The following description was provided by James T.M. Griffin, executive director of the Durandus Institute for Sacred Liturgy and Music. Our thanks to him, and to Mrs Allison Girone for these photos. We strongly urge all our readers to fervently pray for a swift end to the hostilities in Ukraine, and particularly for the safety of the many Byzantine Rite Catholics in that country.
The parish of St John the Baptist in Bridgeport, Pennsylvania, where I serve as subdeacon, is an Ordinariate community serving the Philadelphia region. Besides having a Ukrainian Catholic parish up the street for neighbors, we are in proximity to the cathedral of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia. Following the invasion of Ukraine, we were moved to organize a special votive Mass for peace (or, as the Ordinariate’s Divine Worship Missal calls it, a Mass “in time of war or civil disturbance.”) This was originally intended to be a simple votive Mass in place of one of our regularly scheduled low Masses, but over the span of four days, interest grew, such that visiting singers and additional volunteers allowed us to celebrate a solemn Mass for this occasion. Our parish was additionally honored by the attendance of several descendants of Blessed Nicholas Konrad, a Ukrainian Catholic priest martyred during World War II.
