Derek Redd
\nFather Jason Charron, pastor at both Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Wheeling, W. Va., and Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie, is preparing his congregations for the Eastern Catholic Lenten season, which begins Monday.<\/p>\n
St. John Paul II, Pope of the Catholic Church from 1978 until his death in 2005, once said \u201cthe Church must breathe with her two lungs.\u201d <\/p>\n
Those two lungs, the Eastern Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic Church, both contribute to the health and vitality of the Catholic Church as a whole.<\/p>\n
Our Lady of Perpetual Help, an Eastern Catholic Church in Wheeling, W.Va., starts its Lenten season Monday, two days before the Roman Catholic churches do. <\/p>\n
That\u2019s one example of the things that make the churches unique. <\/p>\n
The Rev. Jason Charron is pastor at both Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Holy Trinity Ukrainian Catholic Church in Carnegie. In describing what makes Eastern Catholicism special, he offered the analogy of universities. Every university, he said, has a strong suit. Some are known for their math and science curriculum; others are known for arts programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs Eastern Catholics, we are part of that body of Christ which would, I guess, more easily associate with the artistic side as opposed to the scientific side,\u201d he said. \u201cWe would identify more with, let\u2019s say, the mystical side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mysticism is what drew Charron to the Eastern Catholic Church. He originally went to seminary in the Roman Catholic Church, but when he went to Ukraine to teach English to seminarians, he was \u201cgobsmacked by the beauty and faith of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charron met his wife there \u2013 Eastern Catholic priests can marry while Roman Catholic priests cannot \u2013 and eventually joined the Ukrainian Catholic Church and went to seminary in Eastern Catholicism. <\/p>\n
With that change, prayer no longer felt forced, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t trying to call the birds to come near me. The flock of geese came and they lifted me up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Eastern Catholic Church shows respect and devotion to the faith\u2019s martyrs. That, Charron said, is a central aspect of the faith.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout Good Friday, you can never have Easter Sunday,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cChristianity, for the first large chunk of its existence, was one of constant companionship with Jesus on the cross. It\u2019s not through comfort and ease that\u2019s going to convert the hardened hearts of sinners. It\u2019s through our being able to love in the midst of sorrow that brings people to want to be with Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Eastern Catholic Lenten season takes its cue from that belief. Charron said the season is about \u201cdecreasing so that He may increase.\u201d For the next 40 days starting Monday, the congregants at Our Lady of Perpetual Help will forgo meat and dairy. They\u2019ll attend more services. They\u2019ll be generous with their money. They\u2019ll speak less and listen more.<\/p>\n
The fasting isn\u2019t about suffering, congregant Peter Leigh said, but honing one\u2019s spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can\u2019t control what we put in our mouths, we can\u2019t control what comes out of it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t fast because we like to suffer; we fast because it sharpens us. It brings prayer and focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message Charron wants to offer the faithful this Lenten season is to understand the hard times so you can rejoice in the rebirth.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Mark Brennan, bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, said prayer, fasting and alms giving are pillars of the Roman Catholic Lenten season as well. The relationship between the churches allows for both to thrive.<\/p>\n
\u201cCatholic unity has always allowed for profound diversity,\u201d Brennan said. \u201cThere\u2019s no division between the rites or conflict on who is \u2018more Catholic.’\u201d<\/p>\n
The difference, he said, is simply how faith is expressed. <\/p>\n
Charron also celebrates that diversity. Bread, he said, has the same basic ingredients \u2013 water, flour, yeast, salt. Yet bread in Ukraine tastes different from bread in Germany, which tastes different from bread in Italy, which is different from bread in Lebanon.<\/p>\n
Faith is much the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s the beauty of the Church,\u201d he said. \u201cIt elevates and ennobles everything that\u2019s good and true in a people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derek Redd Father Jason Charron, pastor at both Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Wheeling, W. Va., and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[54488,54489,54490,73,75,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-114180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-eastern-catholic-churches","9":"tag-holy-trinity-ukrainian-catholic-church","10":"tag-our-lady-of-perpetual-help","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","13":"tag-pittsburgh-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}