“The Lord is my strength and my shield”

By Viktoriia Marko, Eparchial Youth Minister

[Catholic Saskatoon News] – On Saturday, June 15, 2019, over 20 young adults decided to step out of their comfort zone to test their weaknesses and strengths, and to devote their whole day to something worthwhile and pleasant to God, by participating in the walking pilgrimage.

The walk took place from St. George’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral to St. Volodymyr’s Park Chapel (25km). Our leader for the pilgrimage was Fr. Ivan Nahachewsky. We were blessed to have with us our wonderful seminarians, Sisters of St. Joseph and Sister Georgia, SSMI as well as Bishop Bryan Bayda, CSsR.

The pilgrimage started with Divine Liturgy at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of Saint George in Saskatoon; there was also the opportunity for Confession. Following the Divine Liturgy, the first session was presented by Nissa Baran who spoke about what it is like to be a great-granddaughter of Blessed Omelyan Kovch.

The next two sessions were about “How to be a saint today?” presented by Viktoriia Marko and, “What does it mean to be a Ukrainian Greek Catholic?” presented by Fr. Ivan Nahachewsky.

Together we prayed, shared, laughed and celebrated the unity of God’s children. At the conclusion of our pilgrimage walk, we expressed our gratitude to the Blessed Virgin Mary by praying a Moleben Service in her honour at the St. Volodymyr’s Park Chapel, and ended the evening enjoying a delicious supper and fellowship.

Everyone was tired but filled with joy and happiness, being together and deeply experiencing that the Lord is our strength and our shield. I would like to express gratitude to all those caring hearts who helped us implement this awesome project; first of all to our amazing young adults who devotedly supported with the organizational aspects for this event. Sincere “thank you” to Sisters of St. Joseph for generous donation, Bill Gulka for providing us with bottled water, Sister Georgia, SSMI for taking responsibility for all promotional items, Bernie Bodnar and Alanna King for providing us with supper, the people who made pilgrim bags (Debbie Nahachewsky, Joni Orenchuk, Veronica Lucas), and our safety vehicle drivers (Veronica Chelack, Loran Chrusch).

Watch the video: