No contagion, catastrophe, regime, war, poverty or persecution can overcome the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit— the Spirit of Hope. He led Metropolitan Josyf and our entire Church in the communist countries through the dark tunnel of torture, isolation, prohibition, and death. Our Church is alive. In 1900 it had a mere three eparchies limited to western Ukraine; today globally there are 36 eparchies and exarchates, including our four in the US. The story of Slipyj in the Spirit is emblematic. In 1963, miraculously, following an intervention of St. Pope John XXIII, the Metropolitan was released from the gulag after 18 years of confinement to attend the Second Session of Vatican Council II. The 71-year-old crippled living martyr not only survived. A few months later in Rome he founded the Ukrainian Catholic University. For the next 21 years from the free world he continued to give hope to the faithful in the Soviet bloc while visiting and galvanizing our Church in various countries, including ours, on various continents. Today, in the very place it was declared dead, our Church is vibrant— and it is becoming truly global. Our life is just beginning, because the Holy Spirit has come.
May His gifts — wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (Is 11:2)— be with you! May the hope that our ancestors fostered in far more treacherous circumstances be our hope! May we be people of solidarity and service to each other as we nurture our communion with God and all His children!
Today, our mission is to share the gifts of the Holy Spirit with others. Let us be contemporary apostles of Christ, witnessing to God’s truth, and revealing God’s goodness in the world.
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
+Borys
Archbishop of Philadelphia for Ukrainians
Metropolitan of Ukrainian Catholics in the United States
+Paul
Eparch of Stamford
+Вenedict
Eparch of St. Nicholas in Chicago
+Bohdan
Eparch of St. Josaphat in Parma
+Andriy
Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia
Pentecost 2020