Gallery
Automatisms of our corrupt nature
+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
The Word of Life – Jn 14:10 (17/8/14 – 31/8/2014)
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority;
but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
I want to know the truth about myself
+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
The essence of spiritual life – to lose your soul for the sake of Christ
+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
The Word of Life – Jn 14:9 (3/8/14 – 17/8/2014)
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long,
and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father;
so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Reflection on Jn 14:9-10
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”
Let us realize that Jesus speaks to His apostles for the last time, on the evening before He is arrested and sentenced to death. So these are deep truths which He hands on to the apostles in an intimate conversation. First He gives an answer to Thomas who does not understand Jesus’ words about heaven. Jesus is going away, that He may prepare a place for the apostles and all the faithful. Thomas says: “We do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” And Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” And then He adds: “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.” The Apostle Philip responds to it by asking Jesus: “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus says to him: “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?”
Spiritual gifts, ministries and manifestation
Those who experienced renewal in the Holy Spirit consciously opened their hearts to the Holy Spirit. It is true about them: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1Cor 6:19) If He is in us, then it is true: “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” (1Cor 12:4) So the Holy Spirit is the Author and Source of all gifts, and if He is in your heart, in Him you have all His gifts. But the question is which gifts He wants to be manifested right through you. God ordained that gifts should be developed within the communion of the Church, and at the right time. There are some people who, being renewed in the Holy Spirit, started to serve with several gifts at once – the gift of interpretation, the gift of healing… But that’s rare.
The Word of Life – Jn 14:6 (20/7/14 – 27/7/2014)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
You are because God wanted you to be
+ Elijah
Patriarch of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate
Reflection on Jn 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus says about Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus said to the Jews: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” (Jn 8:58) They took up stones to throw at Him, for the name of God is “HE WHO IS”. Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the Truth. The devil is a liar and the father of lies. Jesus said to those who believed in Him: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (Jn 8:32) He does not speak about an abstract truth but about Divine Truth in the flesh, i.e. about Himself. Jesus also says that He is the Life. The contrary of life is death, both temporal and eternal. Jesus gives us eternal life, and He Himself is Eternal Life. He says: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” (Jn 11:25) Jesus says that He is the Way. He says to all who have received Him: “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.” The apostles left everything and followed Him. Jesus is the spiritual way which unites us to Him and leads to unity with the Father: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) He is true God.
Anniversary of the jubilee renewal of baptism
On Sunday, 6 July 2014, we will mark the first anniversary of the renewal of baptism in the Dnieper River in Kiev.
We vividly recall the canonization of John Milic of Kromeriz, Czech preacher of repentance and prophet, by Patriarch Elijah of the Byzantine Catholic Patriarchate during a solemn liturgy in front of the Church of St. Sophia in Kiev on the eve of the feast of nativity of St. John the Baptist. After the Divine Liturgy, we, the believers of the Ukrainian orthodox Greek Catholic Church (UO GCC), together with our bishops and Patriarch Elijah marched in procession with banners and placards, singing religious songs, from the Church of St. Sophia to the sculpture of St. Olga, St. Andrew and Slavonic apostles Sts. Cyril and Methodius. From there we went to the statue of St. Vladimir, where all of us – on behalf of ourselves and of the whole nation – renounced the devil and demonic forces. Then we confessed the faith and went down to the Dnieper.
