15th Sunday after Pentecost
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
15th Sunday after Pentecost
September 6, 2026
St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic
105 Kohler Ave
Lyndora PA 16045
Phone 724-287-5000
www.stiohnbyzlyn.com
athanasius@zoominternet.net
Sat 9/5/26 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Michael Dancisin by Frances Lazar
Sun 9/6/26 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Mary Beitch by Carol Fizer
Mon 9/7/26 7:00pm Vespers with Eucharist for Birth of the Theotokis
Tue 9/8/26 9:30am Liturgy +Helen Meaders by Pocchiari Family
Wed 9/9/26 7:00pm Liturgy for Healing
Fri 9/11/26 7:00pm Akathist to Virgin Mary
Sat 9/12/26 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Michael Dancisin by John Baycura
Sun 9/13/26 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Herbert & Margaret Moniot by Drew Moniot
Variable Parts: Tone 6 - Pgs 152 — 153
Epistle: 2 Cor 4:6-15
Gospel: Mt 22:35-46
Memorial Candle Request: No Candle Request
Epistle Readers 5-Sep Mary Troyan 6-Sep Joel Hills 12-Sep John Baycura/Mary Motko 13-Sep Kathy Moyta
Memorial Candle Request: No Candle Request
Please Pray for: Lucas Benson, Lou Pocchiari, Mike Oshlick, Kathy Moyta, Dorothy Moyta, Brian Buchkovich, Lejen Warner, Sharon King, Liz Moyta, Fr. Michael Huszti, Fr. Laska, Susie Curcio, Teresa Milkovich, Robert Saper, Anna Habil, Diane Sotak, Anna Pocchiari, Larry Hamil, Beverly Jones, Maryann Russin Schyvers, Nick Russin and Ken Konchan
Attendance: 8/29am - 13 8/29 - 23 8/30 - 71
Collection: 8/29 - 8/30: $1,864.00
Upcoming Event Dates:
September 3rd - Pierogi Making
September 11th - CANCELLED (Previously Halupki Making)
September 12th - Church Polka at Highfield Hall
September 15th - Ladies Guild Meeting at 6:00pm — Yearly dues are $5.00
October 9th and 10th - Rummage Sale
Student Food Pantry: The school year is beginning. We are collecting food again for the pantry at a local school. If you would donate any type of soup or canned food, baskets will be in the church. Thank you! -Pam Gagen.
Desserts Needed for Polka Party: We are in need of desserts for the Polka Party, which will occur the evening of September 12th. Please bring your pre sliced desserts to the church Friday morning 9:00 12:00 or Saturday afternoon to Highfield Hall beginning at 2:00pm. Thank You!
Raffle Tickets: Additional 50/50 raffle tickets have been placed in a box in the vestibule. Some have asked for tickets that were not on the mailing list. The drawing will be held at the Polka Party.
Help Us Renew Our Religious Education Building! Please help us fund the flooring for the R.E. building. Details regarding this are in the 8/16/26 and 8/23/26 bulletins.
Religious Education: Sunday, September 27 following social coffee will be the Religious Education Kickoff party at Connoquenessing Park. This will include the rescheduled, annual fishing derby and other games! All are invited! Religious Education Classes for grades 1-12 will officially begin on October 4. Please sign up with Amanda Stavish 724-272-2963 or Katie Koch.
Boscov Coupons: Our church will be selling Boscov coupons for a 25% off all day October 21. Coupons are $5.00. Please see Elizabeth Pocchiar or Fr. Radko to purchase one.
A witness of charity and mercy, St. Mother Teresa is celebrated by the Church on September 5. Early Life and Vocation: Mother Teresa was born to an Albanian family in Skopje on August 26, 1910, and is given the name Agnes Gonxha. As a child, she is taught by her parents to live praising the Lord and helping the most needy. It is not surprising, therefore, that she should have chosen, at age 18, to become a missionary. Agnes left home in September, 1928, to enter the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dublin, where she received the name of Mary Teresa. The following year she would be in India, where she lived happily for nearly 20 years in a school of her congregation, teaching the wealthy young people in the area. On September 10, 1946, however, Mother Teresa received what she calls her "calling within a calling". That day, Jesus revealed to her His pain at seeing indifference and contempt for the poor, and asked Teresa to be the face of His mercy: "Come, be my light. I can not go alone."
Missionaries of Charity After her first experience of leaving home, 20 years later she left her Institute to found the Missionaries of Charity, taking the name Mother Teresa and wearing the Indian Sari, beginning her new mission among the last of Calcutta, the outcast, those who are "unwanted, unloved, uneducated". Some of her former students would soon join her, and in the space of a few years, the Congregation - recognized in 1950 by the Archbishop of Calcutta and in 1965 by Pope St. Paul VI - spread to every part of the world where the poor need help and especially love. The Missionaries of Charity open homes in Africa and Latin America, but also in the Communist countries and even in the Soviet Union. Her figure rapidly became more and more popular worldwide, but, when asked about the secret of her success, she would respond with disarming simplicity: "I pray." Pope St. Paul VI held her and her Sisters in high esteem, and gave them his Papal automobile at the end of his trip to India. Mother Teresa also had a deeply fraternal relationship with Pope St. John Paul II. Particularly memorable was Pope St. John Paul II's visit to the house in Calcutta, where Mother Teresa welcomed the dying.
Strong Defender of Life Always ready to help the poor and needy, Mother Teresa was also strongly committed to the defense of nascent life. Her speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony on October 17, 1979 was unforgettable. "The greatest destroyer of peace," she said on that occasion, "is the cry of the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder her own child in her womb, what is left for you and for me to kill each other?" Even in later years, despite illness and the "dark night of the soul" she experienced, Mother Teresa never spared herself, and continued tirelessly to respond to the needs of the needy.
Death and Legacy Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997, in Calcutta. At that time, there were 4 thousand of her Sisters in the world, present in 610 mission houses spread out in 123 countries. She remains for us the sign that mercy has no boundaries and comes to all, without distinction, because, as Mother Theresa said, "Maybe I do not speak their language, but I can smile." Pope St. John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa on October 19, 2003 and Pope Francis canonized her on September 4, 2016 during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. Her feast day is celebrated annually on September 5.
Birth of Theotokos: A September birth was chosen because the Eastern Church begins its Church year on September and in the Church everything begins with Theotokos because she is the herald of new era- where God and mankind are closely and intimetly connected. The September 8 date helped determine the date for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8. Scripture does not give an account of Mary's birth. However, the apocryphal Protoevangelium of James (written around 145 AD) fills in the gap. This work was so popular that many manuscripts of this Gospel were preserved in different languages. According to this account, Anna and Joachim are infertile but pray for a child. They receive the promise of a child who will advance God's plan of salvation for the world. Such a story, like many biblical counterparts, stresses the special presence of God in Mary's life from the beginning.
Saint Augustine connects Mary's birth with Jesus' saving work. He tells the earth to rejoice and shine forth in the light of her birth. "She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed."
