St. Nicholas UGCC in Chicago

  • Thread starter Thread starter Angel_Gabriel
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Angel_Gabriel

Guest
I happen to be staying in Chicago this weekend and am planing on attending Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral tomorrow.

Has anyone ever been there? What should I expect? I’ve only ever been to one other Divine Liturgy (as there are no eastern catholic churches in my city). is it a large church? I’m thinking yes b/c they have Divine Liturgy 4 different times on Sunday. We plan on going to the English liturgy.

thanks 🙂

Edit: looking at the website, I notice that they seem to have First Communion, similar to Roman Catholics…are all ukrainian catholic churches doing this…if so I find that disheartening :(…i don’t understand why they do this?
 
The English Liturgy was recited last time I was there, no singing, no incense :confused:.

If I may suggest attending saint Vlodimir & Olha about a block away, it is UGCC but Old Calender. The singing is fantastic and they serve a very nice liturgy although in Ukrainian, in a very beautiful temple.
 
ciero said:
The English Liturgy was recited last time I was there, no singing, no incense :confused:.

If I may suggest attending saint Vlodimir & Olha about a block away, it is UGCC but Old Calender. The singing is fantastic and they serve a very nice liturgy although in Ukrainian, in a very beautiful temple.
Click to expand...
Thanks 🙂 I’ll look into that.

Do you know of other “traditional” Eastern Catholic Churches in Chicago that i could check out as well?
 
Angel_Gabriel said:
Thanks 🙂 I’ll look into that.

Do you know of other “traditional” Eastern Catholic Churches in Chicago that i could check out as well?
Click to expand...
There are two I can recommend, but you must have a car.

One is in a small suburb on the western edge of Chicago, not too far from O’Hare:
St. John the Baptist Melkite Greek Catholic parish on North Avenue, I have been there.

The other is Annunciation of the Theotokos Byzantine Catholic parish (Ruthenian), but it’s way the heck out near Orland Park, in the south suburbs. The pastor is a fairly well known authority on Theology of the Body, and is on the radio weekly. It also happens to be my former parish home, so I recommend it highly.

I was in the choir and I must say the singing was the tops in those days, at the time the choir sung alternate Sundays with traditional chant by the entire congregation on the other Sundays, not to be missed. The services are always in English with a sprinkling of Slavonic, which is also how the local Orthodox parishes do it.

If you cannot make those two, and are in the heart of the city I would try Ss Volodimir & Olha recommended by ciero above, it couldn’t hurt. If you are daring you could check out Holy Trinity Orthodox cathedral on Leavitt near Division (by the big hospital) after you have gone to Mass for your Sunday obligation, the liturgy is in English and they follow the Russian practices. It’s not at all far from the UGCC locations you are considering.
 
ciero said:
If I may suggest attending saint Vlodimir & Olha about a block away, it is UGCC but Old Calender. The singing is fantastic and they serve a very nice liturgy although in Ukrainian, in a very beautiful temple.
Click to expand...
This church is insanely beautiful, at least on the outside. I couldn’t get inside, which was a total drag…
 
Hesychios said:
… If you are daring you could check out Holy Trinity Orthodox cathedral on Leavitt near Division (by the big hospital) after you have gone to Mass for your Sunday obligation, the liturgy is in English and they follow the Russian practices. It’s not at all far from the UGCC locations you are considering.
Click to expand...
I second this option if driving to the other ECCs michael suggested isn’t possible. 🙂
 
Thank you everyone for your suggestions 🙂 Unfortunately we are only here b/c my husband is at a convention for his job and I decided to tag along and get out of the house…so b/c of convention things, time was an issue and we weren’t able to go to more than one Liturgy:(

We ended up choosing St. nicholas but when we got there we discovered that the church was closed due to construction so they were holding Divine Liturgy in the auditorium of the school…well, I was disappointed as I really wanted to see the inside of the Church. So we decided to try St. Vlodimir & Olha which I new was close by. I had no idea what time Divine Liturgy started there and they didn’t have any signs with times on them either…so we go in and it was packed…I mean shoulder to shoulder PACKED with people standing and even outside the doors and all in Ukrainian (I’m fairly certain it was Ukrainian). (However what I saw of the Church was gorgeous!) So we decided that probably wasn’t the best idea since we had no clue what time it had started or what was going on (it was only our second time at Divine Liturgy).

So we decided to find a Latin Church and possibly go to the Tridentine High Mass (my husband has never experienced the TLM and I’ve only ever gone to a low TLM and didn’t much care for it, but the high mass was on my list of liturgies to experience). On our way back to the hotel we stumbled upon St. John Cantius. They had the Novus Ordo in Latin (which was also on my list of liturgies to experience) so even though we were by then a half hour late we went in. It was beautiful! The bishop was saying Mass (I’m not sure if he was the archbishop or an auxillary bishop) and it was said all in Latin, Ad Orientum, with incense, communion on the tongue kneeling at the communion rail, chant etc. At first I thought I would stand out b/c I didn’t have a headcovering but there were only about 5 women there who wore head coverings, the rest didn’t. All in all I really enjoyed it and wish more than anything that my diocese here would have a Mass like that. I do like the Novus Ordo…but here it is very watered down:o with no reverence, hardly any tradition and so many abuses.

we plan on going back to St. Michael’s up in Mishawaka asap…it is a lovely little UGCC that happens to be the closest to where I live (even though it’s still 1.5 hrs away)…so I’m praying all the more that we find a priest for our mission!
 
What an adventure you had! Thanks for sharing it with us. Sounds like your persistence was well rewarded at St. John Cantius. God is great!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top