Ukraine Archbishop says "...Ukraine is already experiencing the 115th day of this great, bloody war that Russia is waging..."


 
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today is Saturday, June 18, 2022, and Ukraine is already experiencing the 115th day of this great, bloody war that Russia is waging against the Ukrainian people.
During the last day, fierce fighting took place again along the entire front line, from Kharkiv in the north to Kherson and Mykolayiv in the south. According to reports, the fiercest fighting is taking place in Luhansk region, the enemy is trying to attack Slovyansk and Bakhmut. Severodonetsk, already known to you, is still the heart of the greatest battles that are already taking place in the city itself.
But Ukraine is worth it! Ukraine is fighting and praying! And we thank the Lord God for surviving this morning. We thank the Armed Forces of Ukraine for being able to see the light, the rays of the morning sun rising over Kyiv.
Although some towns and villages are located far from the front line, there is no safe place in Ukraine.
 
Yesterday, the city of Kremenchuk in Poltava region was brutally shelled again with eight rockets. The enemy is trying to methodically destroy all the infrastructure of Ukraine, to destroy our ability to feed and warm our children in the winter.
Yesterday I finished my visit to three regions of Ukraine: Sumy, Kharkiv and Poltava. It is a deep impression that Ukraine has won the battle for the sowing campaign. Ninety-five percent of the fields to be sown are green. We have seen how the towns and villages in the Sumy region living with Russia live. We have seen how deeply wounded the Kharkiv region is ... A third of the region is under Russian occupation, and the city of Kharkiv is under Russian fire every day. Poltava region has become a humanitarian hub that accepts refugees, tries to treat the wounded, tries to serve all those who then return to the front or look for a way back home. Through such solidarity, mutual assistance, cooperation between different civil society communities and local authorities, we are looking for the best way to solve the most difficult problems.
Today I would like to reflect on another gift of the Holy Spirit, which we call knowledge. According to the prophet Isaiah, we know that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are a manifestation of His presence in man, in the church community. Obviously, a person acquires knowledge himself. We study, work, improve our intellect, read, are interested in something - the Lord God created a human mind capable of knowing the truth.
And what kind of knowledge are we talking about when we talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost? Man in his capacity for cognition also has certain limits. The Lord God, in whom we believe, surpasses in His greatness man's ability to know Him. Only a spiritual person can know the spiritual world and spiritual things. So the gift of the Holy Spirit, called knowledge, our Lord God, Creator and Savior, in the Holy Spirit seems to meet a person who wants to know Him and seeks Him, and raises him to himself, to the level of his supernatural sacrament. Thus the incomprehensible, immeasurable, eternal God makes himself known to man, becomes knowable for him, reveals to him the mysteries of his eternal existence. And this is given to us by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. When a person has the gift of knowledge as a gift of the Holy Spirit, he can see as if up close God's Wisdom, the idea of ​​man and the world - he can fully understand all the kinds of knowledge that he still had. We know that modern human knowledge is fragmentary. Everyone knows deeply only a fraction of knowledge, competent in only one narrow specialty. And by the gift of the Holy Spirit man learns to see the whole reality that lives in him, and to know God, to whom he goes and in whom he believes.
We ask the Holy Spirit to help Ukrainians today to accept this gift of knowledge, to know more than our enemy, to feel the spiritual world, to see and feel the archstrategist Michael with his army, which today is at war with evil, the devil in this war next to the Ukrainians. And we thank the Lord God for making Himself known by sending us His only begotten Son, and thus the Holy Spirit, and giving us knowledge.
God bless Ukraine! God bless the Ukrainian army! God, bless all those who seek You, want to know You, seek to believe in You and serve You! God, give Ukraine peace, free Ukraine from the invader! Grant victory to the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian people!
The blessing of the Lord be upon you, with His grace and love of man, always, now, and forever and ever. Amen.

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