“Today, the Lord God Invites Us to Shine His Light of Hope on the World,” Says Head of the UGCC in Zarvanytsia
Here today, let us live together the experience of God’s love, especially in the Holy Sacraments of Christ’s Church. Let us receive the Body and Blood of our Savior in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and view the world with the bright eyes of God,” urged His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the UGCC, during his sermon on Sunday, July 14, at the All-Ukrainian pilgrimage to Zarvanytsia.
The bishops of the UGCC from Ukraine and around the world concelebrated with the Head of the Church. This year’s Divine Liturgy in Zarvanytsia also marked the solemn conclusion of the UGCC Synod of Bishops.
“Together, we have witnessed here that our Church is like a mother’s womb that unites Ukrainians in Ukraine and in the diaspora, being a space of solidarity and exchange of gifts, mutual support, and assistance, without which Ukraine cannot stand,” said the Primate.
First, the Head of the Church greeted all the pilgrims who arrived for the pilgrimage to the Marian Spiritual Center “Zarvanytsia,” emphasizing that in this miraculous place, everyone experiences God’s presence. It is worth noting that this year, about 30,000 pilgrims attended the All-Ukrainian pilgrimage to Zarvanytsia.
While interpreting the Gospel passage, His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized that “the true Good News that speaks to our hearts today through the Word of God is the gospel of how God looks at us with his bright eye.”
The Primate explained that the bright eye is God’s eye that shines on us, giving us His love and infusing the Holy Spirit into our hearts. And God’s love is the essence and source of human hope.
He believes that every person is a vessel and a lamp of God’s word. Christians possess a unique opportunity to receive God’s light and shine it on other people.
“When we view the world, people, and ourselves with God’s gaze of love, then we have a bright eye,” explained the Patriarch and added: “When we look at another person and think about what we can give them, how to love them, then our eye is bright in relation to them.”
“Today, the Mother of God called us all here to experience God’s love towards us, to cast all our burdens here in confession, to give all our pains and tears into the hands of our Heavenly Mother. She herself is ready to take all this from us personally today, now, and transmit the light of God’s life to us,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasized.
Quoting Taras Shevchenko, the renowned Ukrainian prophet, the preacher explained that the Russian invader “not only watches us with his black eye but wants to drag Ukraine into the coffin that is prepared for him.”
“Today, we desire that the power of God in all its fullness be manifested in the body of the exhausted, wounded people. For it is from this power of the resurrected Christ that hope shines upon us. It is the secret of our invincibility, immortality, and the resilience of our spirit. It is from there that the light shines for victory over the insatiable eye of the Russian invader,” the Primate emphasized.
“Mother of God, save Ukraine, save each of us!” concluded His Beatitude Sviatoslav with a prayer, “O Theotokos, with You and in You our people walk to the day of victory of good over evil.”
At the end of the Liturgy, the blessing of God was conferred together with the Head of the Church by the Redemptorist priests released from Russian captivity, Fr. Ivan Levytsky and Fr. Bohdan Geleta.
Afterward, the rector of the large Marian pilgrimage center in Lourdes (France), Fr. Michel Daubanes, expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people and presented a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes: “I express the support of all of us who serve in Lourdes, in this holy place, from all the priests, workers, and the Ukrainian parish in Lourdes. I express the support of all those who believe in Christ at this time when you are undergoing great trials.”
As we informed earlier, the All-Ukrainian pilgrimage to Zarvanytsia began on Saturday, July 13, with a candlelight procession of pilgrims from the parish church of Zarvanytsia to the place of the apparition of the Virgin Mary. Then, on the square in front of the basilica, a Moleben to the Mother of God was held, led by His Beatitude Sviatoslav. Most Rev. Bohdan Dziurakh delivered the sermon.
The UGCC Department for Information
