Slava Isusu Hristu! Glory be to Jesus Christ!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
As of today we begin our journey of preparation for Christmas. Some people call it St. Philip’s Fast and from that Pylypiwka in Ukrainian. Some people call it Advent. Doesn’t matter how we call it, we all know it is spiritual preparation for the upcoming great feast of the Nativity of our Lord. The calling of St. Matthew, whose feast we will celebrate tomorrow, has a great message for us and the plan what shall we do as we prepare. First we are to respond to the call of our Lord and readily “get up” and be his disciples. Then we are to acknowledge that we are sick – spiritually sick by the sins, and we need the doctor. Also we are to listen to the words of our Lord and obey them.
And He said: “I want you to show mercy, not to offer sacrifices.” Mercy, like we have heard in today’s Gospel story (Lk. 10:25-37). Mercy showed in practice, following the example of Good Samaritan.
Let’s do these things and we are going to prepare our souls beautifully for coming of our Lord into them!
Have a blessed journey of Advent!
Fr. Janko!
