Since 2006, the community of St. Egidius has been organizing Christmas dinners for homeless and low-income people in Lviv. This year, the community united 250 homeless, needy and internally displaced persons at the festive table. Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, also congratulated everyone on Christmas.
“Christmas is a time of unity. The community of St. Egidius in Lviv has been around for over 20 years. For Christmas dinner, we invite our old friends – the homeless and needy people of the city, to whom we distribute food every week, near the Powder Tower.
It is nice that today our volunteers and helpers are internally displaced persons. Almost two years ago, they found refuge in Lviv from the war and turned to us for help, and today they help others. And this is the power of Christmas”, – convinced Ivanna Synytska, coordinator of the Community of St. Egidius in Lviv
According to her, this year’s Christmas dinner takes place simultaneously with the 70 countries of the world where the community operates. And in Ukraine, such a lunch was organized in Kyiv and Ivano-Frankivsk.
“I am extremely grateful to those who organized this dinner. After all, our Lord came to every person, in particular to the poor, the needy, to the displaced. And we are very pleased that our internally displaced persons have become good instruments in God’s hands and serve here and help in the organization,” noted Bishop Volodymyr Grutsa, assistant bishop of the Lviv Archdiocese of the UGCC.
Refreshments were held in the student dining hall of Lviv Polytechnic University and the refectory of the Ukrainian Catholic University. In addition to the festive dinner, the guests received gifts, sang carols together and saw the nativity scene.
“Today, each of us, at Christmas time, during prayer, makes one common wish for us – this is the wish for victory. Therefore, I want all of us, being here, next to each other, to remember the price of our freedom. That we should be grateful to those who organized today’s treat – the community of St. Egidius, and to thank our Heroes, thanks to whom our meeting is possible,” stressed Andriy Moskalenko, the first deputy mayor of Lviv.
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The community of St. Egidius is an international organization that is present in more than 70 countries of the world. It was founded in 1968 in Rome. Help is known to the homeless, the elderly, children, migrants, etc. Around 330,000 people in need gather at Christmas tables around the world. In Ukraine, the community was founded in 1991, there are in Kyiv, Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk. With the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion, the community provided humanitarian aid to all regions of Ukraine: food, clothing, hygiene products, medicine.