Thanks to him, our Church survived in the most challenging years of its history, - Patriarch of the UGCC about Metropolitan Sheptytsky
This was stated by the Patriarch of the UGCC during a sermon on November 1, the UGCC Information Department reports.
"Today, we remember the day of the passing of our great Metropolitan, the Righteous Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. We thank God for sending us a tireless sower of God's word in his person," the UGCC Primate said.
According to the first hierarch, today, we see how the seed that Andrey Sheptytsky sowed in the souls of our people has sprouted and borne fruit. Metropolitan Andrey, like a Good Sower, generously sowed selected grain, without concerning himself on what land it would fall. His seed and strength was God's word. It matured even when there was a fierce storm.
"With his life, his work, his word, he made our church capable of surviving persecution. Thanks to Metropolitan Andrey, our Church managed to survive in the direst years of its history, survive the liquidation and other difficult moments, and still bear the hundredfold fruit of God's word," the father and head of the UGCC said.
"While listening to Metropolitan Andrey, our faithful, priests, monks and nuns, sowed with their bodies, like that grain, the vast expanses of Siberia and Kazakhstan, but carried the germ of eternal life. Now we see the fruit of this seeding. Today we are reaping the benefits of the word of God being sown by our great predecessors, in particular metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky," the head of the UGCC said.
"We ask the righteous Metropolitan Andrey that through his mediation we are those who, hearing God's word, accept it with a kind and sincere heart and hold on to it, and then bear fruit in patience," the UGCC Patriarch added in conclusion.
