'Glory to Jesus Christ':
May this greeting live in our hearts

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Mary Beth Dupuis

Next Sunday I'll have been here in Lviv, Ukraine, for five months. I'm working at the Ukrainian Catholic University, the only Catholic university in the former Soviet Union.

It's a small but growing school, affiliated with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, offering degrees in theology and the humanities. It also has a seminary.

The mission statement to the Ukrainian Catholic University is, I think, instructive. The university strives to be "an open academic community living the Eastern Christian tradition and forming leaders to serve with professional excellence in Ukraine and internationally - for the glory of God, the common good, and the dignity of the human person."

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 4, 2005) Ez 33:7-9 Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9 Rom 13:8-10 Mt 18:15-20

Those last three phrases impress me most, especially, "for the glory of God." Isn't that in itself a reason for living? Wasn't it for this reason that we were created?

Today's psalm exhorts us with a call to praise, "Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; cry out to the rock of our salvation!" (Ps. 95:1) Truly this is a worthy endeavor, and one not extraordinary, but rather fundamental to the very essence of who we are as human beings.

"Enter, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord who made up. For this is our God, whose people we are." (Ps. 95:6-7) We need to glorify the Lord of hosts! We need to bow down before him in his holy temple!

As I packed up my things and prepared to go to Ukraine in January, a friend with experience living overseas warned me about "the culture shock continuum," saying, "the third month is the hardest!"

By the middle of April I believed her. Frustrated with my attempts to learn the language, feeling isolated and alone, I began to wonder if I'd made the right choice in coming.

Connections from my involvement at St. Paul's University Catholic Center at UW-Madison had led me to visit Ukraine for the first time the previous July, when I volunteered for a month as an English teacher for students of the Catholic University.

Something about the spirit of new life resurrecting out of Soviet oppression touched me deeply and I knew I had to return. I was welcomed heartily and soon had a grasp on my work, the start of wonderful friendships, even a not-too-Soviet-looking apartment.

But the dreary voices of disappointment and discouragement began to rest heavily on my shoulders and before long it was easier to complain about the challenges than to thank God for the blessings. Fortunately, as Psalm 95 continues, we are "God's well-tended flock" and our heavenly father was quick to send me water in my desert.

As part of our work with the Committee for Evangelization within the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, a coworker and I were privileged to travel to Prague, Czech Republic, for a pan-European conference on evangelization. Not only did this excursion into more westernized lands remind me that speaking English is indeed not a disability, it taught me again the importance of giving praise and thanks to God - simply because God is.

I had been slipping in dedication to daily prayer, but this conference reminded me that praising and blessing "the Lord who made us" is truly a daily necessity - because God so deserves it, and also because I need to praise God. Giving God the glory due his name makes me more truly who I am. It reminds me that only God is God, worthy of honor and glory - I am not, and therefore I need God.

When we "bow down in worship," we humble ourselves. In this humility we are opened, and only when we are open can we receive everything that God longs to share with us - his grace, his love, his mercy, his very self.

The traditional greeting among Christians of the Eastern Rite is, "Glory to Jesus Christ!" and the response, "Glory forever!" May the truth of this greeting live not only on our lips, but in our hearts!

Mary Beth Dupuis has been a member of the St. Paul's University Catholic Center community at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for almost 10 years, both at home and abroad. Read more about her adventures in Ukraine on her Web site: http://ukrainiansojourn.blogspot.com/. Learn more about the Ukrainian Catholic University at http://www.ucu.edu.ua/eng/

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Faith Alive!

Faith Alive! is published bi-weekly during the summer. The next Faith Alive! will appear in the September 8 issue of the Catholic Herald.