CATHOLIC MASS: EVERY TUESDAY AND SATURDAY AT 4PM
A note about our Mass: Our Mass is a very ancient form of worship, unchanged for thousands of years in the Christian East, and will not look like your regular Sunday Mass. However, this form of worship at the Shrine is in full communion with the Pope and even fulfills the Catholic Sunday Obligation. The proper name for this form of worship is called the 'Divine Liturgy.'
In fact, our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV just celebrated a "Jubilee of the Eastern Churches" in May 2025 — honoring all Christians who celebrate the Divine Liturgy. Come worship God with us!
Metropolitan Archbishop William Skurla of Pittsburgh celebrates the 'Divine Liturgy' at the Shrine.
ATTENTION: Join the Byzantine Catholic Assembly 2025
This year’s Assembly will be held in the Eparchy of Parma at St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church in Whiting Indiana from July 16th through July 20th.
All people of the Metropolia of Pittsburgh along with all people of good will are invited to attend the Assembly.
This is a time to explore our faith, Worship as a united Church with our Metropolitan and bishops, learn from one another and grow in our mission to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.
DON'T WAIT! FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS EXCITING BYZANTINE CATHOLIC ASSEMBLY NOW!
SNOW FUN
It is time for the Lord to act!
How did the Shrine Start?
Are you having trouble discerning whether you should say the truth to someone in a troubled relationship?
Read this!
Telling the Truth in Love
Christian speech is true--not only to its object but to itself--only when it is realized in love. John Shea formulated a principle in this regard that is as helpful as it is difficult: criticize someone precisely in the measure that you are willing to help that person deal with the problem that you have raised. If your commitment to help is nil, you should remain silent; if your willingness to help is moderate, your critique should be moderate; if you are willing to do all in your power to address the situation with the person, speak the whole truth. This is not unrelated to Aquinas' point about relating anger to justice: one should be perfectly right in one's criticism, but morally wrong if that critique is not made in the real desire to ameliorate (fix) the problem.
Bishop Barron: The Strangest Way, 107
The Mission of Shrines
In the Catholic world of today about eighty percent of all shrines are dedicated to Mary. Annually the vast majority of pilgrims are destined for Marian shrines. For example, about ten million go to Guadalupe in Mexico, six million to Lourdes in France, five million to Czestochowa in Poland, four million to Aparecida in Brazil.
Shrines are not intended to be a sightseeing stop on a vacation trip; they are places of pilgrimage. Though most need to travel considerable distances and use vacation time to reach the shrines, pilgrimage is not a vacation-time visit, but rather an action of spiritual renewal.
Pilgrimage is an effort of the great journey of human life toward God. The life of the Christian person is a pilgrimage. Ours is a pilgrim Church. Ordinarily pilgrims endured privations in joining with others en route to a common goal. They unite with pilgrims of the past in prayer and in gratitude for a hallowed place.
All the actions of a pilgrimage are meant to be symbolic and instructive and transforming: the preparation, joining together with other pilgrims, the welcome at the shrine, the visit to the sanctuary, the celebration of the Eucharist, the return home. The purpose of the pilgrimage is to guide the pilgrim "to the essential: Jesus Christ, the Savior, the end of every journey, and the source of all holiness."
Vatican Council II spoke of Mary's "pilgrimage of faith." She precedes and encourages us in our own pilgrimage of Faith. Marian shrines are one expression of Mary's presence among us, the Church. John Paul II in Mother of the Redeemer referred to a "geography" of faith and devotion to Mary which includes those special places of pilgrimage where the People of God find the one who first believed and a strengthening of their own faith.
In today's world with millions of refugees and displaced persons, shrines are becoming gathering places for people uprooted from their homes and churches. At the first World Congress on Shrines and Pilgrimages in 1992 sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People, John Paul II expressed the desire that "persons whom life has treated harshly, the poor, the people who are distant from the Church" may find a welcome at shrines.
Hospitality extended to migrants and to all pilgrims at Marian shrines is an expression of the Virgin Mary's welcoming of God's word. Her example reminds all people that we come together in the great pilgrimage of life on this earth to everlasting life in our permanent home with God.
Christ is Among Us!
