June 2, 2024
Your Beatitude,
Your Eminences,
Your Graces,
Reverend Fathers of the Monastery,
Very Reverend and Reverend Clergy,
all you faithful who are gathered here to celebrate:
Christ is risen!
During this glorious Paschal seasons, it is my joy and honor to join Your Beatitude at Bancheny Monastery. It is my understanding that the monastery celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this year. The vitality of the monastic community and its social outreach are a demonstration of the perennial power of the Orthodox Christian faith. Our faith is not a relic of the distant past, but eternity irrupting into the present. The monastery’s splendor and achievements are a revelation of the eternal Today of the kingdom of God, a Today which we encounter most intimately in the holy and divine Liturgy which we have just celebrated.
Thus, as I thank Your Beatitude and the monastery brotherhood for your welcome and for your generous hospitality, I would like to reiterate my unyielding fraternal love and support for Your Beatitude, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and the entire Ukrainian people.
In this regard, while we of course affirm the right and obligation of your beloved country of Ukraine to defend itself against unjustified aggression, we also implore the civil authorities of this land to respect religious freedom, due process, and the norms of international law. We express this out of love for Your Beatitude and your God-protected Church, but also out of love for the whole Ukrainian people, who are presently engaged in a struggle to preserve both their land and their freedom.
Once again, I greet Your Beatitude with true joy and deep love, and I say once more:
Christ is risen!