Agape Magazine - October 2014

8/11/2019 Agape Magazine - October 2014

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No. 1 1 October 2014


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Agape, Church Monthly

St. Joseph Ukrainian

Greek-Catholic Church

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Agape, the name of this

magazine, is an ancient

Greek term we use to refer

to Gods unfathomable,

sacrificial, active, and

caring love.

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5000 N. Cumberland Ave.

Chicago, Illinois 60656

United States of America

[email protected]

office 773.625.4805

rectory 773.625.4806

fax 773.887.5000

Contents

page 3, . 3

- - The Myth of A Post-Soviet Ukraine - Patriarch Sviatoslav in Ukrainian

page 4, . 4

- TheUkrainians.orgA military chaplain during war - theukrainians.org in Ukrainian

page 11, . 11

Fr. Stepan Sus - Evangelizing Soldiers

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page 14, . 14

Healing in the Parish and the World - Met. Kallistos Ware

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page 20, . 21

Despite Moscow, Ecumenical dialogue Goes Forward

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October Holy Days

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Fathers of the Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra

Protection of the Mother of God


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No. 1 12 October 201412

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A prayer to the Holy Mother of God for the intention of Ukrainian

soldiers: O Holy Mother of God, we fervently cry out to you, protect ou

soldiers by covering them with your divine veil, and deliver them from

every form of evil.

Please be generous and contribute to the Heroes Support Fund at

Selfreliance FCU #164010. This financial assistance for the needs of

Ukrainian soldiers is distributed by the pastor of the Garrison Church o

Saints Peter and Paul, Father StePan Sus.


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No. 1 13 October 201413

Fr. Stepan Sus.ather Stepan Sus is the directorof the Center for Military Chap-laincy of the Ukrainian Catholic

Archeparchy of Lviv, Ukraine.He has also helped establishchaplaincy programs for chil-dren living in orphanages andother state-run institutions andfor students at state-run collegesand universities.

Father Sus recalls a touching instancein his ministry: Once the commander senttwo cadets to clean the floor in the militarychapel. This was when we were repairingthe church and there was a lot to clean up.These two guys did not really want to go tochurch, let alone to clean up, because theywere not religious. But they had to listen totheir commander, and so they came. I re-member that they didnt help us very muchthat first day. But they asked a lot of ques-tions, like Why go to church? and Whatis prayer? They really like working in thechurch and they asked their commander ifthey could be assigned to clean up in thechapel as long as the repair work contin-ued. After a month or so their attitude to-ward the church changed quite a bit.

Later they even went to confession andreceived Communion. I spoke with one ofthem, who said some very fine words tome: I am, he said, grateful to my com-mander, because once he made me taketwo steps and clean up the chapel.

A lot of the guys laughed at me, be-cause they knew that I never went tochurch, even though I had a reputation as agood cadet. But those two steps changedmy live entirely, and now I know how topray and I can help others find their way to

the church. Father Sus has evangelizedmany young men, including some bap-tisms.

He graduated from the UkrainianCatholic University and Holy Spirit Semi-nary in 2006.

At left: Fr. Sus on the front lines of the con-flict in Eastern Ukraine, presiding over afuneral, and visiting a wounded soldier.

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No. 1 15 October 201415


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No. 1 16 October 201416

vice, Lord, the hands thatholy things have taken.So, we are not only to seeChrist in all human per-sons, but we are to serveChrist in all human per-sons.

Let us reflect on whathappened at the Last Sup-per. First there was the

Eucharistic meal, whereChrist blessed bread andgave it to the disciples,This is my body, and heblessed the cup, This ismy blood. Then, after theEucharistic meal, Christkneels and washes the feetof his disciples. The Eu-charistic meal and the footwashing are a single mys-tery. So, we have to applythat to ourselves. We goout from the Liturgy towash the feet of our fellowhumans, literally and sym-bolically. That is how Iunderstand the words atthe end of the Liturgy,Let us go forth in peace.Peace is to be somethingdynamic within this bro-ken world. Its not just aquality that we experiencewithin the church walls.

Lets remind ourselvesof the way in which St.John Chrysostom envis-ages this liturgy after theLiturgy. There are, hesays, two altars. There is,in the first place, the altarin church, and towards thisaltar we show deep rever-ence. We bow in front ofit. We decorate it with sil-

ver and gold. We cover itwith precious hangings.But, continues St. John,there is another altar, analtar that we encounterevery day, on which wecan offer sacrifice at anymoment. And yet towardsthis second altar, an altarwhich God himself has

made, we show no rever-ence at all. We treat it withcontempt. We ignore it.And what is this secondaltar? It is, says St. JohnChrysostom, the poor, thesuffering, those in need,the homeless, all who arein distress. At any mo-ment, he says, when yougo out from the church,there you will see an altaron which you can offersacrifice, a living altarmade by Christ.

Developing the mean-ing of the command, Letus go forth in peace, letus think of the Liturgy as ajourney, Fr. AlexanderSchmemanns key imagefor the Liturgy. We maydiscern in the Liturgy amovement of ascent and ofreturn. That kind of move-

ment actually happensvery frequently. We cansee it in the lives of thesaints, such as Antony ofEgypt or Seraphim ofSarov. First, in the move-ment of ascent, if you like,or flight from the world,they go out into the desert,into the wilderness, intosolitude, to be alone with

God. But then there is amoment of return. Theyopen their doors to theworld, they receive allwho come, they ministerand they heal.

There is a similarmovement of ascent withinthe Liturgy. We go tochurch. Its pleasant to go

there; though some peoplemust use cars, I like towalk from my home tochurch before the DivineLiturgy, to walk alone if Ican. Its only about tenminutes, but I find it quiteimportant to have thatmovement, a sense of go-ing to church, a sense, ifyou like, of a separation

from the world and start-ing on a journey. I walk tochurch, and I enter thechurch building, into a sacred space and sacredtime. This is the beginninof the movement of as-cent: we go to the churchThen, continuing themovement of ascent, we

bring to the altar gifts ofbread and wine and offerthem to Christ. The movement of ascent is com-pleted when Christ accepthis offering, consecratesit, makes the bread andwine to be his body andblood.

After the ascent comesthe return. The bread andwine that we offered toChrist, he then gives backto us in Holy Communionas his body and blood.

But the movement ofreturn doesnt stop there.Having received Christ inthe Holy Gifts, we then gout from the church, goinback to the world to shareChrist with all thosearound us.

Lets develop this ideaa little. Receiving Christ

body, we become what heis. We become the body oChrist. But gifts are forsharing. We becomeChrists body not for our-selves but for others. Webecome Christs body inthe world and for theworld. So the Eucharistimpels believers to spe-cific action in society, ac-


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No. 1 17 October 201417

tion that will be challeng-ing and prophetic. TheEucharist is the start ofcosmic transfiguration,and each communicantshares in this transfiguringwork.

Our title suggest a con-nection between peace andhealing in the parish and

the world, and I cant pos-sibly deal with all thethings suggested by it. Butlet me, in light of the bitabout Let us go forth inpeace, pose a few ques-tions about the differentlevels of Eucharistic heal-ing and transfiguration inthe world.

First a question aboutour parish life. Perhapsthis is not true everywhere,

but its true of some par-ishes Ive known. Ive of-ten wondered why our par-ish council meetings, andmore particularly the an-nual general meetings ofparishes, are such a disap-pointment? To me itsvery surprising that oftentheres a rather dark spiritat work in the annual gen-eral meetings of parishes.The picture given of ourparish life is actuallydeeply misleading. All thegood things seem to behiddenperhaps thats asit should bebut we get avery distorted picture.There seems often to be anatmosphere of tension andhostility at annual generalmeetings in parishes.

Ive often wonderedwhy that is. How to bringa truly Eucharistic spiritinto such gatherings? Howcan we bring the peace ofthe Divine Liturgy into theother aspects of our parishlife? I dont have an easyanswer, but I think behindthis first question there

lurks another question.How can we make the Di-vine Liturgy more mani-festly a shared and corpo-rate action? In my ownexperience, the parishwhere I am, we beganworshiping just in a room,and at that time it was notdifficult to have a very

strong feeling of the Lit-urgy as a unified action inwhich everybody wassharing because we wereall so close to one another,and there was only a fewof us.

Some of the most mov-ing Liturgies Ive ever at-tended have not been in

churches with great marblefloors and huge candelabrabut in small house chapelsin a room or even in a ga-rage. Now, gradually ourcommunity has grown.Twenty-five years ago, webuilt ourselves a church,and now that church is toosmall and were workingtowards enlarging thechurch in order to be ableto have room for all the

worshipers. Now that is, ina sense, encouraging, butthere is a real strugglehere. As a parish growslarger and as it acquires alarger building, it becomesmuch harder to preservethe corporate spirit, thesense of a single family,the sense of all of us doingsomething together. It be-comes much harder to pre-serve that.

I havent any easy an-swers, but that is one levelon which I ask, How canwe bring peace and heal-ing into a communitythats growing ever larger,and therefore that is boundto lose its sense of closecoherence, unless westruggle to preserve it?

There is another levelof healing that occurs tome quite frequently at theDivine Liturgy. We oftenhave present non-Orthodox Christians andwe are not able to givethem Holy Communion bythe rules of our Church.Now, Im sure all of you

have reflected on the rea-sons why the OrthodoxChurch takes this straightline over inter-communion. The act ofCommunion, we say, in-volves our total acceptanceof the faith. It involves ourtotal life in the Church.Therefore we cannot sharein Communion with otherChristians whohowevermuch we may love them

we recognize as holding adifferent understanding ofthe Christian faith, and aretherefore divided from us.

This is, we know, theargument why we cannothave inter-communion.But I think we should con-stantly ask ourselves if weare right to take this posi-tion? In fact I think we are,but I would say go on ask-ing yourself in your heartif its the right thing to do.We Orthodox are becom-ing increasingly isolatedon this issue. In my youngdays, most Anglicanswould have taken the sameview, and would have saidthey could not have Com-munion with Protestants.Thats certainly not the


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No. 1 18 October 201418

case now in the AnglicanChurch. Also, RomanCatholics held this viewvery strictly, but sinceVatican II, whatever theofficial regulations maybe, in the practice of theRoman Catholic Churchthere is widespread inter-communion. But we Or-

thodox continue as wewere. Are we right? And ifwe do continue to uphold astrict line on inter-communion, in what spiritare we doing this? Is it in aspirit of peace and heal-ing?

I remember at the be-ginning of my time aspriest, the first occasion,and I still feel the woundinwardly, when personscame up for Communionwhom I knew were notOrthodox. I felt that it wasmy duty as priest not togive them Communion. Iwas really interested in thereaction of two differentparishioners. One said tome, You did quite right!We cannot give Commun-ion to these heretics. TheOrthodox Church is the

one true church. He sawthat in triumphalist terms.That made me feel evenworse. But then anotherparishioner came up, andhe said, in a very differenttone of voice, Yes, youwere right, but how tragic,how sad, that we had to dothis. Then I thought, yes,we do have to do this, but

we should never do it in anaggressive spirit of superi-ority but always with asense of deep sorrow inour hearts. We shouldmind very much that wecannot yet have Commun-ion together. Incidentally,both of those two parish-

ioners are now Orthodoxpriests themselves. I thinkthe first one, over theyears, has grown a littleless triumphalist. I hopewe all do, but Im not surewhether that always hap-pens.

Then Id like to reflecton a third level of healing.

Let me take as my basishere the words said justbefore the Epiclesis, theinvocation of the HolySpirit, at the heart of theLiturgy. The deacon liftsthe Holy Gifts, and thecelebrant says, Yours ofYour own, we offer. Andin usual translation, it con-tinues, in all and for all.But that translation couldbe misleading. It could beunderstood as meaningfor all human persons, foreveryone. In fact inGreek, it is not masculine,it is neuterfor in allthings, and for all things.At that moment, we do notjust speak about humanpersons, we speak aboutall created things. A moreliteral translation wouldbe, In all things and for

all things.This shows us that theliturgy after the Liturgyinvolves service not just toall persons, but ministry tothe whole creation, to allcreated things. The Eucha-rist, thus, commits us to anecological healing. That isunderlined in the words ofFr. Lev: Peace of the

whole world. It means,says Fr. Lev, peace notjust for humans, but allcreaturesfor animals andvegetables, stars, for allnature. Cosmic piety andcosmic healing. Ecologyhas become mildly fash-ionable and often has quitestrong political associa-

tions. We Orthodox, alongwith other Christians, musinvolve ourselves fully onbehalf of the environmentbut we must do so in thename of the Divine Lit-urgy. We must put ourecological witness in thecontext of Holy Commun-ion.

Im very much encour-aged by the initiativestaken recently by the Ecu-menical Patriarchate ofConstantinople. Twentysome years ago, the thenEcumenical Patriarch De-metrios issued a Christmaencyclical saying thatwhen we celebrate the In-carnation of Christ, histaking of a human body,we should also see that asGods blessing upon thewhole creation. We should

understand the incarnationin cosmic terms. He goeson in his encyclical to callall of us to show, and Iquote, towards the crea-tion an ascetic and Eucha-ristic spirit. An asceticspirit helps us distinguishbetween wants and needs.The real point being notwhat I want.


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No. 1 19 October 201419

The real point, then, iswhat I need. I want a greatmany things that I dont infact need. The first steptowards cosmic healing isfor me to make a distinc-tion between the two, andas far as possible, to stickjust to what I need. Peoplewant more and more.

Thats going to bring dis-aster on ourselves if we goon selfishly increasing ourdemands. But we dont infact need more and moreto be truly human. Thatswhat I understand to de-fine an ascetic spirit. Fast-ing indeed can help us todistinguish between whatwe want and what weneed. Good to do withoutthings, because then we

realize that, yes, we canuse them, but we can alsoforego them, we are notdependent on materialthings. We have freedom.

If we have a Eucharisticspirit, we realize all is agift to be offered back inthanksgiving to God theGiver. Developing thistheme, the EcumenicalPatriarch Demetrios, fol-lowed by his successor,the present Patriarch Bar-tholomew, have dedicatedthe first of September, theNew Year in the Orthodoxcalendar, as a day of crea-tion, when we give thanksto God for his gifts, whenwe ask forgiveness for theway we have misusedthose gifts, and when we

pray that we may beguided for the right use ofthem in the future. Theres

a phrase that often comesto my mind from the spe-cial service When in dan-ger of earthquake. Theearth, though withoutwords, yet cries aloud,Why, all peoples, do youinflict upon me suchevil? And we are inflict-ing great evil on the earth.

Interesting to see earth-quakes as the earth groan-ing because of what we doto it!

Finally, I ask you tothink for a moment aboutone of our Gospel read-ings. What happens whenthe risen Christ on the firstEaster Sunday appears to

his disciples? Christ saysfirst to the disciples,Peace be unto you. Thefirst thing that Christspeaks after rising fromthe dead is peace. Thenwhat does he do? Heshows them his hands andhis side. Why does he dothat? For recognition. Yes,to show that here he is, theone whom they saw threedays before crucified; here

he is, risen from the deadin the same body in whichhe suffered and died. Buttheres surely more to itthan that. What he is doingis showing that, though heis risen from the dead, yethe still bears upon him themarks of his suffering. Inthe heart of the risen andglorified Christ, there isstill a place for our humansuffering. When Christrises from the dead andascends into heaven, hedoes not disengage himselffrom this broken world.On the contrary, he stillcarries on his body themarks of his suffering andhe carries in his heart allour burdens. When he saysbefore his ascension, See

I am with you, even to theend of the world, surelyhe means, I am with youin your distress and inyour suffering. Glorified,he is still with us. He hasnot rejected our suffering,nor disassociated himselffrom us.

We see from the Gospel

how peace goes with crossbearing. Having givenpeace to his disciples, therisen Christ immediatelyshows them the marks ofthe Cross. Peace meanshealing and wholeness, butwe have to add, peace alsomeans vulnerability.Peace, we might say, does-nt mean the absence ofstruggle or temptation orsuffering. As long as we

are in this world, we are toexpect temptation and suf-fering. As St. Antony ofEgypt said, Take awaytemptation and nobodywill be saved. So peacedoesnt mean the absenceof struggle, but peacemeans commitment, firm-ness of purpose, clarity ofvision, an undivided heart,and a willingness to bearthe burdens of others.When Paul says, See, Ibear in my body themarks, the stigmata, ofChrist crucified, he is de-scribing his state ofpeace.

Kallistos Ware is Titular Met-ropolitan of Diokleia underthe Patriarchate of Constan-tinople. He lives in England.


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uring his stay at the Council ofthe UGCC in Poland, which

takes place in the city of Przemysl,Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh, secre-tary of the Synod of Bishops of theUGCC, commented to RISU onthe recent statement of representa-

tives of the Moscow Patriarchateon the latters willingness to returnto the issue of "Uniatism" withinthe Catholic-Orthodox theologicaldialogue. This proposal, as re-

ported by Russian media, was putforward by the Russian delegationduring the last meeting of theCommission in Amman, Jordan.

According to Bishop Dzy-urakh, there is always a lot ofnegativity in trying to raise the is-sue of so-called "Uniatism": "it isalways referred to as a bloodywound on the body of Christianityand as something to be done with.I think that such rhetoric has nofuture, as it suggests that weshould do something with a certaingroup of Christians, or rather dosomething so they cease to exist.This is not a positive proposal, it isnot a proposal that may be devel-oped and give rise to a good, crea-tive and fruitful dialogue. In order

for the dialogue to be fruitful andconstructive, it must take place inlove. And love requires respect forthe rights of each party con-cerned."

Commenting on the possibil-ity of returning to this issue withinan official dialogue betweenCatholics and Orthodox, BishopBohdan expressed his convictionthat it should be returned to in a

positive format rather than negatone: We are inviting to the dlogue to find new formats of unPerhaps, the methods that wused 400 years ago now loanachronistic, but the idea of undoes not come either from the H

See or from a particular groupChristians this is the commament of Christ, a gospel postulaSo we have no choice here. For choice here is to follow Christ,go to unity or maintain this tradissent. I see that the authoritatrepresentatives of the OrthodChurch in the person of the Paarch of Constantinople understoit and along with the Pope widrew the mutual anathemas thad emerged as a result of humsinfulness and ambitions.

I think that it does not masense to continue the dialogue i

polemical manner. For polemicomes from polemos that mewar in Greek. In our case, thiswar on religious grounds. Wshould rather seek and offer nmodels of unity. Regarding statements of the Moscow Patrichate representatives to turn bto the issue of Uniatism wit

the theological dialogue. As far aknow, this proposal was not s

ported by the Commission mebers. This suggests that those ware looking for true dialogue thin a positive way. And this giveshope that the ecumenical dialogis moving forward despite the vaous difficult moments of crisconcluded the Secretary of Synod of Bishops of the UGCC.

DESPITE EFFORTS OF

The MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE,

ECUMENICAL DIALOGUE GOES FORWARD

Bishop Bohdan Dziurakh

ECUMENICALRELATIONS

D


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No. 1 22 October 201422

CHICAGOThe world-renowned Ukrainian Bandur-ist Chorus will host aBandura Christmas fund-raiser in Chicago on Saturday,December 6th, 2014. Thefundraiser will feature per-formances of traditionalUkrainian winter music,Western Christmas classics,and selections from the Cho-rus new repertoire honoringthe 200thbirthday of poet and

n a t i o n a l h e r o T a r a sShevchenko. The concert willtake place at our church at7pm with a reception follow-ing in the church hall. Ticketsfor the concert only are $25,and tickets for the concert andreception are $65.

Celebrating its 96th con-secutive concert season, theall-Male Ukrainian BanduristChorus has a long and proud

history of representing thebandura and Ukrainian choralmusic on the international

State Prize, the highest awardthat can be bestowed for ex-cellence in the contribu-tion to the arts.

As a special sign of grati-tude, the Ukrainian BanduristChorus will also be singingthe responses to the 9:30 amDivine Liturgy from theirGolden Echoes of Kyivrepertoire. Sung in a tradi-tional a capella setting, theChorus rendition of the lit-urgy evolves as a sonic meta-morphosis from traditionalchant, through polyphony,then finally discovering 300years of Ukrainian sacredmusic. The Chorus' liturgicalrepertoire features composers

such as Dyletskiy, Bere-zovsky, Koshyts, Bort-niansky, Stetsenko, Leon-tovych, Verbytsky, Kytasty,Lysenko, and Hnatyshyn.

The Chorus will also behosting open auditions fol-lowing the Divine Liturgy.

stage. Boasting a repertoire ofmore than 500 songs, this in-ternationally celebrated andaward-winning ensemble hascaptivated audiences in majorconcert halls in the UnitedStates, Canada, Europe, Aus-tralia, and Ukraine since im-migrating to North Americafrom Europe in 1949. Theyhave also performed for suchnoted personalities as formerPresident Richard Nixon, for-

mer President Ronald Reagan,movie star Jack Palance, for-mer Presidents of UkraineLeonid Kravchuk and ViktorYushchenko. As a tribute toits role in preserving and per-petuating the legacy ofUkrainian music, the Choruswas selected by Ukraine'sCabinet of Ministers as therecipient of theTaras

ShevchenkoUkrainian

Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus to Host

Bandura Christmas

Fundraiser at our parish


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Liturgical Schedule

- Sundays:8:00am . /Divine Liturgy

/English9:30am . /DivineLiturgy

/Ukrainian

11:30am . /DivineLiturgy /Childrens

- Holy Days:9:00am . /DivineLiturgy6:30pm . /DivineLiturgy

- Eve of Feasts:6:30pm /

Great Vespers with Litia

- During the week:9:00am . /DivineLiturgy

/in the chapel

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Saturdays:9:00am . /DivineLiturgy /in church

. .

The mystery of Penance is available on

Sundays and Feast Days during

Divine Liturgies.


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Agape Magazine - October 2014

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