Pentecost Pastoral of the Ukrainian Catholic Hierarchy of the U.S.A.

To our Clergy, Hieromonks and Brothers, Religious Sisters,
Seminarians, and Beloved Faithful

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

We greet you on the joyous feast of Pentecost, the birth of the Church, and the rebirth of nature. This year, Pentecost coincides with an apparent decline of the pandemic and a loosening of quarantine restrictions. We are enabled to celebrate the birth and renewal of the Church by again attending Divine services —if not today then, by God’s grace, tomorrow. Having conscientiously endured restrictions on interpersonal encounters and interactions we hope to be together in prayer and in the Descent of the Holy Spirit Who comes to us. Our hope is real, and it is being realized. Saying “Happy Birthday” to our Mother-Church, born out of the gift of the Holy Spirit, we are also privileged to observe how life returns to our houses of worship as they refill with people, our chants, incense, and candlelight.

At Pentecost the Father, through the Son, sends to us the Holy Spirit, “the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, everywhere present and filling all things.” In the Feast, we all share the joy of being together. We celebrate the Spirit of communion in the Divine Trinity, in the Church, and in the human race. Our God is three Persons in One, a triune community. Each one of us is created in God’s image and likeness to live in divine-like relationship and communion. Sent by the Father, through the action of the Holy Spirit in Mary, the Mother of God, the Son assumed our life and death. In His Resurrection we overcome all obstacles to encounter, reconciliation and union with God and all of God’s children. No COVID-, no isolation, no death, is stronger than the healing and uniting Spirit of God, “who renews the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30).

Together we pray for the disease to be defeated, for recovery of those struck by sickness or crushed by the death of loved ones, and for the eternal rest of all virus victims. On the Last Day, may they be resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit to new and everlasting life (Ez 37: 1-14; 1 Cor 15).

We extend special words of recognition and gratitude to doctors, nurses, all hospital and medical personnel, first-responders and all civil services. We are inspired by your dedication and heroic self-sacrifice. Christ the Healer works through you to save lives, including ours. We are uplifted by the steadfast service of priests and the exemplary responsibility of the faithful. We thank our clergy and all the baptized for their creative responses to the challenges faced by our Church in the United States. “We give thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Th 1:2-3).

We are inspired by the resolve and resourcefulness of teachers, small entrepreneurs and business leaders, grand-parents, and parents along with our beautiful children. All of us have been called to adjust our daily lives to unprecedented circumstances. The entire globe, together and all at once, has lived in consciousness of real danger. It was more than danger: there was death. We all know somebody who was taken away from us by COVID-19. Among our ten active and retired bishops in the US, Metropolitan Stephen Sulyk of blessed memory was infected and called to the Lord. Two others endured a grievous bout with the ubiquitous disease and, gratefully, survived. We express our condolences, solidarity in loss, and sense of pain to those who had no chance properly to say good-bye.