Video-message of His Beatitude Sviatoslav. July 7. 134 th day of the war

Today is Thursday 7 July 2022 and our homeland Ukraine is already experiencing the 134th day of nationwide resistance to Russian aggression.

Ukraine is flowing with blood. During the last day, the enemy again tried to advance, to storm our cities and villages on the border of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The epicentres of the confrontation were once again the cities of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, and Bakhmut—those cities that were already so badly wounded in 2014. During the last night, the city of Kharkiv was again hit by a heavy rocket attack. Our Odesa region was also attacked with rocket strikes. There, warehouses which stored bread and grain, with the potential to feed millions of needy people, were deliberately destroyed.

But Ukraine is standing. Ukraine is fighting. Ukraine is praying.

Reflecting on the rules of spiritual struggle, this invisible warfare, you and I emphasized that this struggle is a struggle for freedom. Every time we fight against evil, we fight for freedom from evil, because enslavement and slavery alway comes from evil, from the enemy of the human race, from the evil spirit. We also mentioned that even when we actually feel that evil is defeating us, particularly in our personal lives, we should never be discouraged and give up. It is very important, even when passion takes hold of us, to do three things: to realize one's weakness, to resist it, and thus to eradicate evil from one's life. It is precisely those three things—awareness, resistance, eradication—that we, Christians, call repentance. Because repentance is nothing but liberation. Just as our Ukrainian troops liberate the recently occupied cities and villages of Ukraine, and bring back peaceful life there, so also when a person repents, he frees himself from the power of the enemy of the human race.

Today we celebrate the Nativity of John the Baptist, the one whose birth marks the beginning of a new era, a new epoch in the history of mankind—the era of God's mercy. He was the guide of repentance in the desert. It was he who brought people the truth that one can become different, one can be free from sin, one only has to want it, and when a person repents, God's grace comes.

Today I greet you all from the heart of the Synod of Bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which has gathered here, in princely Przemyśl, in order to begin its work, precisely in order to gain the courage and strength of John the Forerunner, to be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, with a voice that carries the word, the Word of God, the word of victory and liberation, the word of comfort and healing for our long-suffering people in Ukraine and those who find themselves in the settlements.

Today we will ask the Lord God to send us the Holy Spirit, which is characteristically the Spirit that helps a person to remain free and brings the gift of repentance. Repentance is not just some human action, it is a great gift of God, so that together we can bear the fruits of repentance worthily. From time immemorial, when Ukrainian soldiers went to defend the homeland, before taking up arms, they went to confession, they repented of their sins, they received Holy Communion, and then, in the fullness of God's grace, they were ready to give their lives for the homeland.

O God, bless Ukraine. O God, bless the Ukrainian army. O God, make the Ukrainian people a nation that proclaims a new era of God's mercy for humanity, that mercy which will save the human person, Ukraine, and the world. O God, bless our Ukrainian army, to which we owe the opportunity to see this morning. O God, bless the Ukrainian land.

May the blessing of the Lord be upon you through His grace and love of humankind, always, now and ever, and for ages of ages. Amen. 

Glory to Jesus Christ!