WEEK OF THE FAMILY IN THE UKRAINIAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
2025
SUNDAY, MAY 11, 2025 – Dedicated to Mothers
Today. the second Sunday of the month of May, we express our respect for our beloved mothers, wives, sisters, grandmothers, godmothers and we thank God for that for the extraordinary, sacrificial, boundless love that is infused into the heart of every mother. After all, a mother’s love for her child is perhaps a flection of the love that God Himself has for every human person.
During this month of May, we honor our Heavenly Mother, the Most Holy Mother of God. We emphasize our love for our country, for which we pray.
A mother is one whom we admire and love. A mother is one who always forgives, supports and embrace us with her love.
Today we thank God for the gift of our mothers. We express our gratitude to them. We ask our heavenly Father to bless and reward them and we ask our heavenly Mother, the Theotokos, to always protect and guide them and to help us to listen to her Son Jesus Christ
MONDAY, MAY 12, 2025 – Dedicated to Fathers
Today, on the second day of the Week of the Family, we reflect on the meaning of the vocation of men to be husbands for their wives and parents for their children.
St. Paul addresses men with these words: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church.” (Eph 5:15). This is the first and most important task of every married man towards his wife. Thanks to God’s grace, through the Sacrament of Marriage, such a task is quite possible.
Equally, in marriage, the husband is called to cherish a deep respect for the dignity of his wife.
The true love of a man for his wife lays a solid foundation in his parental love for their children.
The mutual love of parents provides children with a sense of security and the beauty of this world that creates a favorable environment for their further formation and development. That is why children should be the fruit of love.
A father in the family is unique and irreplaceable, and therefore extremely responsible.
This task is best implemented if a man seeks to imitate and show his children the Fatherhood of God himself.
So, let’s pray today for all the men who are preparing for family life or are already performing
this vocation that the Lord God bless them to properly fulfill it and to be good men for
their wives and loving parents for their children!
TUESDAY, MAY 12, 2025 – Dedicated to Children
One of the main goals of the spouses is the birth and upbringing of children. Being parents is the boundless gift of God. the Lord
The crown of God’s creation is man: “And God created man in his image; in God’s image He created him. Man and woman He created them. And God blessed them, and told them to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it.” (Gen. 1, 27-28).
it is also important for parents to properly raise their children. They are not only to raise them to grow and to provide an education, but they are to educate them in holiness. This is the purpose of everyone’s life as a Christian. We were born in order to be saints, and that is how we were created by God.
Parents have a great responsibility: by setting an example, to testify to the love of God, so that their children want to pray, go to church, participate in the Holy Sacraments, read the Holy Scriptures, live for God’s commandments and do good. When parents practice it every day,
they will share with their children the true experience of a living relationship with
God. Children, who from an early age, who have a strong relationship with the living God,
will have a good start to grow as a true Christian and become worthy as the children of God.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2025 – Dedicated to Grandparents and the Elderly
Jesus Christ has always shown us an example of caring for those who society often ignores: the poor, the sick, abandoned souls. Everyone who came to Him found love and acceptance. We, as Christians, must live according to His example – to love, to help and support our elders.
The older adult is a stage at which a person can grow even more in a spiritual sense.
Elderly people are usually naturally endowed with greater wisdom, maturity and an experienced life. Therefore, they are an invaluable gift for all of us through their prayer, suffering, ailments, difficulties, trials and evidence of faith.
Therefore, it is obvious that, if we honor God, we must also honor those, to whom He gave a long life on this earth. Because it is true evidence that they are really very valuable in the eyes of our Creator, we must realize that they are valuable to us. Let us treasure our grandparents and the elderly remembering them in our prayers.
THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2025 – Dedicated to the Lonely and Wounded During the War
Difficult and painful, during the war against Ukraine, was the topic of loneliness in
our families. War hardships have changed a lot of fate and accustomed to the way of life of many Ukrainians. During the eleven years of Russian aggression and more than three years
full-scale bloody war, we are increasingly witnessing this sad reality. Over the years on the battlefield and as a result of missile attacks of the enemy on civilian cities and villages Ukraine has lost tens of thousands of its best sons and daughters. Heavy-wounded warriors are desperately fighting for life, while in hospitals all over the country and abroad. Millions of other citizens left their homes in search of security for their families. Thousands of prisoners and missing Ukrainians… and hundreds of thousands – defenders of Ukraine who in an unequal struggle defend the Dignity and Freedom of their people on the front line, far from their families. Time and distance, as well as other stressful moments give rise to insufficient, or even complete lack of communication.
One with one. Such sad realities have become a great test for us and in spiritual life, because as members of the Church of Christ, a living organism, we constantly need live communication with each other. This is an integral part of the spiritual life of every Christian. We need to learn not to feel lonely, heal the wounds of loss, restore lost ligaments, find meaning in your life and service. …
Brothers and sisters, for us and others who experience loneliness, emptiness, pain, let us cry in prayer to the Most High God, so that all people will be embraced with His love. Let us open our hearts to God’s will and let us be faithful to Him.
FRIDAY, MAY 15, 2025 – Dedicated to Those Who Are Confused, Faced with a Choice
Every day a person makes many different choices. Sometimes choices are quite simple but there are times when a person can become confused, often left alone, when life has lost its meaning… and such a person no longer knows how to live further.
The answer to this is given by St. John Chrysostom as he writes: “In the midst of all
circumstances, my dear ones, we need faith, because faith is to have virtues, a cure for
salvation… And those who do not have faith are like people who would like
to cross the sea without a ship” (St. Ivan Chrysostomy, Gomilia 33, on IB.4:21-28).
In this sea of life, through which we swim, there are days of good weather and there are storms, so it seems that this is already all that has already come, the End! However, it is good when a person has faith in God, when he realizes that he is “not alone!” He realizes that God is next to him in this “boat of life” that God sympathizes with his pain and supports his choice!
SATURDAY, MAY 16, 2025 – Dedicated to the Family (Family Day)
His Beatitude Sviatoslav, Father and Head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, once said: “Once the Ukrainian family saved the Church, now the holy duty of the Church is to save the family.” Therefore, these words are our main task and purpose, and we have to support, accompany and do everything possible to save it, because the family is not just a faceless social unit, it is gift of God. The family is the place where the fundamental moral and spiritual values begin. In the family we learn to love, forgive, help and be responsible. It is the first school where Christian virtues are learned. So what the family will be like, this will be the future of the Church and Ukraine.
In our time, more than ever before, the family faces many challenges: disintegration of family values under the influence of materialism and secularism; war, which takes life and divorces families; social instability, which forces parents to emigrate in search of a better life. This difficult reality sets an important task for us: to restore and strengthen our families on the basis of true Christian love.
According to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, the family should be “domestic Church”, a place where faith is passed and encouraged to Spiritual development (see. Lumen Gentium, 11).
When a family prays together, reads the Word of God, practices the adoption of the saints,
it becomes a source of spiritual strength not only for its members, but also for
society as a whole. This is the basis on which we can save our families. Ukraine needs families who will be an example of mutual love, sacrifice and deep Christian faith. The future of our state depends on every family. If we learn to build our families on the foundation of faith, hope and love, then Ukraine will become a country of strong and spiritually rich people. Therefore, remembering the call of the bright memory of His Beatitude Lubomyr: “Pray and work…”
