Everyone has a unique gift and vocation. Therefore, this holiday symbolizes the greatness of such a vocation and plan of the Creator for us. After all, He seeks opportunities to lay His temple in every person.
This was emphasized by the Head and Father of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, in his sermon to the faithful during the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ on the Feast of the The Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, on Wednesday, December 4, 2019.
“Today, the Church of Christ is celebrating The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The memory of this event has been preserved in the heart of the Church since the early centuries of Christianity. According to church reports, Joachim and Anna were able to fulfill the promise they had made to God. After many years of infertility, a baby was finally born. The three-year-old girl, according to the custom of the time, is brought and passed on to the Temple in Jerusalem as a precious gift,” said the Primate.
“Heavenly Father created man in this great universe as the only rest where He can find a place for himself. Man is the true temple of God. Therefore, the Apostle Paul teaches Christians, ‘Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,'” reminds the preacher.
“Today’s holiday is a triumph of Christian upbringing, because every child should be raised to be a temple of God in our eyes,” said the bishop. “We see that there is so much more to do in Ukraine. According to state statistics, 20% of Ukrainian children suffer from violence: physical, mental, bullying, and one in five children in Ukraine is sexually abused. How much we together as a Church, as a Christian family, as all the nation and the community, must do that each person finds her own dignity on the way to herself.”
And later he added, “That is why our Church has done so much this year to make our parishes, our Catholic kindergartens, schools, universities the places where children can feel safe and secure.”
“Today, let us rejoice with the Virgin, that the Lord answers our prayers, hears the cry of the human soul, and sends signs of His response and presence among us. Let us thank the Creator that He did not want to live far away in heaven, or any man-made temples, but He called each of us to be a temple of the Holy Spirit. And let us pray for the Christian educators who build the temple of God in every Christian family. Mother of God, help our children become the bearers of our great Lord by Your example and model,” said His Beatitude Sviatoslav.
The UGCC Department for Information