Ulf Ekman biography

Former Protestant Ulf Ekman: I am a very happy Catholic, I did not know anything about him, but he knew everything about me, ”the famous Christian missionary Ulf Ekman began the story of his spiritual path. About how he served Christ in the Protestant Church, about his acquaintance with Catholicism and how he, together with his wife, decided to become a member of the Catholic Church, the guest from Sweden spoke on March 28 at a meeting in the premises of the Catholic Curia at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Moscow.

He did not dwell on the fact that at the beginning of the x. He only noted: “I was very involved in the mobilization of the laity, so that they increase in the word of God, know as much as possible about the Holy Spirit, and were inspired by the mission. Recalling those years, U. Ekman analyzes the style of preaching and self -awareness of the Protestants: according to him, Protestants tend to “experience a meeting with Christ so much that this experience of experience seems to them the only true and possible ...

I think the Protestants are excessively active ..., they have a problem of exclusivity: I am a Christian, and you are not.” For Protestants in the first place - Christ and the Gospel, but the Church as such do not attach much importance, considering it a kind of “pragmatic institution” created by people. He himself had a very biased idea of ​​the Catholic Church, based on social, political and cultural prejudices learned from secular media.

In addition, in Sweden you rarely meet Catholics, the speaker added. But the Holy Spirit, he believes, revealed to him a “new vision”: “Find out the essence of the Church! This happened in Rome: being on the Square of St. Peter during the papal audience, the Ulf and his wife Brigitt were surprised by the stormy expression of joy, with which the believers met John Paul II.

And then a stranger suddenly asked the Swede-Tourist: “Who is dad for you? This episode, as well as meetings and communication with “happy Catholics” in Italy and in Israel “turned over” his vision. Further, the spouses of the Ekman came to understand that it is necessary to abandon negative stereotypes and “open their heart” to find out what the Catholic Church is.

It was she, this church, who retained the main characteristics that the Church of the Niko-Tsaregrad symbol of faith-“Unified, Holy, Ecumenical and Apostolic”, concluded Ekman concluded. According to him, Protestants also profess him, but this does not prevent them from dividing by more than 40 thousand. As for the apostolic continuity, it is precisely to this aspect in the Catholicism, completely unable to mentality of the Protestants, Ekman attaches great importance.

He also discovered large gaps in his knowledge of Christianity: the sacraments, saints, the suffering of Christ, the worship of the Virgin Mary - all this was outside the former “charismatic understanding of the Bible”, recalled the preacher. Meanwhile, many insoluble problems arose in his life, he was looking for a solution and did not think at all that the Catholic Church could help him in this.

He did not want to become a Catholic at all. Following him, his wife also rushed there - this was facilitated by the fact that in the year, when the flight of St. Brigitte, she read a lot about the saint whose name she bore. According to Ekman, his wife was struck by the "prophetic service of the saint, her courage, love for Christ." Moreover, it turned out that the Holy Her name was the name of the Ulf ...

Revelations of St. Brigitte, her conversations with the Blessed Virgin prompted Ekmanov to make a new discovery: “As a Protestant, I had a negative view of Maria, we did not recognize the Catholic look at her at all. But we began to study and were surprised: it turns out that I used to simply not notice how much about it is said in the Bible, because Mary is an absolute center!

There is no Mary without Christ, but without Mary there is no Christ. ” So, step by step, the Ekmans discovered all new sides of Catholicism: the adoption of grace through the Eucharist and other sacraments, worship of the saints and Mary, repeating at every stage: “I did not even suspect how ignorant I was! According to the head of the family, they took it as a gift of Christ and are full of gratitude.

I read the Bible even more, I believe in Christ more than ever. But I'm not saying: become Catholics. I just wish you all to remain open to you, and then you will be full of joy, because the Holy Spirit will lead you, ”Ulf Ekman turned to the listeners. In conclusion, he also noted that he thinks a lot and prays for the unity of Christians: “All Christians who adopted baptism in Christ are part of his body.

We are disconnected, but the work of the Holy Spirit will lead us to each other. I am sure: the Lord wants the Catholic Church, Orthodox and Protestants closer. The Lord wants visible unity, and one day it will happen. ” Julia Zaitseva.