One of our mission members, Mark LeRoy, has started classes at The Byzantine Seminary in Pittsburgh to become a Ordained Priest. Mark and his wife Rebecca moved in July and classes started in August. This page will give us all a chance to stay connected to Mark and Rebecca while they are away. Updates from them will be posted here.
Hello everyone and Merry Christmas,
I have survived my first semester of seminary with all As (and one B in Greek). We are thankful for everyone's continued support and for the Christmas cards we have been receiving. I have plans to come down and visit the week after Christmas, however, we are hunkered down at the moment due to the winter storm. Hopefully it will permit me to make the journey.
We are as always praying for you all and the continued success of the mission community.
-Mark & Rebecca
Byzantine Seminary is a full-time graduate-level education. Seminarians are not allowed employment while in Seminary. Typically, seminarian candidates are allowed to stay in Dormitory, but this option is not available to Mark since he is married.
The priesthood is an honorable calling and should be fulfilled by both married and unmarried priests.
Mark and Rebecca have set up a gofundme if you are interested in supporting them as they endeavor to support our church in a life of service.
Greetings to our Fort Mill Mission family & Glory to Jesus Christ,
Things have been going well at the Seminary and at home. It has been incredibly busy the last couple of weeks with midterms, as well as our trip to the canonization liturgy of St. Petro Oros in New Jersey. We had the opportunity to celebrate a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy with both Metropolitan William and Bishop Kurt. One of the concelebrating priests was the former altar server to St. Petro Oros himself. He gave a presentation afterwards at the reception banquet about his experiences growing up with him and under Soviet persecution. He shared the stories of his secret ministry and eventual capture, martyrdom, and secret burial at the hands of the communists.
It was very inspiring to see both Ukrainian and Ruthenian jurisdictions come together to honor a common martyr, who is an inspiration to us all as we face a new soft-persecution of increasing consumerism, secularization, and marginalization.
Rebecca and I will be coming back to Fort Mill for my Thanksgiving break and we are both very excited to see you all. We will have plenty of stories to share, and we want to thank everyone for your continued support and prayers.
As of writing this we are preparing for our annual Come and See weekend where we host men who are discerning a call to priesthood. We will be hosting 22 visitors this coming weekend in addition to the 10 seminarians who are already here. We have the potential to double our population by next year, and the numbers we may have will be unprecedented in the recent history of the school.
Again, thank you all for the continued support and we will hopefully see you very soon.
P.S. The Ruthenian Church just published its first ever English edition of the Hours which is available on the Eastern Catholic Publications website which is based out of Virginia. I know that due to many constraints inherent to a mission church, we are unable to celebrate the Hours, so this is a great opportunity to enhance private, individual devotion. I felt the need to share the news about such a great resource that is integral to our eastern spirituality.
Pax,
Mark & Rebecca
Glory to Jesus Christ!
We were so grateful to see familiar faces at the Mt. St. Macrina pilgrimage and we hope everyone made the trip back safe and sound.
We have settled into our new home in the borough of West View just a few miles from the Seminary. It's been an honor to represent our little mission here at the center of the Church and we hope to visit this Thanksgiving week.
Thank you for all of your prayers, we think about you all every day.
If anyone would like to help support us monetarily, you can do so at the link below. Since we are married we are required provide for our own housing and transportation apart from the Seminary. We would appreciate any help in this regard.
Copyright © 2023 Byzantine Catholic Mission - All Rights Reserved.