St. Michael’s Orthodox Church, in Mount Carmel, PA, celebrated its Patronal Feastday, Holy Archangel Michael and Other Bodyless Powers of Heaven, on November 8, 2021. We were happy to have our Dean, Archpriest Timothy Hojnicki, leading us in Liturgical celebration. Priest Vjekoslav, current rector, concelebrated with him. Furthermore, it was a joy to welcome Archpriest John Onofrey, who did an excellent job directing our parish choir, and to welcome Archpriest Claude Vinyard, former rector of the parish. Fr. Timothy delivered an exceptionally good homily, reminding us that the true aim of Christian life is to imitate perfection that we see in the Angelic World.
We are very grateful to all the visitors from different Orthodox parishes in this area, as well as to our guests, friends and supporters of the parish, who belong to different Christian denominations, for taking their time to be here with us and to participate in the festal joy. Among the others, we were blessed to host Matushka Theodora Ressetar, wife of our beloved Archpriest Daniel Ressetar, of blessed memory, whom we dearly missed this year.
Before the beginning of the Liturgy, Fr. Timothy and Fr. Vjekoslav did the Prayers on the Fortieth Day of Childbirth for Popadija Dragana and baby Pavle, who is the most recent addition to our parish.
As usual, we honored departed and living veterans of our parish, expressing our gratitude for their service to the country. Fr. Timothy did Many Years for all the living veterans at the end of Liturgy, and then afterwards, he intoned Memory Eternal for all the departed veterans of our parish. We also prepared special cards for the veterans, and welcomed any veterans from our area to have a free meal with us.
We are thankful to the Parish Council members, and especially to our Parish President, Mrs. Sandra Tosca, for preparing the food and decorated the hall, cleaning the church, and many, many other things, known and unknown, that the Lord will record in His Book of Life. Our parish choir performed exceptionally good today, and we appreciate the time that they take to practice and prepare for services. Last but not least, we are very grateful to all of our parishioners for the hard work and dedication which made all of this possible.
May God be merciful to us and save us through the prayers of the Holy Archangel Michael and all the Saints. Amen.