Beneficent Times and Times of Trial – Easter is Always Here

In the extraordinary power of Easter, Slovenians also walk from station to station of milestones – when times are beneficent and when there are times of trial, to preserve life and enable young people a dignified future.

Due to indestructible hope, we decided on an independent Slovenia thirty years ago. We wanted it because we deserve it.

For a good year now, however, we have been trying to overcome major problems due to the new virus epidemic. What else awaits us, we cannot know. One thing is sure: the kindness, solidarity, and serving others that we gratefully admire in the guardians of health and well-being, prayer and liturgy, are still among us as angelic heralds of the resurrection. These benefactors keep us hopeful.

Many of our loved ones have already had to take the last step – to the grave. Although we are sad, we base our longings for immortality on Easter because we believe that all trials converge in Christ’s victory over death.

Bishop Dr Jožef Smej always encouraged us, “The secrets of suffering hearts do not know the decline. They are redemptive and therefore eternal.”

In this trusting faith, the bishops wish a blessed Easter to all the Slovenia inhabitants, Slovenes outside the Slovene borders and those who live abroad, especially to the sick and the suffering.

Msgr Dr Peter Štumpf SDB,

Bishop of Murska Sobota