News of the Incarnate Word community

Friday, 07 November 2008, 12:02

On Friday October 25, 2008, Bishop Hlib (Lonchyna), head of the Department of Church Commissions and Responsible for Monastic Matters of the Patriarchal Curia of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, visited monastic houses of the Incarnate Word in the Ivano-Frankivs’k Eparchy. The visit started with a visit to the house of the sisters in Burshtyn, where presently a community of sisters resides, among whom is Provincial Mother Superior Sister Maria Sliz Farina. The monastery was blessed on August 3 by Most Rev. Bishop Volodymyr (Viytyshyn) and is on the territory of a former hospital. In the renewed building the sisters live and it is planned here to open a contemplative monastery of closed type. The Bishop shared a meal here with the sisters. In the second half of day, the Bishop, escorted by priests and sisters, left for Ivano-Frankivs’k, where he visited the house of the novitiate in Krykhivtsi, and the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, where he conducted a conference on the theme «Love in the teaching of Saint Paul the Apostle,» as this year in the Catholic Church is the Year of the Holy Preacher. He gave special attention to love among the members of monastic communities. Consequently he celebrated a Divine Liturgy in the chapel of the men’s monastery in concelebration with Fathers Hryhoriy Rohats’kyj, Yosyf Popovych, Yosyf Montes, Sofron Zelins’kyj, and Yosafat Boyko. After finishing the Liturgy Bishop Hlib visited Saint Nicholas Mercy Town, a house which five sisters take care of and in which live about 50 inhabitants, among whom are abandoned children, half orphans, small girls with their mothers, and elderly people with developmental disabilities. At the evening meal schoolchildren from Mercy Town presented for the Bishop a concert with songs and an Argentinean dance. In addition, at the invitation of organizers from the Sambir and Drohobych Eparchy, priests and sisters of the Incarnate Word had the opportunity to take part in or, it is better to say, helped in conducting the Vocations Day in the eparchy, in particular in the city of Drohobych, because this year is also the Year of Christian Vocation in the Catholic Church. Fathers Sofron Zelins’kyj, IW, and Josaphat Boyko, IW, together with five sisters of the Incarnate Word led by Sister Maria Christian spent all Monday October 27 in the town of Drohobych, sharing the experience of their consecrated life. The first visit was to a group of students of the Pedagogical Faculty of Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University. Consequently they visited two large groups from the Higher Professional College and then the Medical School. Each meeting consisted of two main parts: (1) a general lesson about vocation for all –the vocation to holiness and the vocation to states of life – married and consecrated, about which they spoke more; (2) then there was more talk about sharing the experience of the consecrated life, so-called “witnessing by life.” There was no lack of questions and discussion. A meeting in the youth center, at which were present, in addition to young people of the city, seminarians and representatives of men’s and women’s monasteries who talked about their monastery, order, or community, took place in the evening. A Basilian priest gave a general talk about the monastic vocation; one lay person talked about Christian married couples, and consequently monastic orders and communities were discussed. During the break they visited the seminary and cathedral.

Information given by Fr. Yosafat Boyko, Incarnate Word