Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever!
23rd Sunday After Pentecost
November 1, 2026
St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic
105 Kohler Ave
Lyndora PA 16045
Phone 724-287-5000
www.stiohnbyzlyn.com
athanasius@zoominternet.net
Sat 10/31/26 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Michael Dancisin by John Baycura
Sun 11/1/26 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Caroline Hills by Cindy Hills
Wed 11/4/26 7:00pm Liturgy +Helen Jean Mudrick by brother Paul Mudrick
Fri 11/6/26 7:00pm Moleben to Jesus
Sat 11/7/26 4:00pm Vigil Divine Liturgy +Helen Jean Mudrick by brother Paul Mudrick
Sun 11/8/26 9:30am Divine Liturgy +Frank and Eva Dano by Peter & Jane Wallace
Variable Parts: Tone 6 Pgs 152 — 153
Epistle: Eph 2:4-10
Gospel: Lk 8:26-39
Memorial Candle Request: No Candle Request
Epistle Readers 31-Oct Mary Troyan 1-Nov Shari Allen 7-Nov Mary Motko/John Baycura 8-Nov Eva Babick
Memorial Candle Request: deceased members of Cooke family
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: 10/24 - 29; 10/25 - 79
Collection 10/24, 10/25 - $1,678.00
Student Food Pantry: Thanksgiving is coming. We are now collecting Thanksgiving food items such as stuffing, gravy, yams, canned vegetables, etc. Donations may be placed in the designated area in the vestibule. Contact Pam Gagen if you have questions. Thank you!
Halupki Sale: A hulupki sale will take place November 14th 10am-lpm. $3.00 a piece. You must order by TODAY. Call 412-837-9446 to order or fill out a form which is available on the bulletin board. Please do not call the rectoly. No walk-ins.
Upcoming Events Dates: November 1 (TODAY) — Ladies Guild meeting at 11:00am in the church. November 13 — Halupki Making. November 14 — Halupki Sale. December 5 — St. Nicholas parish celebration. December 6 - Ladies Guild Christmas Party. December 10. 11, 17 & 18 — Nut Roll Baking. December 16 — Decorate church for Christmas.
Operation Christmas Child: Please continue to send in your donations for the Operation Christmas Child program by October 25th. Thank you to those who have already generously donated. The box is in the vestibule. Please check out this website for suggestions on what is helpful to donate or ask Amanda Stavish. If you would prefer to give a cash donation, this is also very welcome! Amanda will purchase needed items with your donation. Thank you!
REC Open House: The Religious Education Center Open House will be TODAY immediately following the 9:30 Liturgy. Father will bless the center. Coffee social will take place at the RE Center. Coffee, cider, donuts and danishes will be served. (THERE WILL BE NO SOCIAL COFFEE TAKING PLACE IN THE CHURCH HALL TODAY).
Upcoming Events Dates:
November 1 — Ladies Guild meeting at 11:00am in the church.
November 13 — Halupki Making
November 14 — Halupki Sale.
December 5 — St. Nicholas parish celebration
December 6 - Ladies Guild Christmas Party
December 10, 11 17 & 18 — Nut Roll Baking
December 16 — Decorate church for Christmas.
URGENT: the church furnace needs to be fixed. Various heating company suggested different things starting with an entire furnace unit replacement to only boiling expansion tank replacement. The parish filed the claim with the insurance company and we hope that the insurance will cover some of the cost.
Does America have an official religion? Not "officially," of course. But, at least according to one expert, we definitely have an American religion. And it is very widely practiced. Sociologist Christian Smith, some 20 years ago, conducted a study on the religious beliefs and habits of 3,000 American teenagers entitled Spiritual Life of American Adolescents. Smith found that these teens, regardless of where they lived or what denomination they belonged to, nearly all held to the same five basic religious tenets. Taken together, these tenets, constitute the American religion Smith calls Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.
The Clockmaker: God exists, and he created and ordered the world. But he isn't particularly involved in it on an ongoing basis.
The Old Man in the Sky: God's basic expectation of us is that we are good, nice and fair, and that's it.
The Divine Dr. Feelgood: Our central goal in life is to be happy and to feel good about ourselves.
Dial-A-God: There is really no need for God to be involved in our lives unless we need him to solve a problem.
Everybody Gets a Trophy: Everybody goes to Heaven, except for really, really bad people. Like Hitler.
Smith also found that these young people didn't arrive at these beliefs on their own. Rather, they are the beliefs they were raised with by their Boomer parents. So this has been the American religion for quite some time. But the question remains: what is this religion? It may bear a passing resemblance to Christianity, and there may even be a few points of overlap with what Christianity teaches. But is this Christianity? Even a cursory understanding of Scripture makes it clear that no, these tenets are not even close to what Scripture tells us. What he revealed to us is so much deeper, so much richer, so much more profound. Let's take it point by point:
1. The Clockmaker: Has God left us to our own devices? - "Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge." Matthew 10:29 "He has said, 'I will never forsake you or abandon you.'" Hebrews 13:5
2. The Old Man in the Sky: Are we just supposed to "be nice"? - "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48 "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me." Matthew 25:35-36
3. The Divine Dr. Feelgood: Is our goal just to be happy?- "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." Luke 9:23-24 "Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but also everyone for those of others." Philippians 2:3-4
4. Dial-A-God: Do we only need him when we have a problem?- "Rely on the mighty LORD; constantly seek his face." 1 Chronicles 16:11 - "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, on your own intelligence do not rely; In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6
5. Everybody Gets a Trophy: Does everyone go to Heaven? "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few." Matthew 7:13-14
"Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Galatians 5:19
There are obviously far more examples. The entirety of our faith runs in contradiction to these simplistic "tenets." In the beginning, God made man in his image. But it seems to me that, in the modern age, man has remade God in his own image. We have fashioned a milder, tamer God, one who doesn't ask too much of us, who lets us go along our merry way and then rewards us in the end anyway. As the great C.S. Lewis put it: "We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven — a senile benevolence who, as they say, 'liked to see young people enjoying themselves,' and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, 'a good time was had by all. '" Here's the thing: God is who God is. We don't get to have our own individual "god" we make up in our heads. Fortunately, he gave us a very good way to get to know him. 73 books and a Church. He has revealed himself to us. from denvercatholic.org
