The Head of the UGCC in Krylos: "God – He, who calls us to depths of the sea and goes with us"

With these words the Head and the Father of the UGCC His Beatitude Sviatoslav addressed to the pilgrims on August 2 during a sermon at the Pontifical Divine Liturgy at the IV All-Ukrainian Galician patriarchal pilgrimage to the miraculous icon of Our Lady in the village of Krylos in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Bishop Volodymyr (Viytyshyn), Archbishop of Ivano-Frankivsk; Bishop Igor (Voznyak), Archbishop and Metropolitan of Lviv; Bishop Vasyl (Semenyuk), Archbishop of Ternopil; Bishop Bogdan (Dziurakh), Administrator of the Patriarchal Curia of the UGCC; Bishop Vasyl (Ivasyuk), Bishop of Kolomyya-Chernivtsi; Bishop Yosaphat (Hovera), Exarch of Lutsk; Bishop Mykhaylo (Bubniy), Exarch of Odesa and Crimea; and Bishop Yosaphat (Moshchych), Auxiliary bishop of Ivano-Frankivsk conserved with the Head of the UGCC.

The preacher added that on this day the Church celebrates the memory of the great Old Testament prophet Elijah. Based on Sunday Gospel, the Head of the UGCC noted that when God calls a man, He "calls him to the depth". "We can hear in today's Gospel that God made the disciples sit in a boat at night and swim in the sea. It was Christ’s initiative. When a person responds to God's calling and let God lead him, he cannot control himself. He begins to make something that is beyond his strength"- He explained. According to His Beatitude Sviatoslav, at some point of his spiritual life a person experiences doubts about such events, whether they are fantasy or not. Is it really possible that God calls us to? Are the deep, high tasks that God puts, possible to implement? Then God lets the man go through, first, a fall, and then take off. "He makes us understand that the belief in God is the foundation that makes it possible to step forward and makes that person cannot do. Therefore the Lord says that there is nothing impossible for those who believe"- continued the high priest.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav emphasised that God - is the One who "calls us to the depth and goes with us". We only need to believe and firmly hold the hand of our Savior to be filled with His power. Only then can we be strong on our way, and find the peace of the stormy night.

"If we, standing here in this holy place, look at the history of our nation and the Church, we can see how many adverse winds were blowing on our people - continued further Preacher. - But our ancestors were able to stand and walk this way, responding to the call of the Lord and Saviour".

The Head of the UGCC noted that we are once again going through the same thing as the Apostles amidst the raging Sea of ​​Galilee. "Today we are in the fourth watch of the night standing among Ukrainian raging sea of ​​our being. As soon as we start to look for our Lord's saving hand in our faith, we will immediately find it. No one, no international negotiations and diplomacy will give us the strength to go through to freedom and dignity. Only the Lord Christ can lead us this way. That peace that we want to ask our Lord, peace in our Ukrainian boat, is from God that here in this moment is staying with us", - concluded His Beatitude Sviatoslav.

After the Liturgy the Father and the Head of the Church blessed the reanimobile, bought by volunteers from Ivano-Frankivsk to help the military in the East.

Photos by press service of Ivano-Frankivsk archdiocese

UGCC Department of Information