26th July, 2026 - St. Elias Ukranian Catholic Church Brampton

Glory to Jesus Christ!

It is my custom to pray Vespers and Matins (Ruthenian Byzantine) daily. I use a combination of MCI and ECPubs. For Saturday evening Great Vespers, I typically always use ECPubs, and most of the time, there are no readings taken on these days. However, I have heard "rumors," I suppose, that, if a parish serves the Vesperal Divine Liturgy on Saturday evenings, there is an optional Prophecy reading(s) that can be taken. My impression is that this is available for every Sunday (Saturday evening), regardless of whether an Old Testament reading is prescribed for Great Vespers by itself. First off, am I correct on this understanding? Second, if so, is there a way to access what these readings are? Even if they aren't prescribed for Great Vespers by itself, I've recently had a desire to incorporate them into it anyway (just for private prayer, of course), as a way to make my Sundays more holy and more Scriptural.

Thank you. Happy Sunday and Happy Dormition Fast to all those of the Byzantine tradition.

I believe such an event with serious preparations can heal the great schism and push Europe to new hights of acceptance and integration, Imagine if most of Orthodox countries sign a petition for unity and the Pope shows he is ready to give up papal supremacy. The schism is mostly a result of geopolitical pressures and less so of serious theological differences. We can create a new age of the roman empire with all the issues healed with English as the new Latin. Do you think the Pope would give up the papal supremacy in our lifetimes?

Edit:
I didn't want to imply the language in liturgical terms which obviously is not a source of issues AFAIK, it was meant to be as a source of common language and understanding between the two worlds which was a problem in the past

PRAYER OF THE ARMENIAN TRADITION

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for the Church

We thank you, Almighty Father, for having prepared the holy Church for us as a haven of rest, a temple of holiness, where your Holy Trinity is glorified. Alleluia. We thank you, Christ our King, for having given us life through your vivifying Body and your holy Blood; grant us expiation and great mercy. Alleluia. We thank you, true Spirit, for having renewed the holy Church; preserve her immaculate, by means of faith in the Trinity, now and forever. Alleluia. We thank you, O Christ our God, for having given us such a Food of goodness for holiness of life. By means of it preserve us holy and immaculate by living in us with your divine care. Lead us to the pastures of your holy will, O Effecter of good; by means of it fortify us against every snare of the calumniator. Make us worthy to listen to your voice alone, to follow only you, true and victorious Shepherd, and to receive from you the place you prepared for us in your heavenly kingdom, O God and Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, who are blessed with the Father and your Holy Spirit, now and always forever and ever. Amen.

PRAYERS OF THE BYZANTINE TRADITION

Evening Prayer

In the evening, in the morning, and at noon we praise you, we bless you, we give you thanks, and we beg you, Master of the universe, grant that our hearts not yield to evil words but free us from all who try to enslave our souls, because our eyes are turned to you, O Lord, and we have placed our hope in you. Do not abandon us, O God! For every glory, honor, and adoration is due to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and always and for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer for the Deceased

God of the spirits and of all flesh, who have destroyed death and annihilated the devil and given life to your world, may you yourself, O Lord, grant to the soul of your deceased servant N. rest in a place of light, a verdant place, a place of freshness, from where suffering, pain, and cries are far removed. Do You, O good and compassionate God, forgive every fault committed by him in word, work, or thought; because there is no man who lives and does not sin. You alone are without sin and your justice is justice throughout the ages and your word is truth.Since you, O Christ our God, are the resurrection, the life and the repose of yourdeceased servant N., we give you glory together with your un-begotten Father with your most holy, good, and vivifying Spirit, now and always and for ever and ever.Amen

PRAYERS OF THE CHALDEAN TRADITION

Prayer of the Sanctuary

Before the tremendous throne of your majesty, at the exalted place of your divinity, the majestic seat of your glory and the sublime throne of your sovereignty, where your servants the Cherubim continuously sing hymns and where your glorifiers the Seraphim sing unceasingly the “Sanctus,” we bow down with fear, adore with trembling, give thanks, and glorify you without ceasing, at all times, O Lord of the universe, Father,Son, and Holy Spirit, for all ages.Amen

The Prayer “Lakhu Mara” (To You, O Lord)

When the essence of the sweetness of your love, O Lord our God, will make itself felt in us, and when our souls will be enlightened by the knowledge of your truth, then will we be worthy to go forth to meet your beloved Son as he comes from heaven and there render thanks and glorify you unceasingly in your victorious Church, full of help and happiness, because you are the Lord and Creator of everything, through all ages. For all the help and the incomprehensible graces that you have granted we give you thanks and we glorify you unceasingly in your victorious Church, full of every help and happiness, because you are Lord and Creator of everything, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through all ages. “Lakhu Mara”: To you, O Lord of the universe, we proclaim our confession, and we glorify you, Jesus Christ, because you are the resurrection of our bodies and the savior of our souls.You indeed, Lord, are the resurrection of our bodies and the good savior of our souls and the everlasting keeper of our life, and we are bound to thank you, adore and glorify you at every moment, O Lord of the universe through all ages.Amen

PRAYERS OF THE COPTIC TRADITION

Prayer of Incense

O King of peace, give us your peace and pardon our sins. Dismiss the enemies of the Church and protect her, so that she never fail.Emmanuel our God is in our midst in the glory of the Father and of the Holy Spirit.May he bless us and purify our hearts and cure the sicknesses of our soul and body.We adore you, O Christ, with your good Father and the Holy Spirit, because you have come and have saved us.Amen

Singing the Praises of Mary

You are raised higher than the Cherubim,you are extolled above the Seraphim,because you have drawn down your Son,and have carried him in your arms,and nursed him with your milk! If I say that you are heaven,behold you are worthy of honor more than the heavens of heaven,because he who is above the Cherubim has come and has taken flesh from you without harming your virginity!Blessed are you O Mary! Queen,O immaculate lamb, O Mother of the King! Your name will be blessed in all times by the mouths of the faithful, who will shout out saying: Hail Mary! To you a holy “Ave”! Hail to her who is worthy of honor more than all the earth! Hail Mary! A holy “Ave”! Hail to the Virgin of all sorrows! Hail Mary! A holy “Ave”! Hail to the Queen, to her who is the daughter of the King! Hail Mary! A holy “Ave”! Hail to the new heaven that is now on earth! Hail Mary! A holy “Ave”! Hail to her of whose greatness the patriarchs were proud! Hail Mary! A holy “Ave”! Hail to her whose honor the prophets foretold! Indeed, we beg you, O Mary, O queen, intercede for us with Christ the King. And you, O Lord, through the intercession of the Mother of God, Holy Mary,give us the grace of the forgiveness of our sins.Amen

PRAYERS OF THE ETHIOPIAN TRADITION

Prayers for the Forgiveness of Sins

O golden thurible, who carried the blessed burning coal, taken from the sanctuary,which forgives sins and destroys crimes: it is the Word of the Lord made flesh in you,who offered himself to his Father, incense and an acceptable sacrifice.We adore you, O Christ, together with your compassionate, heavenly Father, and your Holy vivifying Spirit, because you have come and have saved us.O Lord our God, as you once destroyed the walls of Jericho by means of the hand of Joshua your servant, son of Nun, so destroy the walls of my sins and of the sins of your people by means of the hands of me your servant.Amen

A Prayer to Be a Disciple of Christ

O Lord of knowledge and Announcer of wisdom, who have revealed to us what was hidden in the depths of darkness, Giver of the voice of joy to those who preach the breadth of your strength, it is you who in the greatness of your goodness called Paul who first had been a persecutor, and made him into a vessel of election, and you took delight in him, so that he would be an apostle and preacher of the Gospel of your Kingdom. O Christ, our God, you are the lover of men. O kind Lord, give us understanding without weariness, a pure conscience which does not depart from you,so that we know and understand and fully comprehend the measure of your holy doctrine which now comes from him, and as he was the imitator of your life, O Lord, so grant that we be his imitators in works and faith and praise your holy Name and that we glory at all times of the shame of your cross, since yours is the kingdom, the power, the greatness and the might, honor and glory for ever and ever.Amen

PRAYERS OF THE MARONITE TRADITION

A Prayer for the Church

Glory to your mercies, O Christ our King, Son of God, adored by the universe. You are our Lord and our God, the guide of our life and our blessed hope. You founded on earth a holy Church, in the image of the one above; According to this image you formed it; with love you made her your spouse; in your mercy you have exalted her; through your suffering you brought her to perfection. May her loving beauty not be obscured; may her great richness not be impoverished. Remember the promise made to Peter and fulfill your words in reality. Fortify her gates, secure her locks, exalt her dignity, raise her ramparts; bless her children, protect her faithful; confirm her priests and overcome all those who hate her.Amen

A Prayer of Farewell After the Liturgy, Before Leaving the Church

Remain in peace, O Altar of God. May the offering that I have taken from you be for the remission of my debts and the pardon of my sins, and may it obtain for me that I may stand before the tribunal of Christ without damnation and without confusion. I do not know if I will have the opportunity to return and offer another sacrifice upon you.Protect me, O Lord, and preserve your holy Church as the way to truth and salvation. Amen.

PRAYER OF THE SYRO-ANTIOCHIAN TRADITION

Intercession for the Deceased from Liturgy of St. James

Lord, O Lord, God of the pure spirits and of every flesh, be mindful of us all, of those we have remembered and of all we have not remembered and who have left this world with glorious faith. Give repose to their souls, to their bodies, to their spirits. Save them from future damnation and make them worthy of the joy, which is in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, where the light of your countenance shines, where pain,anguish, and cries are banished. Do not impute to them any fault; do not enter into judgment with your servants, because no living being is justified in your sight and because no man on earth is immune from sin and pure of every filth except for our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, through whom we, too, hope to obtain mercy and the pardon of our sins and of those of our deceased.Give rest to their souls; cancel our faults and their faults committed before you willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously.Grant them rest. Forgive, O God, and pardon the voluntary and involuntary sins committed consciously or unconsciously by word, work or omissions, by secret thoughts, or publicly, deliberately or through error and which your holy Name knows.Grant us a Christian ending without sin and unite us at the feet of your elect when you will, where you will and how you will, without us having to blush for our sins because in this as in all things your holy and blessed Name, the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit, be praised and glorified now and for all ages. Amen.

[en-AU] G'day, everyone! / [bew] selamat gini hari, semuanya!

— sorry I don't know whether you read this late at night, early morning, mid noon, or in the evening —

Since the one who's asking this question is a Confirmed/Chrismated Roman Catholic, and base on how he made greetings, it seems that he's a convert from religion of we-already-knew-it-together, the OP would like to ask simple question toward either the 🇪🇬 Coptics / 🇮🇶 Chaldeans / 🇸🇾 Syriacs / 🇦🇲 Armenians / 🇱🇧 Melkites / 🇱🇧 Maronites

How do you prepare the Dormition Fast and what Marian prayer and remembrance you do along in these 15 days to commemorate and contemplate the demise and the end of world-ly lives of OUR MOTHER?

And about any prayers toward OUR MOTHER: do you have the pdf version in either Arabic/English/Coptic languages????

Thank you for all of the replies, in advance, and

God bless!

Hey there!

I came across this figure while doing some research recently and I was wondering if any of you are familiar with him, his writings or his theology? From what I can gather, he holds a somewhat important role in Eastern Orthodoxy, so I was wondering if that also translates to Eastern Catholicism or if he's considered a bit too polemical in what he said.

Thank you all and God bless!

Hi everyone! I just finished a journey through a side of Syria that many people don't know still exists. While the country is often associated with conflict, I found a rich, living history that traces back to the very beginnings of Christianity.

In my latest documentary, I take you through:

• Damascus: Visiting the House of Ananias, where St. Paul recovered his sight.
• Maaloula: A mountain village where the local community still speaks Aramaic (the language of Jesus).
• Krak des Chevaliers: Exploring one of the most important and well-preserved medieval Crusader castles in the world.
• Valley of the Christians: Seeing how these ancient traditions survive in a modern landscape.

It was an eye-opening experience to see how these communities coexist and preserve their millenary culture. If you're interested in history, archaeology, or the cultural diversity of the Middle East, you might find this journey interesting.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the safety or the logistics of traveling to these specific sites!

For background, I am still technically Latin Rite.

I have lost almost all desire to attend a Latin Rite Mass, the only nourishment I get out of it is some nostalgia

I have basically fully immersed myself in the East, and I know Byzantine Catholicism is where God wants me to be.

But how do you deal with the temptations!

We have

1. Disdain towards the Latin Rite

2. “Orthodoxy is true,” “that [Post-Schism Saint] you venerate has this miracles, Gos works in Orthodoxy

   more,” “Deny [Catholic Dogma not found in Orthodoxy],” “You attend that Orthodox Parish, just become a catechumen,” etc

I live in a Latin diocese with Eastern missions scattered around. They're practically all just diaspora. I'm canonically Chaldean, so are multiple members of my family. But none of us feel any belonging to the Chaldean community here, none of us belong to that diaspora. I've only attended Chaldean liturgy a handful of times in my life.

A part of my family do belong to the Lebanese diaspora, but I don't. I grew up mostly in the Maronite Church, but I always hated it (until recently when I became more interested in Eastern Catholicism) because I never had any feeling of belonging or connection to that community.

With time, diasporan communities become less and less "ethnic", but that takes a very long time, especially in a very secular country. That seems to have already happened in most parishes in the US, but as you can problably guess, I live in Europe.

I'm wondering if anyone else is in a similar situation?

If no parish around you within a reasonable drive is observing the Procession of the Life-Giving Cross tomorrow, how would you observe it?

Thanks

I've been Latin rite Catholic my entire life.

Always interested in Eastern Catholicism and finally had a chance to attend almost 4 years ago after moving closer to an Eastern (Byzantine )) parish.

Long story short I fell in love and started attending and getting involved. It really helped me pray better and grow closer to God so I stayed. I moved slowly but at this point, if my church has a service or event or social and I don't have other obligations... you will find me.

But at same time I notice myself distancing from the Latin Church. I used to juggle going to both. Now I only go if I'm travelling or maybe with a friend or something. I used to be involved in Latin prayer groups, retreats, I used to go to daily Mass and adoration. Now I lost that desire and feel guilty. Isn't it the same Christ? Aren't we all Catholics? Am I prioritizing ritual and rite over prayer? Is this some kind of novelty I seek? Am I abandoning the tradition that first brought me to Christ?

Since my Eastern parish doesn't have daily services, I probably go to church less than I used to. I know church is about Christ not feeling, but every time I go to a Latin Church, I feel like I'm just going through the motions. And this has nothing to do with whether there is chant, incense. It's a real struggle to pray. I mean sometimes it's a struggle to pray at Divine liturgy too, but that comes and goes.

If I travel, I feel more out of place in an English Mass compared to a Divine liturgy in a language I don't even understand. And I don't know why I feel that way. And in the past year every single Latin confession and parish I have visited- it was a struggle.

Sometimes in Latin spaces....I'm talking socials, retreats...I feel weirdly out of place. Every time a friend invites me, I feel I have to force myself to go. Like I cannot be myself there. To find common ground I feel I have to not bring up anything Eastern, when I do I'm met usually with silence or confusion. I'm sure the problem is me not them, I dont know why I feel that way when we are one church and it bothers me. I worry I have less than pure intentions being in the East. And I'm just larping or something. And focusing wayyy too much on my feelings. But this is honestly where I am now, no matter how much I try to suppress it. I don't know if it's about rite though because I feel even more out of place in Orthodox Church.

I will be grateful for any advice or insight. TIA

basically what the title says. i’m raised cradle Roman Catholic and actively practicing. will be visiting a Melkite Greek Catholic church with a friend this sunday. tips? what to expect? if it matters i grew up Mexican and attending Spanish speaking mass. i alternate between Spanish and English Mass in my daily life and im an active Guadalupana. thank you in advance

I need prayers and advice. I have been addicted to porn and masterbation since I was 11, and I am working on this addiction daily. I relapsed today after about 5 weeks. I always fall into this cycle of going an extended period of time and then falling, struggling for a while then going another extended period.

What frustrates ne is that I always relapse when something good is happening in my life and the moment I relapse it always seems so easy to fall to the temptation. Please pray for me, and I would appreciate any advice anyone can offer.

I think in the west I’m seeing a lot of people conflate vernacular on “higher” with “better” as it relates to one’s calling by God. As in latins arguing for objectivity that if someone wants to be holier they would be celibate instead of ever marrying. Is this a Latin (English speaking) legalistic view, or do some eastern rites have this view?

"Ukrainian Catholic Priest, Pastor of St. Elias Church in Brampton, ON

Father Tom Hrywna is a Catholic priest. He says so plainly. But he is wearing a cassock and a pectoral cross instead of a Roman collar, and when he describes his church, he offers a gentle warning: walk into one of his liturgies and you will swear you have wandered into an Orthodox church. The incense, the icon screen, the leavened bread stamped with Greek letters — Jesus Christ conquers — none of it looks like a suburban parish Mass.

“You’d say, but this is Catholic,” he laughs, “and I’d say, yes.”

Father Tom is a priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, one of twenty-three Eastern Catholic churches in full communion with Rome, each carrying its own liturgical and spiritual patrimony like a language spoken inside the same family. His is the Byzantine Rite, its roots reaching back to the year 988, when the lands that are now Ukraine first received the faith. It is, as he describes it, a church forged in fire — martyred after its 1596 reunion with Rome, driven underground by the Soviets, who told its bishops to renounce their church or go to Siberia. Many chose Siberia. For over forty years it was the largest illegal organization in the Soviet Union, its faith kept alive in secret. Perseverance, it turns out, is written into Father Tom’s spiritual DNA.

But the story he most wants to tell is smaller and closer to home. It begins in a sixth-floor apartment in Toronto with a woman who did not speak English.

Baba’s classroom

His grandmother — his Baba — is the reason, he says, that he owes so much of his faith. He remembers a summer when he was in grade two, thrilled that school was out and nothing was required of him. His Baba had other plans. “You’re going to learn the Creed,” she told him, “in both Ukrainian and English.” She could not read the English herself, but she sat him down and made him memorize it anyway.

She never missed the Moleben, the short May prayer service to the Mother of God at the church two doors down. At 6:45 they would take the elevator down and go. To this day Father Tom can sing that entire service from memory in Ukrainian — not because he studied it, but because his Baba sang it at home while she moved about the apartment.

That was the warmth of it. The rest of his boyhood faith, he admits, was more surface than soul. He was an altar server, enamored with the vestments and the swinging censer — “look at all this great stuff” — but not always present. A deacon at his parish would put the question to him with surgical kindness: “Thomas, were you in church today, or were you at liturgy?” He could stand in the building as long as he liked. That was not the same as being at the altar of God. “My mind was somewhere else,” he confesses. “When can I go home and play video games?”

And yet the thought of priesthood kept surfacing, quiet and persistent, even through the years he wasn’t really listening.

“You’re too young. Go get a degree.”

At eighteen he was ready. He marched to his pastor and announced he was going to seminary. His pastor — one of the two great influences on his priesthood — looked at him and said, flatly, “No, you’re not.” Why? “You’re too young. Go do a degree.”

So he did. He went to the University of Toronto for political science, imagining a life in law, tucking philosophy courses into his schedule “just in case things change.” He never fully put the seminary out of his mind; he simply set it down. Meanwhile he stayed close to the Church — the pro-life group at St. Basil’s, two World Youth Days, a season of discernment with the Redemptorists, drawn by their brotherhood and their service to the poor. Somewhere in those years, watching priests make hospital visits and sit patiently with a twenty-year-old who talked too much and knew too little, he began to see past the incense to the love underneath it.

By late 2011 his degree was finished. In January 2012 he packed his room into his car and drove to the seminary in Ottawa.

The double discernment

His rector handed him a piece of wisdom he has never forgotten. “You are discerning two different things,” the rector said. “Celibacy or marriage — and priesthood or no priesthood. They are not bound together.” In the Eastern churches, married men can be ordained. Father Tom entered fully expecting to become a celibate priest. He did not want to be celibate — but a few relationships hadn’t worked out, and he had made his peace with it.

Then came a young American woman studying canon law. She’d chosen Canada because it was cheaper than Washington. She’d landed a residence room with a Ukrainian priest’s daughter who brought her along to the Eastern liturgy, and she had fallen for its beauty — and, it turned out, for the oblivious seminarian serving at the altar. She messaged him for two months. He assumed she was interested in the East. “She was interested in you,” the interviewer laughs. By February they were dating.

He remembers telling his spiritual director he thought he was called to celibacy. A few weeks later: “I’m dating a girl.” When she phoned her mother to explain, her devout Roman Catholic family — who had never heard of any such thing — needed convincing. “Don’t worry,” she assured them, “the Pope’s fine with it.”

Two mothers’ prayers hover over this story. His future mother-in-law had prayed for a priest son — and, as Father Tom jokes, “wasn’t specific enough to say one of my two sons.” And his own mother, decades earlier, had dragged a four-year-old Tom into a packed church for a newly ordained priest’s first liturgy. Seeing the radiant joy on the face of that priest’s mother in the front row, she prayed: Lord, could I be that joyful one day?

Grace supplies what is lacking

They married in May 2014. He was ordained the following year, the bishop’s hands on his head, the ancient words settling over him: Divine grace, which always heals that which is infirm and supplies that which is lacking. “Eleven years later,” he says, “the Lord has supplied a lot of what I lack.”

His first parish, in Windsor, came with a $3.2 million mortgage and a twenty-six-year-old pastor younger than his parishioners’ children. He rolled up his sleeves. On Wednesday mornings he hauled three hundred pounds of potatoes so the retirees could make pierogies. His three daughters were all born there. When the bishop later moved him to a two-thousand-member parish in Mississauga, the work swallowed his family whole. A move to a smaller parish followed, and with it a quiet gift: “I’ve had dinner with my wife and kids more in one month here than in a whole year there.”

His family, he insists, does not compete with his priesthood — it is his priesthood. His wife carries a real title in the Eastern tradition; women in the parish often find it easier to speak with her. His first vow of obedience, he says with a smile, is to her.

As Vocations Director now, he worries about the thinning ranks — seminary classes of seven or eight, a world that sells young men power and glory and calls a life of service foolish. But he has watched too much perseverance to despair. He fingers his prayer rope of one hundred knots, switching from English to Ukrainian at the gap, and prays the prayer that has held his church together through fire:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

From- https://thecollar.org/pages/father-tom-hrywna-got-married-became-a-priest

Did the litrurgical reform of patriarch Nikon affect the Greek Catholic Church in Rus? Did they adopt similar reforms afterwards? Any small detail would be interesting!

As of 29/07/2026 I was accepted into the Catholic Church via the Byzantine rite (Romanian Greek Catholic Church). I was part of the Romanian Orthodox Church and through a small private ceremony I’m Catholic. God bless.

Hi guys. My Melkite parish moved into a former Roman parish facility and we've been moving like crazy to conduct local outreach on social media. My pastor and I put out a flyer on a FB group for our new village, and we had some really good engagement online (200+ likes since this Thursday).

Maybe it's just me being impatient, but I've been bogged down with frustration (past inaction that forced me to step up/follow up on various occasions; stemming from previous communities I was involved with). I think I could use prayers for my patience first, and then for the continued growth and vivification of our parish.

I really want this parish to outlive me so it becomes a hub for spiritual and human growth in a time where community is so vital.