From 3 to 12 September 2017, the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) was held in Brzuchowice near Lviv, Ukraine. It is the supreme collegial legislative body of the Church. It meets every year to make important decisions for the life of the clergy and the faithful of UGCC. This year, the Synod’s theme was „The Prayer and Liturgical Life of the UGCC”.During the session, a special function of the Synod, preacher, was held by Father Marek Blaza SJ, a Polish Jesuit, who has been associated with the UGCC for years. Since 2001 he has been a lecturer in Ecumenical Theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, and since 2007 he has been a students’ chaplain for Greek Catholics in Warsaw, helping with his pastoral work in the recently established parish of St. Blessed Mikołaj Czarnecki in Warsaw.
The task of the Synod Preacher was to preach sermons in the morning Divine Liturgies (Eucharists), as well as to lead the day of recollection. In his homilies fr. Blaza referred to the readings planned for the given day. On the day of recollection, however, he addressed three themes: the mystery of the Incarnation, the evocation of the Holy Spirit (epicliasis) and the interdependence between word and sacrament.
Fr. Blaza in his way of preaching provoked the listeners to discuss the topics undertaken in the sermons and teachings given during the day of recollection. There were plenty of threads directly related to Ignatian spirituality and especially to discernment of the spirits, which play a very important role during the Synod.
