ProLIS Day 1. I THIRST FOR YOU “Behold, I stand at the door and knock”

Throughout the ProLIS youth formation camp, Bishop Bryan Bayda, Chairman of the Patriarchal Commission for Youth of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, celebrated the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy each day. These liturgies became a unique spiritual experience for the participants, while the bishop's homilies invited young people to reflect more deeply on faith, freedom, vocation, and living the Gospel in everyday life.

We are pleased to share Bishop Bryan Bayda's homilies that accompanied our young people throughout the camp.

― I want you to know that whenever you invite Me, I do come ― always, without fail. Silent and unseen I come, but with infinite power and a love, and bringing the many gifts of My Spirit. I come with My mercy, with My desire to forgive and heal you, and with a love for you beyond your comprehension ― a love every bit as great as the love I have received from the  Father: “As much as the Father has loved me, I have loved you” (John 15:10) I come -- longing to console you and give you strength, to lift you up and bind all your wounds. I bring you My light, to dispel your darkness and all your doubts. I come with My power, that I might carry you and all of your burdens; with My grace, to touch your heart and transform your life, and My peace I give to still your soul.

I know you through and through ― I know everything about you. The very hairs of your head I have numbered. Nothing in your life is unimportant to Me. I have followed you through the years, and I have always loved you ― even in your wanderings. I know every one of your problems. I know your needs and your worries. And yes, I know all your sins. But I tell you again that I love you ― not for what you have or haven’t done, I love you for you, for the beauty and the dignity My Father gave you by creating you in His own image. It is a dignity you have often forgotten, a beauty you have often tarnished by sin. But I love you as you are, and I have shed My Blood to win you back. If you only ask Me with faith, My grace will touch all that needs changing in your life. And I will give you the strength to free yourself from sin and from the destructive power. 

I know what is in your heart ― I know your loneliness and your hurts ― the rejections, the judgments, the humiliations. I carry it all before you. And I carry it all for you, so you might share My strength and victory. I know, especially, your need for love -- how you are thirsting to be loved and cherished. But, how often have you thirsted in vain, by seeking that love selfishly, striving to fill the emptiness inside you with passing pleasures, with even greater emptiness of sin. Do you thirst for love? “Come to Me all you who thirst” (John 7:37). I will satisfy you and fill you. Do you thirst to be cherished? I cherish you more than you can imagine ― to the point of dying on a cross for you.

Don’t you realize that My Father already has a perfect plan to transform your life, beginning from this moment? Trust in Me. Ask Me every day to enter and take charge of your life, and I will. I promise you before My Father in Heaven that I will work miracles in your life. Why would I do this? Because I THIRST FOR YOU. All I ask of you is that you entrust yourself to Me completely. I will do all the rest. 

Even now, I behold the place My Father has prepared for you in My Kingdom. Remember that you are a pilgrim in this life on a journey home. Sin can never satisfy you, or bring the peace you seek. All that you have sought outside of Me has only left you more empty; so, do not cling to the things of this life. Above all, do not run from Me when you fall. Come to Me without delay. When you give Me your sins, you give Me the joy of being your Saviour. There is nothing I cannot forgive and heal. So come now and unburden your soul. 

No matter how far you may wander, no matter how often you forget Me, no matter how many crosses you may bear in this life, there is one thing I want you to always remember, one thing that will never change. I THIRST FOR YOU ― just as you are. You don’t need to change to believe in My love, for it will be your belief in My love that will change you. You forget Me, and yet I am seeking you every moment of the day ― standing before the doors of your heart and knocking. Do you find this hard to believe? Then, look at the Cross, look at My Heart that was pierced for you. Have you not understood My Cross? Then, listen again to the words I spoke there, for they tell you clearly why I endured all of this for you: “I THIRST” (John 19:28). Yes, I thirst for you -- as the rest of the Psalm Verse I was praying says of Me: “I looked for someone to console me and I found none” (Psalm 69:20). All your life I have been looking for your love. I have never stopped seeking to love and be loved by you. You have tried many other things in your search for happiness. Why not try opening your heart to Me, right now, more than you have ever done before? 

Whenever you do open the door of your heart, whenever you come close enough, you will then hear Me say to you again and again, not in mere human words but in spirit: “No matter what you have done, I love you for your own sake. Come to Me with your misery and your sins, with your troubles and needs, and with all your longing to be loved. And I stand at the door of your heart and knock: Open to Me, for I thirst for you!”