REGIONAL GATHERING IN UKRAINE

From April 28 to May 8, 2021, Sr. Alina Furczyk, Assistant General, was in Ukraine. The main purpose of the visit was to participate in the gathering of all the Sisters of the Saint Michael the Archangel Region. Eighteen Sisters came to Hajvoron to participate together in the annual meeting. Invited for the gathering was Sister Maria Santus from Warsaw who led workshops and gave lectures for the Sisters on emotions, communication and relationships. The meeting lasted from April 30 to May 4 and it was a very busy time. Benefiting from the professional help and rich experience of Sr. Maria, the Sisters had the opportunity to go deeper into their feelings and emotions, to get to know themselves better and to look at their life history and relationships in communities from a different perspective. It was also a blessed time of silence and prayer in this beautiful corner of Ukraine, and the possibility of walks and other forms of recreation brought everyone a lot of joy. Sr. Alina also shared with the Sisters her reflection on obedience as an expression of a nuptial unity with Jesus and an extremely important aspect of our Nazareth identity.

After returning from Hajvoron, there was also a meeting with the entire Regional Council on the theme of different communication styles and the challenges of communal discernment in leadership. Before the departure, Sr. Alina spent the whole day with the community from Browary celebrating Temporary-Professed Feastday with Sr. Natalia Tereszczuk. It was an opportunity to visit the botanical garden in Kiev together. Awakening to life and the beautiful nature, flowers, shrubs, trees and beautiful views of the Dnieper and nearby monasteries were the crowning moment of this beautiful time.