This year’s Lent before Easter will begin on 18 March and will last for seven weeks. In view of this, Drohobych plans to resume spiritual conversations for young people and students of the community with the fathers of the Ukrainian church and teachers of the Drohobych Theological Seminary.
This spiritual initiative was launched last year during the pre-Easter period. The conversations took place every week on Tuesdays and brought together conscious young people of the Drohobych territorial community. During the conversations, students and young people had the opportunity not only to listen to the spiritual guidance of the church fathers, but also to ask many questions that worried them and even to talk face-to-face with spiritual mentors on painful topics at the end of the retreat.
The spiritual conversations were initiated by the Department of Culture and Tourism Development, in particular Lesya Tatarska, together with the Sambir-Drohobych Diocese of the UGCC, the Department of Education and the Department of Family and Youth of the City Council. The purpose of the pre-Easter youth talks is to have sincere communication between clergy and young people about the problems that concern them and are relevant, as well as to warn them against joining suspicious youth movements and trends that are aimed at aggressive behaviour, to talk about the impact of social media and its consequences on the psyche of young people. And also about the role of the church in the life of every conscious Ukrainian.
According to Lesya Tatarska, in today’s environment, young people react quickly and adapt to all the circumstances that arise in society, but they are also quickly exposed to negative influences. Helping young people not to fall into the traps of “temptations” and to build their lives on the algorithms of healthy thinking, patriotism and spiritual tasks is the task of the Spiritual meetings.
In addition to the topical topics of the Spiritual conversations, each of which will be individual and interesting, the organisers also plan to show films about the companions of the Ukrainian church, such as Iosyp Slipyj, Lubomyr Husar and others.
The venue for the spiritual conversations will be the Ivan Franko National House.