by David Mayernik Jr. Editor I began typing this column at home, sitting on my couch as five-plus inches of snow was falling outside, making it too dangerous to drive to the Chancery on the North Side of Pittsburgh. Now, … Continue reading
Author Archives: David Mayernik Jr.
Photo opportunity
The new year has caused me to take a look back.
I just realized I began my career in the n e w s p a p e r business Continue reading
Time Enough at Last
One thing I accomplished in 2020 was completing a 1,000 – piece puzzle I received from my parents for Christmas in 2019.
Continue reading
Christmas Memories: Clergy, Religious of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh Share Their Personal Christmas Memories
Each year on Christmas Eve, I post one of my favorite“Calvin and Hobbes” comic strips on social media.
It was originally published in newspapers on Dec. 24, 1989, and features Calvin and his stuffed animal tiger — Continue reading
A thankful heart
Perhaps there is no better-known character in prose fiction than Ebenezer Scrooge of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Continue reading
Changing the subject
You may have noticed a slight change on the cover of The ByzantineCatholic World
from previous months.
On the masthead — now inset on the letter “O” in “World” — is the onion dome of the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of SS. Cyril and Methodius. After transferring files to a new computer in the office, I found the former masthead to be a bit “fuzzy” so Archbishop William Skurla and I decided to design a new one. It’s one small change in a year of change. Continue reading
“Pilgrimage of the heart”
Making a list of all the events and experiences n e g a t i v e l y a f f e c t e d by the coronavirus
pandemic is an exhausting experience.
Everyone’s personal worlds have been thrown for a loop. Continue reading
There’s no place like home
I did something on June 7 I haven’t done in a long time. Almost three months, in fact. I went to church.
With Allegheny County entering the “Green Phase” June 5, churches in Archeparchy of Pittsburgh have begun reopening their doors to faithful.
Singing God’s praises through life
St. Gregory Cantor George Tichi Celebrates 90 Years
After George Tichi left the operating room following bypass surgery to alleviate blocked arteries in 2000, the first words out of his mouth was a Troparion.
“When I was coming out of the anesthetic, I vaguely remember I was singing the Troparion from Theophany,” said the cantor at St. Gregory in Upper St. Clair, Pa. of 45 years.
“The nurses and doctors were startled; (they) wanted to know what I was saying. The nurse there recognized the melody as being a religious melody.
“I still know the Slavonic rendition of it today. I can sing it off the top of my head.”
After turning 90 years old on May 24, George is still using his voice to praise God.
The coronavirus situation didn’t put a damper on his birthday party, as 34 honking cars filled with family and friends from St. Gregory drove past his house in Mount Lebanon, Pa.
“I was so very surprised. You could have bowled me over. They kept it a secret from me…of all the people who ever
knew about it, nobody ‘spilled it out’. I knew nothing about it,” George said.
“They wouldn’t let me go outside where they had all the preparations and everything. Then I heard someone say,
‘Where are they? When are they coming?’ I didn’t know who ‘they’ were and what ‘they’ were doing. Then I saw the police; when they came down, they turned their sirens on and flashing lights.”
George was born in the Greenfield section of Pittsburgh, Pa. and was baptized, made his First Holy Communion and married his wife of 70 years, Patricia, at St. John Chrysostom.
Hair today, gone tomorrow
I saw an interesting question going around on Twitter the other day: What changes in your life that have been necessitated by being quarantined may carry over whenever our lives get back to normal?
(Or, as normal as can be expected, that is.)
There were a variety of intelligent comments. Some people may continue to work from home, if possible and permitted by their boss. Continue reading
