Hope and Perseverance, Peace and Justice: A Pentecost Celebration in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

The two-day event began on Saturday evening with a sacred atmosphere of prayer, reflection, and sacramental grace. Throughout the evening, priests heard confessions, offering the faithful the opportunity for reconciliation. After the Vespers Metropolitan Borys Gudziak welcomed those present with a heartfelt address that framed the significance of Pentecost in the life of the Church and each believer.

“The feast of Pentecost is the feast that constitutes a fundamental part of the history of salvation, of God’s economy,” he said. “In other words, it reveals how the Lord works with us, how He proposes divine life—life with Him, His life.”

Metropolitan Borys emphasized the importance of opening oneself to the presence and gifts of the Holy Spirit. “We need the gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God. The Holy Spirit who comes—sent by the Father through the Son—is the one who, with His gifts, allows us to enter into the mystery of the divine life, to stand before the Trinity, to open our life for God.”

The evening continued with the meditative Jesus Prayer, led by Rev. Herman Majkrzak, followed by Lectio Divina, drawing participants into deeper reflection on Scripture. The evening concluded with an anointing service, offering comfort, healing, and spiritual renewal.

Sunday, June 8, opened with the prayer of Matins and continued with a series of thematic reflections on the virtue of hope. In the morning session, Fr. Volodymyr Radko gave a talk in English on “The Virtue of Hope in Daily Life,” while Fr. Iouri Koslovskyi offered his reflections in Ukrainian on “The Hope We Find in Community.”

In the afternoon, Gina Christian, a Catholic journalist and storyteller, spoke in English on “Communicating Hope.” At the same time, Dr. Maria Ivaniv Lonchyna, a theologian and archivist, addressed the Ukrainian-speaking participants with a presentation titled “History as a Teacher of Hope.”

At the heart of the Pentecost celebration was the solemn Divine Liturgy, presided over by Metropolitan Borys. In his homily, he invited the faithful to contemplate the profound mystery of the Trinity revealed at Pentecost. “We stand before the mystery of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit—a mystery we cannot fully comprehend, a mystery that will always be greater than us, toward which we journey, to which the Church leads us, and in which we grow,” he said.

Reflecting on the feast, he added: “Today we pray to receive the Holy Spirit, to receive His gifts… These gifts of the Holy Spirit, which come from God just as the very gift of our life does, allow us to encounter Christ more deeply, to receive Him, and to live in Him.”

Metropolitan Borys also underlined the significance of the Pentecost celebration within the context of the Jubilee Year of Hope. “How abundant, how fresh, how life-giving this feast is. Our people in Ukraine, who are enduring war, need hope, need every source of strength, every sacrament, every gift. The world is waiting for us to generously share this mystery revealed before our eyes, so that we may carry these gifts into the world. May this day deepen our awareness of these gifts within us, so that we may know how greatly the Lord loves us.”

Following the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Borys presented the Metropolitan Lifetime Service Award to Roma Hayda, recognizing her decades of faithful service and unwavering dedication to the life of the Church.