Sunday After Theophany
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
Sunday Before Theophany
January 5, 2025
Sat 1/11/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy Sunday After Theophany +Josephine Sychak by Nancy Collins
Sun 1/12/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy Sunday After Theophany +Ed Schott by Lynne and Hans Bergh
Wed 1/15/25 7:00pm Liturgy for Healing
Fri 1/17/25 7:00pm Vespers
Sat 1/18/25 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy Sunday After Theophany +John Kavchak by Drew Moniot Divine Liturgy
Sun 1/19/25 9:30am Divine Liturgy Sunday After Theophany +Hans Peter and Berglijot Bergh by Ole and Hans Edward Bergh
Variable Parts Tone 1 - Pages 125 - 127; Sunday After Theophany Pages - 316 - 318
Epistle Ephesians 4: 7-13
Gospel Matthew 4: 12-17
Memorial Candle Request - +John and +Rosalie Wondolkowski By Jeff and Lorri Pakutz
Epistle Readers 11-Jan John Baycura/Mary Motko 12-Jan Amanda Stavish 18-Jan Annabelle Bistransin 19-Jan Hans Bergh
Please Pray for: Liz Moyta, Fr. Michael Huszti, Fr. Laska, Susie Curcio, Robert Zera, Teresa Milkovich, Robert Saper, Anna Habil, Martha Sapar, Mike Dancisin, Karen Smaretsky Vavro, Diane Sotak, Anna Pocchiari, Larry Hamil, Beverly Jones, Marilyn Book, Maryann Russin Schyvers, Nick Russin, Ken Konchan
Attendance: 1/4 — 25; 1/5 — 67; 1/5 (Vigil of Theophany) — 45; Collection: 1/4 & 1/5 — $2,074.83
Gibsonia Schedule
Sun 1/12/25 11:30am Divine Liturgy Sunday After Theophany
Thu 1/16/25 7:00pm Divine Liturgy
Sun 1/19/25 11:30am Divine Liturgy 35th Sunday After Pentecost
Ladies Guild: The Ladies Guild meeting originally scheduled for last week has been rescheduled and will meet TODAY after the morning Liturgy.
Help Needed: We will be taking down the Christmas decorations on Wednesday, January 15th at 2:00pm. If you are available, please stop by and lend a hand.
Christmas Flowers: The Christmas flowers on the side table downstairs are free for the taking.
Scott Hahn/John Bergsma Conference: There will be a conference presented by Drs. Scott Hahn and John Bergsma at the St. Paul Center in Pittsburgh on January 25th. For more information and to register for the event, please visit: https:/ /stpaulcenter.com/pittsburgh202 5
Fires in suburban Los Angeles are continuing to burn and lay waste to entire neighborhoods as Archbishop Jose Gomez on Thursday urged Catholics to remember the preciousness of human life and to make themselves "instruments" of God amid the devastation. The prelate delivered the remarks in a homily at a special Mass celebrated at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles. The cathedral sits just over a dozen miles from the outer edges of the Eaton Fire, which is burning northeast of the city center.
"These are difficult and challenging days for our city and county and our local Church. As we pray, the wildfires keep burning around us and, as we know, the damage continues to be devastating." "We are reminded today how precious every life is, and how fragile. We are reminded also that we are brothers and sisters, that each of us — we all belong to the family in God."
Raising the question of why God "let[s] evil things happen," the prelate admitted, "there is no easy answer. But that doesn't mean that there are no answers," he said. "In this moment, God is calling each of us to be the instruments through which he shows his love and compassion and care to those who are suffering". The archdiocese set the fund's website, which can be accessed at: httns://lacatholics.orgkalifornia-fires.
To hope is to begin again — John the Baptist: Dear brothers and sisters, good morning! Many of you are here in Rome as "pilgrims of hope". This morning, we are starting the Saturday Jubilee audiences, which will ideally welcome and embrace all those who are coming from all over the world in search of a new beginning. Indeed, the Jubilee is a new beginning, the possibility for everyone to start anew from God. With the Jubilee we start a new life, a new phase.
On these Saturdays I would like to highlight, from time to time, some aspects of hope. It is a theological virtue, the Catechism tells us. And in Latin, virtus means "strength"; thus, it is a strength that comes from God. Hope, therefore, is not a habit or a character trait — that you either have or you don't — but a strength to be asked for. That is why we make ourselves pilgrims: we come to ask for a gift, to start again on life's journey.
We are about to celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, and this makes us think about that great prophet of hope, John the Baptist. Jesus said something wonderful about him: that he is the greatest among those born of women (cf. Lk 7:28). We understand then why so many people flocked to him, longing for a new beginning, longing to start over. And the Jubilee helps us in this. The Baptist appeared truly great, he appeared credible in his personality. Just as we today pass through the Holy Door, so John proposed to cross the river Jordan, entering the Promised Land as Joshua had done the first time. To begin again, to receive the land all over again, like the first time. Sisters and brothers, this is the word: begin again. Let us put this in our heads and let us all say together: "begin again". Let us say it together: begin again! [all repeat several times] There, don't forget this: begin again.
Jesus, however, immediately after that great compliment, adds something that makes us think: "I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he" (v. 28). Hope, brothers and sisters, is everything in this qualitative step. It does not depend on us, but on the Kingdom of God. Here is the surprise: welcoming the Kingdom of God leads us to a new order of greatness. Our world, all of us, we need this! And us, what must we do? [Everyone: "Begin again!"]. Do not forget this. When Jesus utters those words, the Baptist is in jail, full of questions. We too bring many questions on our pilgrimage, because there are many "Herods" who still oppose the Kingdom of God. Jesus, however, shows us the new path, the path of the Beatitudes, which are the surprising law of the Gospel. Let us ask ourselves, then: do I have within me a true desire to start again? Think about it, each one of you: inside myself, do I want to begin again? Do I want to learn from Jesus who is truly great? The least, in the Kingdom of God, is great. Because we must ... [Everyone: "Begin again!"].
From John the Baptist, then, we learn to recreate ourselves. Hope for our common home — this Earth of ours, so abused and wounded — and the hope for all human beings resides in the difference of God. His greatness is different. And let us start again from this originality of God, which shone in Jesus and which now binds us to serve, to love fraternally, to acknowledge ourselves as small. And to see the least, to listen to them and to be their voice. Here is the new beginning, our Jubilee. And so we must... [Everyone: "Begin again!"]. 1ST CATHECHESIS ON YEAR OF JUBILEE
