St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church

06/14/2026

The greatest loneliness of a person is not the pain itself, but the feeling that no one understands them and does not bear this burden with them.

Sometimes we want so much to save the one we love: to take away the illness, stop the tears, change the circumstances. But there comes a moment when human strength is no longer enough. And then the deepest thing remains - presence.

Simply being there. Not running away from someone else's pain. Not closing ourselves off with cold words. Not rushing to "correct" a person, but silently holding their heart in your heart and raising it to God.

This is exactly how Christ loved. He did not always immediately take away suffering, but he never left a person alone in it. He cried at the tomb of Lazarus. He suffered with them. He bore human pain as His own.

And therefore, true love is not only help when we are strong. It is also the ability to stay by our side when we are powerless.

There are prayers born not from words, but from tears. There is silence, in which there is more love than in long speeches. There is compassion, which becomes for another person that support that does not allow him to fall completely into darkness.

God sees these silent sacrifices of the heart. He sees how you worry for someone in the middle of the night. How someone else's pain hurts. How you would like to help more, but you can only pray and be there.

And the Lord will never call this “little”.

Because for Him every heart that has not become indifferent is precious.

And, perhaps, it is through such compassion that the soul is most likened to Christ. Not when it is strong, but when it loves even in its own powerlessness. Amen 🙏🏻

06/14/2026

Third Sunday after Pentecost

06/13/2026

Holy Sunday is coming - a day set aside for the Lord. From God we have received countless treasures: life, the ability to love, think, breathe... We have received as a gift from God all the beauty of the created world - trees, mountains, sky, stars... From God we have a priceless treasure - time, the time of life!.. We especially begin to understand and appreciate this when this cruel, bloody, protracted war of the Russian occupier is going on on our blessed, beautiful, God-given Ukrainian land. Because war takes life so unexpectedly and mercilessly.
On Holy Sunday, when we have the opportunity to pray to God more time, let us thank God in prayer for God's gifts to us! Not knowing how to give thanks, we will not receive other gifts. "It is good to praise the Lord and sing praises to your name, O Most High" (Ps. 91:2).

Beauty helps develop listening. The beauty of the sky, the beauty of the earth, the beauty of the world created by God… Few things in the mountains, especially in the Carpathians, are as enchanting, attracting the sight and hearing as water and its murmur: whether it is a sonorous spring stream that gives a blessed moment of deep silence of the soul, or a cascade of waterfalls, the roar of which beckons from afar and captivates the soul with the call of life, or turbulent streams that rush headlong to a cherished goal known only to them, or the hypnotic caress of high-mountain lakes - it seems that from such beauty the very sky has descended to earth!.. This is the beauty of the visible world, which, however, in such beautiful moments in our soul already borders on the invisible …

The most valuable thing that can be learned in life is the ability to listen to God. This means learning to live according to God, to be truly human, to enjoy life, filling it with love and happiness. Life is happiness. So let us trust in God and move forward. Let us move forward against the winds, and even now, when this terrible war is raging… They report that the brain-dead enemy has reached such madness that he is preparing to strike Ukraine with the Oreshnik ballistic missile, which can be equipped with a nuclear charge. The enemy will lose the war, that is why he is so mad… Save and preserve us from this disaster, Lord! Let us pray and glorify the Lord in our hearts, and the Lord will certainly help us in everything, grant us peace, life and a happy future!

“Bless the Lord, my soul, and never forget His benefits” (Ps. 102, 2).
We pray, the only God, save Ukraine for us!

Save and preserve us, Lord! Amen 🙏🏻

06/12/2026

06/12/2026

June 11 - veneration of the icon of the Mother of God “WORTHY IS”.

The icon of the Mother of God “WORTHY IS”
is located on the upper altar of the cathedral church of the Karei monastery on Mount Athos.
One Sunday, a local elder went to the monastery for the All-Night Vigil. A novice remained in his cell. When night fell, an unknown monk knocked on his door. During the All-Night Vigil, when it was necessary to sing “More Honorable than the Cherubim...”, both of them stood before the icon of the Mother of God, which was called “Merciful”, and the guest noticed that they first sang “It is worthy, and this is the truth, to glorify You, the Theotokos, the Ever-Blessed and Most Immaculate, and the Mother of our God...”.
During the singing of this hitherto unheard song, the icon of the Mother of God shone with heavenly light, and the novice wept with emotion. At his request, this strange song, due to the lack of paper, was written on a stone, which became soft like wax under the hand of a strange singer.
Calling himself Gabriel, the traveler became invisible. The icon of the Mother of God, before which the song “It is Worthy” was first sung, was transferred to the cathedral church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos in Karea (the administrative center of Athos).
The plate, with the song written on it by the Archangel Gabriel, was transferred to Constantinople.
O MOST HOLY THEOLOGIAN, SAVE US!
Amen 🙏🏻