Ukrainian Catholic Parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary625 5th Avenue SW Moose Jaw SK S6H 5W2 (306) 692-9456

Fr. Yurij Lazurko, administrator693-6636 (home) 690-9709 (cell)

CHRIST IS AMONG US!HE IS AND WILL BE!

Sunday June 9, 2013Christ Lover of Mankind pg 33

Epistle: Hebrews 2:11-18 Gospel: John 3:13-17

ХРИСТОС ПОСЕРЕД НАС!І Є І БУДЕ!

Sun June 9 9:00 a.m. Moose Jaw for parishioners 1:00 p.m. Chaplin - graveside services Mon June 10 TBATues June 11 TBAWed June 12 TBAThurs June 13 NO LITURGYFri June 14 8:00 †Howard Fitzpatrick Int Bronie Huska/Peter HuskaSat June 15 NO LITURGYSun June 16 9:00 a.m. Moose Jaw

Opening Hymn: В страсі pg 2 (2 verses)Closing Hymn: May You Christ pg 45 (2 verses)

PRAY THE ROSARY DAILYPlease notify Fr. Yurij when someone is sick or hospi-talized in order that these people be visited in a timely manner.

Thought du jourRemember, when you are wishing your friends good health, you are wishing unemployment for doctors.I told my doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places.

EVENTS & THINGSPlease be mindful in your prayers of John Smuk, Jim Powaschuk, Terry Woloschuk, Anne Sahaidak, Anne Roma-nuk, Betty Lys, Steve Okraincee and Lawrence Gelleta and of all who are in the need of the gift of health.

Eparchial Lay Formation Program

A 2 year program - one weekend per month Sept - June - begining September 2013. It is run in conjunc-tion with the Saskatoon Di-ocesan program and the Aboriginal program. Some courses share the same per-sonnel; others are separate. Location is Queen’s House of Retreats, SaskatoonIf interested brochures are available from Fr. YurijCost: $1850/year with Epar-chy paying one half.Deadline for applications: July 31

Hodgeville PraznykSunday June 23 at 3 p.m.

Blessing of graves.District meeting.

If you are attending, please in-form Fr. Yurij so that the people would have some idea of num-bers.

Glentworth PraznykSunday August 11 at 3 p.m.

Please NoteThere is no Liturgy in Moose

Jaw on Sunday June 30

Remember!Next Sunday is Father’s Day

“What is the love of Christ?”

Answer: The phrase “love of Christ,” as opposed to “love for Christ, refers to the love that He has toward mankind. His love can be briefly stated as His willingness to act in our best interest, especially in meeting our greatest need, even though it cost Him everything and even though we were the least worthy of such love.

Though Christ Jesus, being God in nature, existed from the begin-ning of time with God the Father (John 1:1) and the Holy Spirit, He willingly left His throne (John 1:1-14) to become a man, that He might pay the penalty for our sin so that we would not have to pay for it for all eternity in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15). Because mankind’s sin has been paid for by our sinless Savior Je-sus Christ, God who is just and holy can now forgive our sins when we accept Christ Jesus’ payment as our own (Romans 3:21-26). Thus, Christ’s love is shown in His leaving His home in heaven, where He was worshipped and honored as He deserved, to come to earth as a man where He would be mocked, betrayed, beaten, and crucified on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin, rising again from the dead on the third day. He considered our need of a Savior from our sin and its penalty as more important than His own comfort and life (Philippians 2:3-8).

Sometimes people may give their lives willingly for ones they deem as worthy—a friend, a relative, other “good” people—but Christ’s love goes beyond that. Christ’s love extends to those most unworthy of it. He willingly took the punishment of those who tortured Him, hated Him, rebelled against Him, and cared nothing about Him, those who were most undeserving of His love (Romans 5:6-8). He gave the most He could give for those who deserved it the least! Sacrifice, then, is the essence of godly love, called agape love. This is God-like love, not man-like love (Matthew 5:43-48).

This love which He demonstrated toward us on the cross is just the beginning. When we place our trust in Him as our Savior, He makes us God’s children, co-heirs with Him! He comes to dwell within us through His Holy Spirit, promising that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5-6). Thus, we have a loving

Yorkton VidpustJune 20-23

Poster on bulletin board

to be continued

Acts of the Apostles (Acts) - continuedThe crowd becomes outraged, and the Roman tribune seizes Paul and flogs him. The tribune then has him brought before the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin, where Paul creates dissent by setting the two factions in the court, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, against each other. The tribune saves Paul from the ensuing riot, and, hear-ing of a Jewish plot against Paul’s life, sends him for his own pro-tection to Felix, the governor of Palestine, in Caesarea. At the trial in Caesarea, Paul professes to worship God and adhere to Jewish law. He claims that it is only because of his belief in the resurrec-tion of the dead—a belief not shared by the Sadducees—that he is on trial. Hearing that Paul collects and distributes alms, Felix holds him in jail for two years, hoping for a bribe. After Felix’s death, Paul is tried before the new governor, Festus. Paul appeals to Cae-sar’s judgment, and Festus—who does not believe Paul guilty, but who wants to appease the Jews calling for his execution—resolves to send him to Caesar, in Rome. First, however, Paul is brought before Herod Agrippa, the Jewish puppet-king of Palestine. Again, Paul recounts the story of his vision of Jesus and conversion to Christianity, and argues that his missionary activity is merely a fulfillment of Jewish hopes and Old Testament prophecies. King Herod Agrippa is impressed, but Paul is sent to Rome. On the way to Rome, Paul’s ship is wrecked, and through a series of sailing mishaps it takes months to arrive at Rome. Awaiting his hearing at Rome, Paul begins to spread the Gospel to the Roman Jews, who disbelieve him. He turns his emphasis again toward the Gentiles, and as Acts ends, Paul is in Rome, “teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (28:31).AnalysisActs of the Apostles demonstrates the importance of missionary work in the early church. The book begins with the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to his disciples, who are anxious for the final redemption. The apostles demand of Jesus, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (1:6). Jesus responds by charging them to concern themselves not with the Apocalypse, but with spreading the Gospel on Earth: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (1:7–8). It is through Paul, the great early missionary of the church, that Acts drama-tizes the fulfillment of Jesus’s command, the spreading of the Gos-pel across the known world. Paul dominates the second half of Acts and, more than any other figure, dictates the trajectory of the church’s rise. Acts begins with Peter and the apostles in Jerusalem; it ends, years later, with Paul in Rome. Paul’s final words are an apt summary of the direction in which he leads the missionary church in the vital first decades of its existence: “Let it be known to you then,” he says to the Jews of Rome, “that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen” (28:28).The ending of Acts in Rome foreshadows the eventual transition of the church to that city. Acts is the story of the church’s turn away from Jerusalem and toward Antioch, Ephesus, and Rome.

companion for life. And no matter what we go through, He is there, and His love is ever available to us (Rom 8:35). But as He right-fully reigns as a benevolent King in heaven, we need to give Him the position He deserves in our lives as well, that of Master and not merely companion. It is only then that we will experience life as He intended and live in the fullness of His love.

Acts is filled with stories and speeches, but the dramatic arc that connects all of Acts of the Apostles is the church’s move, driven by Paul, toward a split with Judaism and an emphasis on converting Gentiles. It is in that move that Christianity becomes its own dis-tinct religion. Jesus and his followers consider themselves Jews, and Jesus’s message and teachings are the fulfillment of Jewish prophecies. It is evident from the first chapters of Acts that, in the first years after Jesus’s ascension, the apostles and their followers continued to consider themselves Jews, and to follow Jewish law. Peter and John, both of whom consider Jews the chosen people of God, are on their way to worship in the Jewish temple when they encounter the cripple. “You are the descendents of the prophets,” Peter tells a Jewish audience, “and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors. . . . When God raised up his servant [Jesus], he sent him first to you” (3:25–26).The early church controversy between the Hellenists and the He-brews introduces the first dissent within the church itself. The Hel-lenists are Jewish adherents to Jesus who were born into a Greek cultural background. They feel that the Hebrews, Jewish Chris-tians who were born into a Jewish cultural background and who adhere strictly to Jewish law, are discriminating against them. The apostles and disciples decide that unity is more important than conformity, and they accept the position of the Hellenists, even appointing Stephen and six others to minister to the Hellenists in the church. When Stephen breaks with Jewish tradition, however, he shows how Christianity is becoming increasingly incompatible with Judaism. Although Stephen is stoned to death, the Hellenists continue to move away from the Jewish focus of the church, bap-tizing Samaritans and an Ethiopian. A turning point for the church occurs when Peter himself receives a message from God: “God has shown me that I must not call anyone profane or unclean” (10:28). The message challenges one of the fundamental aspects of Juda-ism, the idea that Jews are a special population chosen by God. But God’s message to Peter indicates that Gentiles are no less clean than Jews, and therefore that “God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (11:18).The church in Antioch is founded immediately after the Jerusalem elders accept Peter’s rationale for baptizing a Gentile, thus laying the foundation for the Antioch church to become dominated by Gentile Christians. It also indicates the increasing degree to which followers of Jesus Christ are non-Jewish. The acceptance of Gen-tiles gives impetus to the move away from Jewish law and Judaism, and it signals the beginning of the move away from Jerusalem. In fact, at Antioch the disciples are first called Christians rather than Jews. Paul becomes the great Christian missionary to the Gentiles, traveling throughout Greece and Asia Minor and, while receiv-ing little welcome from the Jews, recruiting many Gentiles to the church. Paul and Barnabus say, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles” (13:46).The New Testament texts are not monolithic, or conveying only a single, objective perspective. The Book of Acts reveals that early Christianity was a highly dynamic movement, full of doctrinal and theological differences. Acts functions as a historical text in allow-ing us a unique insight into the transition of Christianity from a Jewish sect into its own religion.