Every second Saturday of the month, Divine Liturgy in English of Sunday - Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family, Duke Street, London W1K 5BQ.
4pm Divine Liturgy. Next: 13th November 2021

Very sadly, the Divine Liturgy in English at 9-30 am on Sundays at the Holy Family Cathedral, Lower Church, have had to be put on hold. Until the practicalities we cannot use the Lower Church space. Hopefully this will be resolved very soon. Please keep checking in here for details.

Owing to public health guidance, masks should still be worn indoors and distance maintained. Sanitisers are available. Holy Communion is distributed in both kinds from the mixed and common chalice, by means of a separate Communion spoon for each individual communicant.

To purchase The Divine Liturgy: an Anthology for Worship (in English), order from the Sheptytsky Institute here, or the St Basil's Bookstore here.

To purchase the Divine Praises, the Divine Office of the Byzantine-Slav rite (in English), order from the Eparchy of Parma here.

The new catechism in English, Christ our Pascha, is available from the Eparchy of the Holy Family and the Society. Please email johnchrysostom@btinternet.com for details.

Thursday 17 April 2014

Stained Pure Red - on the Bloodshed of 55 Children: Second Easter Letter from Maronite Archbishop Samir of Damascus



The Blood of the Children Mixed with the Blood of Christ (Damascus, Syria)

 

Holy Tuesday April 15, 2014 witnesses the blood of 55 children mingles with the Blood of Christ on the interminable Way of the Cross in Syria. A bloody scene stained pure red soil Damascus.

A shell fell on Monday morning in the courtyard of a school at 7:50 A.M., turning the area into mourning and sowing fear in the hearts and eyes of families already distressed by the assassination of Father Franz one week earlier.

  

Everyone ran to carry these little ones to St Louis hospital, the nearest place where the struggling Daughters of Charity and the medical staff treat the wounded to save the lives of these angels caught up in senseless violence that strikes Syria in this fourth year. The emergency room was crammed; some students were transferred to other hospitals. Some of these children will become disabled for life bearing the signs of hatred on their bodies.


What an introduction to Holy Week, the sufferings of Christ are printed in the bodies of the innocent children of Damascus. Just as the Holy Innocents, the infant Martyrs of Bethlehem, these children invoke the justice of Heaven.

 

The blood of these children, in this land already flowing with blood and watered by the thousands of martyrs of 1860[1] fortifies the Biblical Faith that saw the arrival of Christianity even before St. Paul was converted and baptized. These innocent victims confirm the testimony of our heroic faithful who rely on your very welcome friendship and spiritual support.

 

Tertullian in the second century said: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.”

 

                                                                            + Samir Nassar

                                                            Maronite Archbishop of Damascus

 

Easter 2014. (2)

 

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