Third Sunday of Advent in Turiie Remety

On the third Sunday of Advent, together with the youth from Onokivtsi, Fr. Anton and the Sisters we assembled at a convent of the Marian Sisters of the Miraculous Medal in the village of Turiie Remety.

Our meeting began with a funny tour of the convent which was the held for us by the father. A chapel there is worth special mentioning, for you can actually feel love inside it.

It was a surprise to us that we would cook and decorate gingerbreads. And we were really excited to hear such news. We worked all together and had truly lots of fun. The guys did the hard part of our job – they beat dough and baked it. The girls together with the father were in charge of gingerbreads’ decoration. Thus, we received loads of emotions and were genuinely delighted.

Later on, Sr. Ivanchytsia showed us a presentation on Africa. I could not fully describe you the delight with which she delivered her story to us. I had the feeling that at that point we were there, in Africa, and experienced it all together with her. What was highly interesting for me personally was learning about their way of life, about what they ate and how they lived. However, at the same time I felt pity for the children having no parents, who became orphans or had terminal illnesses, who were abandoned by their parents. It was for such children that Sr. Ivanchytsia together with other Sisters had a house built, where those children could feel that they were needed.

That story touched my heart and gave me a motivation. From that moment, I desired to do something good and needful for the world in the future. I am deeply grateful to Sr. Ivanchytsia for such a great story.

We had the adoration in the evening later. We thanked God Our Lord for those things we had in our lives, for that opportunity to meet up all together there, and we asked God for peace in Ukraine as well.

There was no completion of the meeting: we played different games till night, talked on various topics to each other and learned about many interesting moments about one another.

The morning began with lots of fun, because snow fell and we, just like small kids, started throwing snowballs at each other. After that, we said a prayer and left for Onukivtsi to participate in the Liturgy.

We thank God for giving us a chance to meet all together, to have such a great time, to pray and work together.

Daniela Brenzovych