WHO WE ARE

Saint Mary's Byzantine Catholic Church is located at

 700 Oak Street in Taylor Pennsylvania.

We have Divine Liturgy each Sunday at 11:00 A.M.

 Our church is a fully Catholic Church in the Byzantine Rite.  This means that we were founded by our Lord Jesus Christ and are a full part of the universal church and as such we are committed to evangelization and to bringing the Good News of the Gospels to our community.   It also means that we are in full communion with the Pope of Rome, as such we are dedicated to the sacramental life of the faithful.   

Our liturgical tradition comes from the tradition established in Constantinople (Byzantium) almost 2000 years ago.  We have a very rich tradition of prayers, art, and music attached to our liturgy and as a Slavic visitor to church Hagia Sofia said a thousand years ago: 

"We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth.  For on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it.  We only know that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations.  For we cannot forget that beauty."

 The Catholic Church consists of many different rites or which the Roman is the largest and the Byzantine is the second largest.  As such the Liturgy of any of these rites fulfills the Sunday obligation of any member of the Catholic Church and the sacraments of any rite can be received by any Catholic.  Our liturgies are all sung and are very pious and our churches are often very ornate and filled with icons.  If you have never experienced one of our liturgies you should come and visit! 

We welcome all people regardless of ethnicity or rite and we encourage people to come to see how the Church breathes with its Eastern lung as Pope Saint John Paul II described it.  

Today most of our services are in English, but occasionally we prayer in our liturgical language.  In the same way that the Roman Rite has Latin as their liturgical language, we have Church Slavonic as our liturgical language.  You can learn some prayers in Church Slavonic in this Prayer Book.  Once a month on Thursday nights we have the entire liturgy in this language.  

You can also see the text for our Divine Liturgy.

Our music is call prostopinije.  You can learn all about it at the Metropolitan Cantor Institute.  You can also learn hymns from our Byzantine Catholic Hymnal.