice: “Well done good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little, I will put you in charge over much, enter into the joy of your master.” To him be the glory and the power, into the ages of ages. Amen.
Troparion (Tone 4):
Through baptism we were buried with you, O Christ our God, and we have become worthy of immortal life by your resurrection. Therefore, we raise our voices in praise to you: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who come in the name of the Lord.
Kontakion (Tone 6):
In heaven you are seated upon a thrown, but on earth upon a colt, O Christ our God. You accepted the praise of angels and the song of the children crying out to you: Blessed is He who comes to restore Adam.
Click this link to access the music for the liturgies on the Metropolitan Cantor Institute website.
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