On Sunday, May 10, our parish celebrated Mother's Day. Parishioners prayed together, enjoyed food, listened to poetry, sang, and danced.
The liturgy was led by Father Andriy Oliynyk. During the sermon, the priest greeted mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, and spiritual mothers and called for prayers for them.
Representatives of the St. Volodymyr brotherhood greeted all the women of the parish with roses. After that, refreshments and a solemn concert for Mother's Day took place in the common room. They began with a special prayer for mothers and a prayer to the Virgin Mary "Under your mercy."
Adults and children prepared poems, songs, and musical gifts on the violin, clarinet, and piano. Children from the Ukrainian school named after Lubomyr Husar, with the help of teachers Mrs. Natalia Marszalok and Olena Marszalok, performed a scene for Mother's Day and prepared poems. The Marszalok brothers showed a musical sports number with elements of taekwondo.
The host of the holiday, Marta Dzeminska, asked parishioners about their childhood memories and the advice of their mothers and held a karaoke session to the song "And Mom's Shirt...". In addition, the little participants of the holiday gave their mothers crowns symbolically decorated with precious stones.
The headliner of the holiday was musician Vitaliy Litvak, who congratulated mothers with songs on the electric guitar.
"God has given us the gift of motherhood. And our life is priceless. It would not have existed if it were not for our mother, who carried us in her womb, gave birth to us, and later did everything to help us get back on our feet. She taught us our lullaby, our native Ukrainian language, to pray to God, and took us to church on Sundays. That is why we have gathered here to thank God for the mothers we have or had. Let us remember those who are already in eternity in a special way in our prayers today. I assure you that they are praying for you. Because when you love someone very much here on earth, you will love them even more from heaven. All people in heaven are saints, so your mother continues to love you in holiness from heaven. Let us call those mothers who are alive, let us greet them!"
— Fr. Andriy Oliynyk
At the end of the holiday, the children invited their mothers to dance. The celebration ended with the prayer "Shine, shine, new Jerusalem."
