Yearly Archives: 2014

The December edition of LifeQuesters on the Web is now available. This issue features Pre-Christmas reflections and prayers >> LifeQuesters on the Web Dec. 2014

Focus on the significance of the Christ event and be prepared for the celebration of the Feast by attending one of the Christmas Preparation Retreats at the House of Prayer. Feast.

Each program consists of a presentation, silent prayer and reflection, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and a prayer service.

Christmas Preparation Morning Retreat

Saturday, December 13, 9:15 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (Registration due: December 8)

Presenter: Father James Hess, O. Carm, Spiritual Director

SS Cyril & Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Offering: $30, lunch included.

Christmas Preparation Afternoon Retreat

Sunday, December 14, 1:15 p.m.-5:00 p.m. (Registration due: December 9)

Presenter: Deacon Tim Corbett

St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cathedral, Munhall, Pa.

Offering: $30, dinner included.

For further information, please call the House of Prayer directly at 724-438-7149.

Mt. Macrina Manor’s 21^th Annual Live Nativity will be held on the grounds of Mt. St. Macrina in North Union Township on Sunday, December 14 from 5-7 p.m.

The Nativity will be set up along the Friendship Circle, adjacent to the facility. Mary and Joseph, shepherds tending to their flock, the Three Kings, the Little Drummer Boy and angels will be portrayed. In addition, there will also be live animals, including a donkey, goat, sheep, calf and an alpaca. The Sisters of St. Basil the Great and as well as other groups will sing Christmas carols. Angels will be passing out candy canes to visitors. Five hundred luminaries will line the driveway that leads to the Nativity.

The event is free of charge and everyone is welcome. For further information, please call 724-430-1021.

Read about the Year of Consecrated Life, Beatification Weekend and more in LifeQuesters on the Web – Fall 2014.

Sister Susan Harvey, OSBM and Sister Barbara Jean Mihalchick, OSBM accompanied by Sister Agnes Knapik, OSB, traveled from the Mount to participate in the events related to the Beatification of Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich. Sister Theodosia Alishofski, OSBM and Sister Regina Adams, OSBM came from Wilkes-Barre for Saturday’s liturgy.

The main ceremony was held Saturday, October 4 in the Newark Cathedral Basilica where her portrait and relic were displayed.  Dozens of Byzantine Catholic priests and faithful joined in the Liturgy, including Barbara Soltis, who was Sister Susan’s first grade student in Bridgeport, Conn.

Sunday, we made our way to Convent Station, home of the Sisters of Charity of New Jersey. We prayed at the crypt where Sister Miriam Teresa’s remains are preserved behind a wall in a small room in the motherhouse chapel.  A very modest display of photos, memorabilia, and an intention book were there.

We enjoyed lunch with the Sisters of Charity. I congratulated them on the beautiful Beatification ceremony the day before. I told them it was on the standard of the ceremonies in the Vatican Basilica, including a magnificent choir; the participation of many Sisters in the ceremony, as well as the man who was healed as a child and the family of Sister Miriam Teresa; an excellent homily; and, comments by the General Superior who acknowledged the new Blessed’s Byzantine Ruthenian roots.

We and about 30 Sisters of Charity then went to St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church, Bayonne, N.J. where Sister Miriam Teresa was baptized and attended into her teen years.  Her photo has been hanging in the vestibule of the church for a long time. There we participated in a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy with our Bishop Kurt Burnett and many priests. Thirty volunteer cantors led the singing from the balcony. The parish did a beautiful job organizing everything.  They had a holy card prepared as well as an icon for the tetrapod. The beautifully decorated church was filled with Eastern and Western Catholics some of whom travelled from as far away as Michigan.  An abundant dinner followed in the parish hall.

On our way back to the Mount, we stopped at the Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to thank her for the new Blessed Miriam Teresa.  We prayed at her tomb in the Basilica and visited the museum which features her life story and memorabilia. All of these experiences were truly inspiring!

Thanks to the Sisters of Mercy in North Plainfield, New Jersey who hosted us in their guest quarters and were most gracious.

The beatification of a Bayonne native was celebrated in Bayonne on Sat., Oct. 4, during a special Mass at St. John the Baptist Byzantine Roman Catholic Church on East 26th Street, the church where Sister Miriam Teresa Demjanovich was baptized and received her first Holy Communion. Read more >>

September, 2014

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Dear Friends,

Through the grace of God, together we have completed the historical 80^th Pilgrimage honoring our Lady of Perpetual Help at Mount St Macrina. Your participation, your prayers and your generous assistance have once again enabled the Pilgrimage to be successful and spiritually fulfilling.

You are the women and men and young adults called today to help shape the future of our Byzantine Catholic Church as we journey forward. Just as Pope Pius XI, Bishop Basil Takach, and our foundress, Mother Macrina responded to a unique calling within their lifetime, so too, will all the good actions and decisions of your life ripple over the course of our Church’s history and echo throughout eternity.   You have the power to make a difference.  You make a profound difference to us, the Pilgrims, and to the Pilgrimage honoring the Theotokos.

For eighty years, the Sisters of St. Basil have endeavored to keep Mount St. Macrina as a peaceful harbor of prayer and reflection.  The 80^th Pilgrimage has ended, however, the blessed Pilgrimage of our life continues.   Our prayer is that the most significant journeys you make will be those which take you deeper into the heart of God.

With heartfelt appreciation, and with the assurance that you are being held in the depth of our prayers, we ask that Our Lady of Perpetual Help protect you and give you a profound understanding of how uniquely loved you are by her beloved Son.

With sincere thanks in the Lord,

Sister Seraphim Olsafsky, OSBM

Provincial

The photos from Sunday at the 80th Annual Pilgrimage on now available on our website. View the album >>

The photo album of Saturday of the 80th Annual Pilgrimage has been added to the website. View the album here>>