His Beatitude Sviatoslav on the Presentation of the Lord: “Remember that your children are first of all the children of God”

Today, on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, His Beatitude Sviatoslav (Shevchuk) led the Divine Liturgy in St. Basil the Great Church in Kyiv. Concelebrants were the bishops of the Permanent Synod, at this time gathered in Kyiv for their regular meeting. They were: Bishop Volodymyr (Viytyshyn), Archbishop and Metropolitan of Ivan-Frankivsk;  Bishop Ken (Novakivsky), Eparch of Westminster;  Bishop Yaroslav (Pryriz), Eparch of Sambir-Drohobych; Bishop Bohdan (Dziurakh), Secretary of UGCC Synod of Bishops. In his sermon (audio) His Beatitude Sviatoslav focused on the figure of the Holy Virgin Mary, who stands at the threshold of the temple holding her Child, Jesus, in her arms.  “She comes with Him to the temple in accordance to the lawful tradition…  Yet the Holy Virgin Mary is not holding in her arms simply one more newborn child – she is holding the Light, the Son of God, the Life of God, eternal,” reminds the preacher. The presentation of the Lord is the meeting of Jesus with His Father in the temple.  On that day, UGCC also celebrates the Day of Religious Persons.  It is the feast of those persons who really saw the Light, understood that in Jesus Christ there is the life for which it is worth forsaking any other kind of life,” emphasized the Head of the Church. To dedicate yourself  to God means, on the one hand, to give yourself to Him, to direct one’s own life in the service of the One to whom it rightly belongs. “Today we thank the Lord for all religious persons and all monks and nuns of our Church.  And we also thank each of them that they are the bearers of the Light, which illuminates all those who are in darkness.  The symbol of this light is the candle that we ceremoniously bless today,” noted His Beatitude Sviatoslav. During the Liturgy the Church Primate consecrated five deacons into presbyters and one sub-deacon into deacon for the Kyiv Archeparchy. “A priest is truly the bearer of Life and Light.  He is a religious person.  Into his hands the Lord entrusts the service of the Holy Sacraments.  He will pass on life, therefore people will call him father, stated His Beatitude Sviatoslav. The arch-hierarch is convinced that the life of each one of us belongs to God.  “The one who becomes a Christian, follows Christ,” he emphasized.  “Parents, remember that your children are --first of all-- the children of God.   Their lives have been entrusted into your hands by God.   Take care of them,”  so the Father and Head of the Church addressed all parents. At the end of the Liturgy, His Beatitude Sviatoslav blessed candles.  He greeted the newly-ordained priests and their families with this significant moment of their lives. Phhoto album UGCC Department of Information