stars

http://louisdjdsheehan.blogspot.comTHE task of peering into the cosmos and discovering strange new galaxies sounds like a job for astronomers armed with big and very expensive telescopes. But almost a year ago that all changed when a group of stargazers decided to ask the public to help in a project to explore the northern sky.

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey had been looking in this part of space for 16 years, producing so much information that astronomers assumed they would never get through it. So the public was let loose, to help sort what they had found. The scheme is called the Galaxy Zoo project.

It was so popular, says Alex Szalay, an astronomer at John Hopkins University, Maryland, that the computer servers on which the project ran “literally overheated and blew a fuse”. More important, within a month of the opening, Hanny van Arkel, a physics teacher from the Netherlands, posted a message on the zoo’s forum about some strange blue stuff she had spotted and asked what it might be.

By January the zoo’s professional keepers had started to pay attention to what the teacher had called a voorwerp, the Dutch word for object. Now it is becoming famous. William Keel, an astronomer at the University of Alabama, took another picture of the voorwerp and suggested that the human eye would probably see it as green, rather than blue as in the original picture. It also has a giant hole at its centre.

What this object might be was a complete mystery at first. It was initially thought to be a distant galaxy, says Chris Lintott, an Oxford University astronomer involved in the project. But after further study astronomers realised that there were no stars in it, and so it must be a cloud of gas. But why the gas was so hot (about 15,000ºC) was a mystery, because there seemed to be no stars to heat it up.

Now, in a posting on the Galaxy Zoo blog, Dr Keel and Dr Lintott suggest that the galaxy right next door to the voorwerp used to be a quasar (a very bright active galactic nucleus) that has since eaten up all its fuel. This quasar lit up the nearby gas, and although the quasar has since gone out, the light from it is still travelling to the object. The blob, says Dr Lintott, sees the galaxy as it was 40,000 years ago. This makes the voorwerp a sort of light echo but on a massive scale. Smaller light echoes have been seen around supernovae. As for the giant hole, Dr Lintott has “no sensible explanation” for that at the moment and needs to wait for more telescope time.

The weird blob could become immortalised as Hanny’s Voorwerp, the name given to the object in a paper Dr Lintott and his colleagues are submitting to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. And towards the end of the year, if the mission to service the Hubble telescope goes as planned, a high-quality image of the voorwerp could emerge.

Data direct

Earlier projects in distributed computing, such as SETI@home, which searched for extraterrestrial life, have used the power of millions of home computers. But more recently, scientists have begun to realise that distributed human brain power itself can be a useful commodity, as in working out the shape of proteins. Dr Szalay says that the voorwerp episode has shown how immensely valuable the public can be.http://louisdjdsheehan.blogspot.com

When the data were put online Dr Szalay thought it was only a matter of time before someone made a big discovery. “It just happened much faster than we thought.” In the past year 40m classifications of galaxies have been submitted on 1m galactic objects in the Galaxy Zoo. Dr Lintott says that the project has proved that the public en masse is as good as professional astronomers at classifying galaxies.

The next step is to ask people to do more complicated things, such as keeping an eye out for weird objects, which is bound to appeal to armchair astronomers. Hanny’s object had been there for decades, unnoticed in the astronomical archives. The idea now is for the public to explore strange new galaxies; to seek out new voorwerps and to boldly go where no amateur has gone before.

catskills

http://louisajasheehan.blogspot.comYou could have taken a nostalgic drive through the past on Thursday night, through the dreamy green landscape at the outer edges of the Catskills, past sleepy fishing towns like Roscoe and Downsville, to the lovingly restored Walton Theater, built in 1914 for vaudeville acts, honored guests like Theodore Roosevelt and community events of all shapes and sizes.

And, if you got there, you would have received a distinctly less dreamy glimpse of the future. You would have heard an overheated mix of fear and greed, caution and paranoia, of million-dollar gas leases that could enrich struggling farmers, of polluted wells, pastures turned to industrial sites and ozone pollution at urban levels.http://louisajasheehan.blogspot.com You would have heard anguished landowners from Wyoming and Colorado, facing issues now improbably appropriate to the Catskills, present their cautionary view of an environment dominated by huge energy companies where some will get rich while their neighbors might just see a hundredfold increase in truck traffic without much else to show for it.

Such gatherings are being repeated throughout a swath of upstate New York, from Walton to Liberty to New Berlin, as thousands of landowners, many of whom have already signed leases with landmen fanning out across the state, contemplate a new era of gas production now hovering almost inevitably over New York’s horizon.

It’s a development born of new technology, rising energy prices and insatiable demand that is turning the Marcellus Shale formation, which reaches from Ohio to Virginia to New York, into a potential trillion-dollar resource in the gut of the nation’s most populous and energy-hungry region.

Development of the Marcellus has been most advanced in Pennsylvania, but since the beginning of the year, development pressures, land prices and activity by oil and gas firms have increased exponentially across a broad expanse of New York from Lake Erie to the Catskills. “It’s kind of a frenzy here,” said David Hutchison, a retired geology professor who attended the meeting.

Experts say the development will have enormous, barely glimpsed consequences for the upstate economy, the state’s finances and the way of life in quiet rural communities like this one, many of them now heavily influenced by the second-home market. There will be questions about the environmental consequences, especially the potential effect on the upstate reservoirs and watershed that provide New York City’s drinking water.

“This is happening, it’s unstoppable,” said Chris Denton, a lawyer in Elmira who is assembling big blocks of landowners to negotiate with gas companies. “And the question is whether we do it in a way that makes sense or a way that’s irrational and irresponsible.”

The Marcellus Shale has been known to be a potential energy source for a century. But advances in horizontal drilling and soaring energy prices have made it attractive to energy firms. A few years back, farmers could lease their mineral rights for a dollar an acre. This year alone prices in many places have soared to $2,500 an acre from about $200.

So, for example, when Henry Constable, 77, a retired dairy farmer who owns 140 acres outside Walton, left the theater on Thursday night, his head was swimming with alternating visions of financial gain and environmental hazard. He did not quite know what he thought. Would he lease his land?

“It’s definitely a two-sided deal,” he said. “I can’t give you an honest answer. I’ll probably sign something, but I don’t know.”

A stranger listening in offered him a business card and started giving him advice.

“Let me give you fair warning,” he began. “I’m a financial adviser and a landowner, so I’m on both sides of this play. First thing, you need to have a good lawyer, to make sure you have a good lease that gives the right to sue or defend yourself if you’re sued in local court. What these companies want to do is sue you in Minnesota or someplace. And you don’t want to sign a walk-down-the-street lease. You need to be working with an oil and gas attorney.”http://louisajasheehan.blogspot.com

The man, who declined to identify himself to a reporter, started adding up how much Mr. Constable’s land could be worth at $2,500 an acre and a minimum of 12.5 percent royalties. “That could be $1.2 million per year for every 40 acres,” he said. “Do the math. Assuming you’re just signing a lease and not some other monkey deal, you’re suddenly J. R. Ewing. You have an estate tax problem. You have an income tax problem. You’ve got to talk to somebody soon.”

Most of the meetings have focused on just such issues of what landowners can do to maximize their return and control. This one, sponsored by the Catskill Mountainkeeper environmental group, featured presentations by landowners and environmental and citizens’ advocates like Jill Morrison of the Powder River Basin Resource Council in Sheridan, Wyo., and Peggy Utesch of the Grand Valley Citizens Alliance in New Castle, Colo.

They said those royalty checks came at a huge cost: polluted air and water, industrial noise, well blowouts, toxic chemicals leaching into groundwater and wells and a fracturing of communities. Of paramount importance, many said, would be protecting the New York City watershed, an issue that could touch off regulatory and environmental disputes.

The first wells in New York, which have the required state permits, are already being drilled, and the process could play out over 40 years.

“There are problems and challenges that people haven’t even conceived of,” Ms. Morrison said. “And I can tell you that those of us who have gone through it know it has consumed the last 10 or 15 years of people’s lives. I can’t express enough the profound impacts this will have on people’s lives, on land, water, air, wildlife. You need to do an enormous amount of planning to get out in front of it, because this is the richest industry in the world, and they’re going to come whether you want them or no

sleep

Hypnosis, ("sleep") is often thought to be "a trance-like state that resembles sleep but is induced by a person whose suggestions are readily accepted by the subject।" http://Louis2J2Sheehan2Esquire.US

The technique is sometimes used for medical purposes to relieve anxiety or otherwise improve or alter behavior. Its effectiveness has been clinically demonstrated in many areas, most notably in the area of accute pain relief. It is also used in popular stage acts in which subjects are persuaded to perform bizarre feats.

प्लान्टर fasciitis

Morning Edition, June 19, 2008 · If you've ever had heel pain when you first put your bare feet on the floor after waking up in the morning, it's very likely the beginnings of a common condition known as plantar fasciitis। And shoes can contribute to the problem। http://louis-j-sheehan.com

Walking Down a Painful Path

Elizabeth Kinkel has never had heel pain or heard much about plantar fasciitis.

But a quick inspection of the 24-year-old architect's work shoes of choice do not make podiatrist Steve Pribut happy.

When we approached her on the street in Washington, D.C., she was on her way to work and wearing flip-flops.

"They're pretty comfortable," she says, adding that they keep her feet cool. "I just wear them walking back and forth to work, and then put on heels once I get into office."

Pribut, who is not a fan of flip-flops, interrupts her, "I notice a Band-Aid on that foot. Is that from a heel?"

"Yeah," says Kinkel, "they're from some really cute wedge sandals. But they dig in because they're new."

Kneeling down for a quick examination, Pribut explains that both of Kinkel's workday shoe choices — the flip-flops and the backless sandals — pose the same potential problem and could lead to plantar fasciitis.

He says when your heel doesn't stay attached to your shoe, there's too much extra motion in the foot.

"Wearing an open-backed shoe, when the heel lifts off the ground, there's a lot of tension that develops in the plantar fascia, and it increases the angle that the whole foot makes with the ground, and toes bend up further and that just stretches the plantar fascia more."

Vulnerable Tissue

The plantar fascia is a band of connective tissue in the foot, similar in texture to a ligament. It runs all the way from the heel up through the ball of the foot, and strands wrap around each toe.

It's vulnerable to injury, especially as people age. But shoe choice can make a difference.

To prevent injury, people don't have to toss out flip-flops or high heels entirely. But when walking a lot, presumably on hard sidewalks, Pribut says it's better to wear shoes with some support.

Back at his office, he picks up a pair of Asics jogging shoes that he says are ideal. They're lightweight and don't have too much heavy cushion. Most important, they do not bend in the middle.http://louis-j-sheehan.com

"When I take this shoe and press it down, it bends just at the ball of the foot, where the toes attach to the foot. That's right where the shoe should bend," he says.

When shoes have too much bend in the middle, Pribut says it puts tension on the plantar fascia.

Biggest Foot Offenders

One of the biggest offenders among fashionable shoes today is the ballet slipper, or very thin flats. Out on the street outside Pribut's office, we see lots of women wearing them.

Dominque Arvanitis says she likes them because they're comfy.

"I walk around a lot, so the flats are good for me," she says.

Perhaps they are, compared with heels. But Pribut says swapping them out for Crocs or sandals with a little support and a strap around the back would be an improvement.

"The ballet slippers scare me just about as much as the flip-flops do," he says.

If you're now wondering whether there are any fashionable dress shoes that may actually be good for your feet, it might be time to ask a different question: What can you do to strengthen or stretch your feet when you're not wearing shoes?

That's where foot doctor Colleen Schwartz comes in. She has merged podiatry with Pilates for a more preventive approach.

"We ask a lot of our feet," says Schwartz of Pleasanton, Calif. "There are so many bones, there are 26 bones, 33 joints and 100 muscles, ligaments and tendons. http://louis-j-sheehan.comAnd in order to give them the attention they deserve, spending a little time every day can be so beneficial."

A little time means just three or four minutes of stretching and toning. And Schwartz says the best time to do this is first thing in the morning, before you even get out of bed.

Before even getting out of bed she starts with an Achilles tendon stretch.

The idea behind a good toe stretch is that the fibers of the Achilles tendon go all the way to the heel. So there's a strong connection between a limber Achilles and a healthy plantar fascia.

Schwartz says all the foot exercises she does at home, she does barefoot. When she goes about her daily life outside the home, though, she does advocate shoes

Pribut says the barefoot movement may be gaining some attention for its novelty. And the idea that thousands of years ago, shoeless civilizations had healthier feet could be true.

But back then, he notes, the average life expectancy was about 30 years. And cavewomen didn't have to contend with glass, nails, hard concrete — or fashion.

naples

The history of the city can be traced back to the 7th century BC when inhabitants of the nearby Greek colony Cumae founded a city called Parthenope; Cumae itself had been founded by people from Euboea, Greece.[3] The exact reasons for doing so are not known for certain, but the Cumaeans built Neapolis (meaning New City) next to the old Parthenope. Around this time they had held off invasion attempts from the Etruscans.[4] The new city grew thanks to the influence of powerful Greek city-state Siracusa and at some point the new and old cities on the Gulf of Naples merged together to become one.http://Louis-J-Sheehan.de

The city became an ally of the Roman Republic against Carthage; the strong walls surrounding Neapolis stopped invader Hannibal from entering.[5] During the Samnite Wars, the city, now a bustling centre of trade, was captured by the Samnites; however, the Romans soon took it from them and made Neapolis a Roman colony.http://Louis-J-Sheehan.de The city was greatly respected by the Romans as a place of Hellenistic culture: the people maintained their Greek language and customs; elegant villas, aqueducts, public baths, an odeon, a theatre and the Temple of Dioscures were built, and many powerful emperors chose to holiday in the city including Claudius and Tiberius.[5] It was during this period that Christianity came to Naples; apostles St. Peter and St. Paul are said to have preached in the city. Also, St. Januarius, who would become Naples' patron saint, was martyred there.

Dennis http://louis-j-sheehan.de/ Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

f Machiavelli sat down at his iMac to confect "The Billionaire Prince," it might sound remarkably like Felix Dennis's "How to Get Rich" – without the poetry or the rollicking vulgarity, of course.http://louis-j-sheehan.us/



Bearded and blustery, Mr. Dennis is the English high-school dropout who parlayed a 1960s hippie magazine called Oz and wall-poster tributes to kung fu martyr Bruce Lee into a publishing empire of computer publications and beer-and-boobs lad mags like Maxim that has made him one of the richest men in Britain. He has, as he likes to remind readers, more money than he can possibly count – somewhere between $400 million and $900 million, "I honestly cannot fix a number any closer than that."

Mr. Dennis calls his effort "an anti-self-improvement" book, and he's telling the truth. "The chances of anyone reading it and then becoming rich are minuscule," he writes. His basic message is that only those able to turn themselves into monomaniacal workaholics estranged from loved ones and reviled by rivals – or willing to unsheathe their inner monster – can hope to hit the mega jackpot. "Somewhere in the invisible heart of all self-made wealthy men and women," he says, "is a sliver of razored ice."

He likes to boast about his hedonistic appetites. Counseling wannabe zillionaires to think big but "act small" – "Keeping a sense of proportion and humility" – he invokes his bad old days in the late 1980s and early 1990s: "I spent millions of dollars on drinking, taking drugs and running around with whores. . . . At one time, there were no less than fourteen 'mistresses' depending on a regular stipend from my personal bank account. A single evening's entertainment could come to thirty or forty thousand in the Big Apple, London or Hong Kong."

And he can be hilariously mordant about the magazine industry that made his fortune: "It is a business," he writes, "where our main activity is chopping down millions and millions of trees, flattening the pulp and printing hieroglyphics and images on both sides of it. Then we send the end product out in diesel-guzzling trucks to shops were perhaps 60 percent [about 25% in the U.S.] of them sell to customers. Then we pile the remaining unsold magazines into more diesel-guzzling trucks and take them to a plant where they are either consumed as fuel, buried or shredded or used to make cardboard boxes for refrigerators."

But beneath the braggadocio and buffoonery, Mr. Dennis's book is full of cold-hearted advice for succeeding in any field, some of it familiar, some quite sophisticated. He harps on the essential virtues of stamina, persistence and focus, and on the paramount importance of execution. "If you never have a great idea in your life, but become skilled in executing the great ideas of others," he says, "you can succeed beyond your wildest dreams." It's good to panic in a crisis, he says, because it focuses the mind on what has to be done. Grovel for capital if you need to but always remember: "No deal is a must-do deal."http://louis-j-sheehan.de/

Indeed, Mr. Dennis's don'ts are probably more useful than his do's. Never part with even a share of a business you founded, although partnerships in new ventures are acceptable because you can always walk away from them. Give generous bonuses to your employees, but don't let them share in the money from an asset sale. Don't hand out company credit cards, cellphones or cars – the expenses run riot. Never delegate authority to people just like you – find a complementary brain instead. Avoid venture capitalists with their mania for short-term results. Never loan money to friends – make it a gift. Never trust a senior accountant who won't take a vacation (because he is afraid that his thievery will be uncovered while he is away from the office).

Close readers of "How to Get Rich" will find an opaque reference midway through to the author's determination "never to be sent back to prison." Later Mr. Dennis clarifies the story a tad – it was an obscenity case against Oz magazine. But you've got to look elsewhere for the details. In 1971, three editors of Oz, including Mr. Dennis, then 24, were found guilty of corrupting children and sentenced to hard labor at Wormwood Scrubs prison in west London. Mr. Dennis was given a lighter sentence than his confederates because the judge deemed him "very much less intelligent" than the other two and thus less responsible. As it happened, Mr. Dennis served only a few days before he was sprung. In early April, he created a small flap when he bragged in a Times of London interview that, about 25 years ago, he killed a man – who was harassing one of his woman friends, he said – by pushing him off a cliff. Mr. Dennis later called the reporter to say that it was the Chablis and his medicine talking.

Mr. Dennis's prose has its flaws. He seems to think, for example, that prevaricate is a synonym for procrastinate. He can contradict himself. "Lead. Do not be led," he exhorts on one page, but three pages later he hails the virtues of listening to staffers. And he can be comically unaware of his own predilections. "Watch out for blowhards," he warns. But no matter, his book is full of lively ideas and language to match – and, besides, his true writing interest these days is poetry. He has published a couple of volumes and even had his poems recited by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Based on the examples in "How to Get Rich," his verse will never be confused with that of his beloved Metaphysical Poets, but some of it is deft.

Another of his aesthetic preoccupations is the Forest of Dennis, an ambitious project to plant a huge tract in Warwickshire with saplings to create the largest deciduous forest in England – late but fitting atonement, perhaps, for all those trees that had to be sacrificed to make Felix Dennis rich.

Order Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire 39922

Monastic orders and religious congregations of the UGCC
Male Monastic Orders and Congregations
Basilians, Basilian Order of Saint Josaphat (OSBM)

The founder of the Basilian Order (OSBM) is St. Basil the Great (4th century). His ascetic rules became an example for Saint Teodozii Pecherskyi, one of the first monks on Ukrainian land who founded many monasteries in Ukraine. At the beginning of the 17th century Metropolitan Veniamyn Rutskyi united the separate monasteries. He set rules for the monks, which to this day remain the basis of Basilian life. This reformled to the unprecedented growth of the OSBM. From the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century the OSBM suffered great losses for two reasons: (1) it was totally liquidated in those areas which, as a result of the partition of Poland, had passed under the rule of the Russian Empire and (2) monasteries within the The Salesian Andrei Sapelyak became the first bishop for Ukrainian Catholics in Argentina.

With the revival of the UGCC in Ukraine the Salesians renewed their work at the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Lviv; before the war it had belonged to the Polish Salesians. Today it is one of the biggest parishes in Lviv, with about 20,000 faithful. The only canonical Salesian house in Ukraine, with 27 religious, serves this parish.

Mission of the Salesians: The Salesian Congregation is composed of priests and lay people. They live together in community. Special attention is given to youth ministry, especially with youth who have been rejected by society. There is a youth center, called an oratory, where young people and children gather for common prayer and leisure. During summer vacation the Salesians organize daily walks for children and youth to historical places or in parks and scenic areas. About 400 people take part in these activities yearly.
Miles Jesu (M.J.)

In 1990 at the invitation of the UGCC Miles Jesu ("Soldier of Jesus") members Tom Creen and Steven Ryan came to Ukraine from America. In 1992 the first MJ community was established in the village of Bortnyky and in 1993 another in Lviv. Today 14 members live in the two communities. In addition to consecrated celibates there are also full members of the community who are married laypeople.

Mission of M.J.: The order arose because of the new understanding of the vocation of laity in the Church, as explained in the Vatican II constitution Lumen Gentium. A priority for Miles Jesu is work with the laity: retreats, generally conducted in the apartments of the faithful, and "Challenge," a special 10-day retreat. During a Challenge retreat the members of the community live together with the retreatants, they take part in charitable activities, they invite orphans and homeless to the community.
Female religious communities
Basilians, Sisters of the Order of Saint Basil the Great (OSBM)

The history of the female branch of the Basilians reaches back to the 4th century. In 1037 Yaroslav the Wise built the first convent in which nuns lived according to the rule of St. Basil in Ukraine. With the reforms of Metropolitan Rutskyi (1617) the convents became independent of each other. After the partition of Poland monastic life was harshly oppressed. Out of 25 convents in 1772, not one was left in the territory of Russia and only two in the territory of Austria. The reform of the Basilian Fathers, and eventually the renewal of the chapter of the Basilian Sisters thanks to Metropolitan Sheptytsky, led to the development of convents. Houses of the Basilian Sisters were founded in the USA, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Argentina, and Slovakia.

In 1951 the Holy See led the centralization of the Order and gave it papal approval. During the underground period of the UGCC the Order continued. Already in 1959 new novices appeared in the underground monasteries. Sisters helped the underground priests in their pastoral work.

Today the Sisters are organized into 7 provinces, 3 delegatures, 3 missions and 4 contemplative monasteries. Austrian Empire were suppressed.

Beginning in 1882, the Jesuit Fathers, at the order of Pope Leo XIII, reformed the Basilian Order. Basilians trained during this reform became missionaries to Brazil, Canada, the USA and Argentina. By 1949 the Communist authorities had liquidated all the Basilian provinces in Europe (except in Poland and Yugoslavia). Three hundred and fifty Basilians were sent to Siberia. Regardless of this great loss, the OSBM was active during the underground period of the UGCC. There were many new vocations. The order also continued to grow in Canada, the USA, Brazil and Argentina, where there were 31 monasteries and about 250 religious. http://louis-j-sheehan.net


After the fall of the Communist regime provinces of the OSBM were revived in Ukraine, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. Today there are 30 monasteries and 37 residences in these countries.

Mission of the OSBM: pastoral work-- they serve 62 parishes in Ukraine, about 650 other churches, 9 missions in eastern Ukraine; publishing activities-- the publishing house Misioner ("Missionary") has its press in Zhovkva, the publishing house Record of the Order of Saint Basil the Great is in Rome; educational activities-- almost every province has a house for training young religious, a house of philosophical studies, a minor seminary; Basilians are rectors at the Papal College of St. Josaphat in Rome, they broadcast an educational radio program from the Vatican.
Studites

The modern history of the Studite Monks begins at the start of the 20th century. Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky established the order to renew Eastern monasticism in the Church. The first renewed monastery of the Studite Order was established in 1904 in Sknyliv, near Lviv. In 1906 Metropolitan Andrey, as the archimandrite (abbot) of the Studites, set a Typicon (rule book) for the order. Many monks were repressed during the First World War. At the beginning of the Second World War there were 196 Studite monks in Galicia (western Ukraine), the Lemkiv region (in present-day Poland) and the Hutsul region (near the Carpathian Mountains). The monasteries were liquidated with the coming of the Communist regime, most of the monks were sent to Siberia. A small group of Studites managed to leave for the West and to found Holy Dormition Monastery in Woodstock, Canada. After the Greek Catholic Church was outlawed, the Studites continued to operate in the underground. In 1963 Patriarch Josyf Slipyj became the order's patron. In 1973 Lubomyr Husar, now the head of the Church, became archimandrite (abbot) of the Studites outside of Ukraine. Today there are 90 Studite monks in 8 monasteries in Ukraine, Canada and Italy. There are two lavras (major monasteries).

Mission of the Studites: catechizing children and youth-- every year the Studite retreat house in Yaremche (in the Carpathian Mountains) hosts 200 children from the Chernobyl zone; educational activities-- the religious publishing house Svichado operates from the monastery in Lviv as does a workshop of sacred art, Rozvii ("Unfolding"); other work-- cultivating medicinal plants, bee hives. The monastic day is composed of 8 hours of prayer, 8 hours of work and 8 hours of rest.
Redemptorists, Order of the Most Holy Redeemer (CSsR)

St. Alphonsus Liguori founded the Order in 1732. In 1906 the Belgian Redemptorist Achille Delaere, working among Ukrainians in Canada, began the Eastern rite branch of the Redemptorists. In 1913 with the encouragement of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky the Order was founded in Ukraine. At first the Order had its province in Univ, later in Zboischi in the Lviv region. Eventually the Order was established in Ternopil, Stanislaviv and Volyn. The Order spread devotion to the Mother of Perpetual Help and Stanislaviv became the center of societies for this devotion in the Eastern rite. In 1938 there were about 200 such societies with about 100,000 members. At the beginning of the Second World War the Redemptorists had 8 houses and about 70 religious. Many Redemptorists Fathers were later involved in teaching in the underground seminary.

The Order developed in the diaspora. The Ukrainian Redemptorists in Canada today have 6 houses, in the USA they have one. Thirty-five religious live in these buildings, and there are 5 Redemptorist bishops. With the legalization of the UGCC the Redemptorist Fathers resumed legal pastoral activities. Lviv became their biggest center (the monastery in Holosko). The Redemptorists also opened houses in Ternopil, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Novoiavorivsk and a mission in Prokopiev (Kemerovsk region, Russia). Today there are 97 Redemptorists in Ukraine. Students of the Order study in the Warsaw province.

http://louis-j-sheehan-esquire.us


The Lviv province has four confessors of the faith, Bishop Nicholas Charnetsky and Bishop Basil Velychkovsky, blessed Zenovii Kovalyk and Ivan Ziatyk.

Mission of the Redemptorists: evangelization of the most needy; spiritual training of priests of the order, nuns and laypeople, youth ministry; search for new ways of dialoguing with modern youth.
Redemptorist summer program: Young people work in missions, soup kitchens; they spend time with the poorest of the poor.
St. Alphonsus Mission (Canada): a Ukrainian Catholic community where secular young people live and perform missionary work together with Redemptorist Fathers.
Salesians, Congregation of the Salesian Fathers of St. Don Bosco

The founder of the Salesians was the Italian priest St. Don Bosco (1815-1880). Fr. Kyrylo Seletskyi was the first Ukrainian Salesian. Western Ukraine learned about the Salesians through Fr. Seletskyi's book Fr. Don Bosco, his life and work (1900). In the early 1930s Josaphat Kotsylovskyi, bishop of Przemysl, sent 30 of his seminarians to the Congregation's general house in Italy. In 1945 Fr. S. Chmil was the first to be ordained of those who had been sent. After the war the Salesians extended their work among the Ukrainian diaspora in Western Europe. A minor seminary was created, first in France and then in Rome (1951-1996). The Ukrainian Salesians were especially active in Argentina.
http://louis-j-sheehan.org

In Ukraine, Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania there are 644 Basilian Sisters, 155 of whom are in Ukraine.

Mission of the Basilian Sisters: the Sisters catechize children, youth and adults in parishes and schools; they work in charitable institutions: orphanages, hospitals; they are involved in educational activities, they work as editors in the religious press, publishing houses.
Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate (SSMI)

The SSMI were founded in Galicia (western Ukraine) in 1892 as the first active apostolic congregation of nuns in the Eastern rite. The motivation was to address the problem of the particular spiritual poverty of the Ukrainian village. The first house was formed in the village of Zhuzhil at the initiative of Fr. Yeremia Lomnytskyi, OSBM, Fr. Kyrylo Seletskyi, the local pastor, and Sister Mykhailina Hordashevska, the first superior of the convent (her religious name is Josaphata). Sr. Josaphata will be beatified by the Pope during his visit to Ukraine.
In the villages where the SSMI worked, pre-schools were opened, the sick found care, young and adult women gathered into religious organizations. The people loved the joyful and tireless sisters of this congregation. Ten years after the founding about 100 sisters lived in 20 convents. In 1930 the SSMI received papal approval. With the liquidation of the UGCC they continued activities in the underground. The SSMI spread to Canada, Yugoslavia, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Poland, France, Argentina and Australia. http://louis1j1sheehan1esquire.us
Today in Ukraine (Galicia, eastern Ukraine and Transcarpathia) there are 25 active communities of the SSMI with 167 sisters.

Mission of the SSMI: catechizing children, youth and adults; healing the sick with natural methods; work in humanitarian institutions, helping people with special needs.
Sisters of St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Virgin Mary

The Josephites were founded in 1898 by Fr. Kyrylo Seletskyi. The young ladies who formed the first house in the village of Tsebliv intended to enter the community of the Sisters Servants in Zhuzhil, but they were not received into the order. Fr. K. Seletskyi took them under his care. The ladies gathered for prayer and together they looked after the sick. In 1906 Fr. Seletskyi acquired some land and a building for the sisters and for orphan children. At that time the official name of the congregation was the Society of St. Joseph the Spouse. The Sisters conducted bookbinding work, wove rugs, sewed and embroidered.

Beginning in 1921 the Redemptorist Fathers, under the spiritual direction of the bishop of Przemysl, Josaphat Kotsylovskyi, looked after the sisters. In connection with the internal politics of pre-WWII Poland, the Society ceased its activities in 1937, but its members created a monastic community. At this time in the eparchy of Przemysl there were 30 monasteries with 180 sisters. The Josephites were persecuted with the liquidation of the UGCC, but they did not cease their activities. Today the main house of the order is in Krakow, Poland. In Ukraine there are 64 sisters in 11 houses; in Poland there are 16 sisters in 5 houses, in Canada 14 sisters in 2 houses, in Brazil 20 sisters in 4 houses.

Mission of the Josephites: organizing and caring for orphans, they do civil work, in hospitals and other places where the weak and the needy are gathered, they operate an old people's home (Saskatoon, Canada).
Sisters Catechists of Saint Anne

The Sisters of Saint Anne were founded in Brazil by Fr. Omelian Josaphat Ananevych in 1932. They were at first called Sisters Catechists, Third Order Franciscans. Their goal was the Christian education of Ukrainians living in Brazil. Since 1962 the Basilian Fathers have been responsible for their spiritual direction. They have been in Ukraine since 1991.
In Brazil, the USA, Italy and Ukraine there are 18 houses in which 103 sisters live (Of these there are 18 sisters in 2 houses in Ukraine).

Mission of the Sisters of Saint Anne: catechizing children, youth and adults in parishes, schools, hospitals, special camps: organization of the Apostleship of Prayer, Marian Society, Eucharistic Society; work in hospitals, orphanages, old people's homes; keeping order in churches and taking care of liturgical vestments.
Sisters of the Holy Family

The Co-founders of the Sisters of the Holy Family were Father O. Dykyi and Teklia Yuzefiv from the village of Novyi Martyniv (Ivano-Frankivsk region). A young girl had been with the Sisters of St. Joseph in the village of Tsebliv. But because she became sick, she had to leave the convent. Fr. Dykyi founded a congregation in Zhovkva with an easier rule. In 1912 the convent was moved to the village of Hoshiv (also in the Ivano-Frankivsk region). When the UGCC was liquidated in 1946, there were 78 sisters in 20 houses in the Lviv, Stanislaviv and Przemysl eparchies. http://louis-j-sheehan.org
In the underground the Sisters prepared children for first holy communion. They actively worked in the period of the legalization of the UGCC.

Today in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil eparchies there are 103 sisters. There are also sisters in Italy and Canada.

Mission of the Sisters of the Holy Family: catechizing children and youth; they work in shelters and orphanages connected with schools. The sisters are active in missions in eastern Ukraine (Chernobyl, Sumy, Kherson), in Transcarpathia and among the Ukrainian diaspora in areas of the former Soviet Union (Estonia, Kazakstan, Russia).
Studite Sisters, Holy Protection Convent

The Studite Order for Women began in Ukraine in 1924 at the initiative of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. The first monastery was in the village of Yaktoriv. The Sisters worked the fields, kept bees, wove baskets, worked in orphanages, kindergartens and schools. The published the magazine Yasna Put ("The Clear Path"). The foundation of the life of the Studites is ceaseless prayer. In 1950 all the monasteries of the women Studites were liquidated (except in Przemysl, Poland). During the time of the underground UGCC 17 nuns entered the monastery.
Today the community has 63 nuns.

The mission of the Studite Sisters: work in hospitals, orphanages, embroidering liturgical vestments, catechizing, education.Schedule of life in the convent: 8 hours of prayers according to the full ecclesiastical order, 8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest.
The Sisters of the Priest and Martyr St. Josaphat Kuntsevych (Josaphat Sisters)

The Josaphat Sisters were founded in the second half of the 18th century in the village of Bilii, in the Pidliashshia area where the relics of St. Josaphat Kuntsevych were located. The founders of the order were Fr. Timotei and Palaheia-Kateryna Bril. The task of the order was to protect the mortal remains of the priest and martyr St. Josaphat. The community was considered the Basilian Third Order. In 1873 Russia liquidated the congregation in Pidliashshia and the Kholm area. In 1912 the congregation revived its activities at the initiative of Maria Zavaliy and her sister Anna. That same year in the village of Kizlov in the Busk district the first novitiate of the congregation opened. The Sisters received land and lodging in the town of Busk. Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky was especially concerned about the Josaphat Sisters. During the underground UGCC the congregation catechized children, helped underground priests in their pastoral activities. The Josaphat Sisters were especially active during the time of the legalization of the UGCC.
Today there are 36 Josaphat Sisters with 8 houses in Ukraine.

Mission of the order: to work to strengthen the Catholic spirit among the Ukrainian people; teaching girls and women the Catholic faith, propagating the Catholic press. The Sisters also work in schools and parishes, travel on mission, especially to eastern Ukraine; they prepare youth for Christian married life.
Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul (Vincentians)

Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky founded the Vincentians in Ukraine in 1926 after visiting their congregation in Belgium. The first sisters lived in Stanislaviv (present-day Ivano-Frankivsk), taking care of orphans. In the 1930s the Sisters took care of the sick in a clinic in Lviv which was founded by Metropolitan Andrey. In 1939 one hundred and twenty four children from a Vincentian orphanage were sent to Siberia. The convents were liquidated. Metropolitan Andrey gave the Sisters refuge in the palace of the metropolitanate. The Sisters took care of Metropolitan Andrey until his death in 1944. In the underground period the Sisters continued to work in hospitals, conducting pastoral work there.
Today there are 65 Vincentian Sisters with houses in Lviv and Ternopil. The Redemptorist Fathers provide spiritual direction for the sisters.

Mission of the order: to help the unfortunate, the most needy, both physically and spiritually. The Sisters work in the Sheptytsky Clinic in Lviv, in orphanages in Lviv and Ternopil, they work together with emergency medical workers in Viareggio, Italy, they care for orphaned children in the Chernobyl zone.
Salesian Sisters, Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians

The Salesian Sisters were founded in 1872 by St. Don Bosco and St. Maria Madzarello in northern Italy. In Ukraine they began in August, 1992. Their general mission is to work at the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God in Lviv.

Mission of the Salesian Sisters: joyful Christian service, ecumenical cooperation, catechizing children and youth in kindergartens, schools, special camps, hospitals, rehabilitation centers and with foreign language lessons.
Sisters of the Most Holy Eucharist. http://louis-j-sheehan.com

Bishop Nicholas Charnetsky founded the Sisters of the Most Holy Eucharist in 1957 after returning from imprisonment. The Sisters worked in the Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Transcarpathia regions. The congregation began with 40 sisters. They worked in civil jobs, on collective farms, and they also prepared children for first holy communion, they prepared adults for the sacrament of baptism. They gathered people for the liturgy. After the Church came out from the underground, His Beatitude Myroslav-Ivan blessed the development of the congregation. Today there are 35 Sisters of the Most Holy Eucharist in Ukraine.

Mission of the Sisters: the Sisters work in the consistory, they catechize children, teach Christian Ethics and foreign languages.
Myrrh-bearing Sisters under the Protection of St. Mary Magdalene

The Myrrh-bearing Sisters were founded in 1910 in Krystynopol (Lviv region) by Fr. Yulian Datsii, OSBM. The congregation was founded to gather the funds to build a home for orphans and the poor. The first members of the congregation vowed to build two buildings: one for the people, one for the congregation. In 1913 the first convent arose; 15 sisters lived there. In 1938 Hryhorii Khomyshyn, bishop of Stanislav, invited the congregation to his eparchy.

In 1939 the congregation was dispersed. In the underground the majority of Sisters began to work in medical institutions. With the money they earned they sent parcels to priests in Siberia. Not one sister in the underground left the community; they even grew. After the UGCC came out from the underground the congregation actively helped in reviving the Church.
There are 42 Myrrh-bearing Sisters, with houses in Ivano-Frankivsk, Bohorodychani and Kolomya.

Mission: care of the sick and needy, orphan children, educating children in the Christian spirit, care of church buildings, adoration of the Most Holy Eucharist. The congregation is both missionary and contemplative.