Eparchy of Ss. Cyril and Methodius: St. Michael the Archangel

Sunday, November 9th, was a great Feast Day for the parish of St. Michael in Windsor. This Byzantine Catholic church is located in the southern most part of Ontario. Many weeks prior to odpust, parishioners together with the pastor prepared feverishly for this great day. God blessed them with good weather so that they were able to work around the church, especially the church entry way. This work took several months to finish. Thus, after replacing the entire roof and eaves, installing new windows at the back of the rectory, painting of rectory, church and the hall, work that took over a year to bring to fruition, everyone was able to sing the solemn hymn, “Vošel jesy Archyjereju” – at 2pm as H.E. Bishop John entered our church. Bishop John blessed our newly renovated church on our Feast Day - the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. With Bishop John as the main celebrant, several priests from the surrounding area concelebrated the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in Church Slavonic and English. The priests who concelebrated were: Fr. Andrew Sipek, past pastor of St. Michael’s, Fr. Layos Angyal, Hungarian Byzantine priest from Windsor, Fr. Robert Barter from St. Nicholas Church, Detroit, Mi, USA, Fr. Joseph Marquis, Sacred Heart Church, Livonia, Mi, USA and the present pastor, Fr. Martin Vavrak. Fr. Martin came to Windsor from the Mukacevo Eparchy in the Transcarpathian part of Ukraine. The day of odpust marked the second anniversary of his arrival to Canada. Homilies were delivered in Slovak and English and reflected the common theme of bodiless heavenly powers, and also about the afterlife. The day was dominated by St. Michael the Archangel, prince of heavenly armies, as well as Mary, Mother of Perpetual Help, honoured and loved especially by her sons, the Redemptorist Fathers – the order to which our own Bishop John, C.Ss.R. belongs. “Myrovanjie – anointing” and “mnoholitsvije – many blessed years” followed the Holy Communion. After the liturgy, clergy, parishioners and guests went downstairs to the beautifully decorated hall and a delicious dinner. In our Eparchy, St. Michael is the last Feast Day of the year and thus Bishop John wished all our faithful a blessed “Filipovka - St. Philip’s fast” and a blessed upcoming Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Pani Anna a Fr. Martin Vavrak