His Beatitude Lubomyr considers that the current crisis may be used for benefit

Tuesday, 06 January 2009, 22:48

On December 31 in the Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, a prayer service of thanksgiving on the occasion of the completion of 2008 took place. The prayer was led by Bishop Bohdan (Dzyurakh), auxiliary bishop of the Kyiv Archeparchy. Present at the prayer service was His Beatitude Lubomyr, Major Archbishop of Kyiv and Halych. So Taras Semenyuk reported for the Department of Information. During his sermon His Beatitude Lubomyr noted that at the end of the past year it is necessary to thank God for the past moments. "We want to see, and this is appropriate, all that happened in our own life and around us as a gift from the Lord God. To understand all that is pleasant as a gift from the Lord God is, perhaps, understood easily, but when I say to accept as a gift from the Lord God troubling things, on the first look this somehow sounds so strange. However, what is good, similar to what is troubling, is very valuable for us, because it came from the Lord God. Nothing happens by chance. All that takes place in our life, around us and for us, came from the Lord God. It is for our benefit. It came from the Heavenly Father who is Almighty, and Omniscient, and very Good, Who does nothing and will allow nothing that it is harmful to us," the Head of the UGCC said. "Today we are rather troubled. There is much talk about a crisis and, actually, it is possible to foresee that there will be difficult times for us. Not all will happen as we want it to, but it is probable that it will be for our benefit," the preacher said. His Beatitude Lubomyr also called the faithful in the next year to be more open to the divine will: "We look ahead in the next year with the eyes of the holy faith, as the children of a Good Father. God help us so that we enter this New Year with such instructions. Then it does not matter what happens. It will be for our good," the Head of the UGCC noted.

Information Department of the UGCC

The whole Ukrainian-language text of this sermon of His Beatitude Lubomyr can be read at:
www.ugcc.org.ua/468.0.html