From the Head of the UGCC on the 105th day of the war: Ukraine today is like a woman giving birth to a child in pain

Thursday, 09 June 2022, 23:42

Today Ukraine is in pain. Ukraine is crying and suffering, Ukraine is wounded. But we ask the Holy Spirit to transform our pain, our suffering, into suffering for hope. His Beatitude Sviatoslav, the Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said in his daily address on the 105th day of Russia's bloody war against Ukraine.

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Although the entire front line is on fire, the Primate notes, our warriors, who we owe the sunlight this morning, show miracles of courage. The Ukrainian soul, the Ukrainian force is strengthening and victory is approaching.

The Head of the Church stressed that the situation is becoming critical for the civilian population of Kherson region. “It is almost impossible to help with delivering food and medicine there. This territory is as isolated as Ukraine was during the Holodomor. Getting out of there is also becoming extremely difficult. Many people are doomed by the enemy to a slow death,” said the spiritual leader.

Today, according to him, we are experiencing the sixth day of the Missionary Decade, that is, we are moving day by day towards the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit and await the arrival of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the only one whom we can trust.

And today the Word of God speaks to us of pain as hope. At the Last Supper, the Lord said to his disciples: A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. “We ask the Holy Spirit to make our struggle genuinely nurture the hope of the birth of a renewed Ukraine,” the Head of the Church wished.

Meeting with women who lost their loved ones in the war, the Primate noted, one can really hear from them a prayer that the sacrifice of their husbands, sons and daughters was not be in vain. When we meet our soldiers, especially the wounded, we feel that they are ready to continue to suffer, to continue to suffer in order to save lives.

“And the person who comes into the world in pain, who is renewed in these military sufferings, gives meaning to everything that we are experiencing today. It is so important, say the mothers of our fallen heroes, that their children did not sacrifice their lives in vain”, he said.

“Today we ask, O Holy Spirit, give us hope, give us the joy of the encounter with a renewed person who is born in pain in the world,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav asked.

The UGCC Department for Information