The Head of the UGCC to the priests in Spain: Take care of your spiritual life every day

“I ask you, fathers, to take care of your spiritual life every day. The last time I visited Spain and had the opportunity to meet many of you, I asked you to do so: make sure that your conscience, as a priest of Christ, is free from sin. Look for a good confessor to whom you could turn in need. And I beg you very much, confess often," His Beatitude Sviatoslav addressed his fathers.

The Head of the UGCC stressed that it is impossible to imagine a healthy life for a priest if he lacks three elements every day: prayer, the Holy Eucharist and the Divine Liturgy, and the reading of the Holy Scriptures.

“Listen to God who speaks to you every day in His Word. He wants to speak to us every day, not just once a year during a retreat. Reading and listening to the Word of God will fill you with the message of God, which you will then say to your people,” the Head of the Church said.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav also noted that all retreats and spiritual exercises should encourage constant conversion. “This is the path that we must follow every day, although we are tempted sometimes to serve ourselves, take care of our own interests and put them above God's,” added the Father and Head of the UGCC.

He also noted that Pope Francis uses the term "pastoral conversion." “This means that we are called to take care of the weakest, the most neglected, the lost, the most distant. We must go beyond our own church, our own community, and look for those who have not yet come. There are so many of our faithful in Spain who are not yet integrated into the community of our parishes in that country. The greatest wealth of our Church is our people. Please take care of our people, because they are the most rejected abroad. Let our faithful feel that they are needed, that the Lord remembers them, and that their Church is always near,” His Beatitude Sviatoslav urged the pastors.

The Head of the UGCC spoke with the priests of Spain during a retreat organized by the Pastoral and Migration Department of the UGCC at the request of the pastors themselves and with the assistance of the Ordinariate for Eastern Catholics in Spain. More than 20 priests took part in the days of spiritual renewal.

Vicar of the Ordinariate for the Faithful of Eastern rite in Spain, Fr. Andres Martinez Esteban, also  addressed the participants urging them to practice new achievements in their daily ministry.

The UGCC Department for Information