ANGELS OVER KYIV

 

Angles have been reported over Kyiv, a city which is dedicated to the Archangel Michael.  The city’s association with St. Michael goes back to the medieval era, when the saint  was featured on the seals of the grand princes of Kievan Rus.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk  spoke in a video message  March 4 in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. 

 “We perceive today that the Archangel Michael together with the whole Heavenly Host is fighting for Ukraine. So many people from throughout Ukraine are turning to me saying that they saw luminous angels over the land of Ukraine.”

 The capital’s coat of arms depicts the Archangel holding a flaming sword and a shield, and a sculpture of the saint stands atop the Lach Gates at Independence Square.

Sightings of angels have been reported in previous wars. A famous example is the Angel of Mons, which was said to have protected British soldiers during World War I’s Battle of Mons in Belgium in 1914.

 Yesterday the Archbishop spoke of  the threat  of disaster when a fire broke out at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility, the largest of its kind in Europe.

“This is not only becoming a humanitarian catastrophe before our very eyes. It is an irreversible attack on God’s creation that for decades, for centuries, will be impossible to correct. Ukraine already experienced Chernobyl. Now it stands on the threshold of a new atomic threat that can be 10 times worse.”

 “Today we pray: O Archangel Michael and all the Powers of Heaven, fight for Ukraine! Cast down that devil who is attacking us and killing us, bringing devastation and death!”

Icon of St. Michael: Oleksandr Ivolha who lives in Ontario, Canada, originally from Lviv, Ukraine.

UKRAINE WILL SURVIVE THRU HER ART

 

Over the past few weeks we have featured some Ukrainian women artists, perhaps not really thinking, or at least praying, that the Ukrainian people would  be in the situation they are in today- fleeing en masse, sitting in bomb shelters and burying their loved ones.

                                     Madonna of Poltava by Daria Hulak-Kulchytsky

One wonders what is happening to all the art- as I am sure much of it is just left behind in the mess. As the sounds of war are now everywhere, there must be moments of silence, when the people think “Ukraine will stand, so will its art.”

 Anna Avetova, the founder of  Tuasho Gallery in Kyiv said:  “Our thousand-year-old culture that was the intersection of a huge number of countries and continents and existed when Russia was not yet in sight has overcome many challenges. Its people, culture, and language were banned, exterminated, and ignored for centuries, but the country proved to be indestructible. We have always survived and will survive today. Whatever happens next, we will live, create, and develop.”

MORE PRAYERS

 

                                                          Ivanna Demchuk- Ukraine

Lord, we pray to You for the people of the Ukraine who are experiencing conflicts and deaths. Bless the leaders with wisdom, vision and perseverance needed to build together a world of justice and solidarity, and to break down walls of hostility and division.

To You, Lord, we entrust all families and pray that they may never yield to discouragement and despair, but become heralds of new hope to one another in this challenging time.

May You continue to inspire all of us to oneness of heart and mind, to work generously for the common good, to respect the dignity of every person and the fundamental rights which have their origin in Your image and likeness. 

Grant eternal rest to the dead and quick recovery to the wounded, we pray through Christ our Lord, Amen!

PEACE PRAYER

 

O God, Creator of the universe, who extends your paternal concern over every creature and guides the events of history to the goal of salvation, we acknowledge your fatherly love when you break the resistance of mankind and, in a world torn by strife and discord, you make us ready for reconciliation.

Renew for us the wonders of your mercy: send forth your Spirit that He may work in the intimacy of hearts, that enemies may begin to dialogue, that adversaries may shake hands and peoples may encounter one another in harmony.

May all commit themselves to the sincere search for true peace which will extinguish all arguments, for charity which overcomes hatred, for pardon which disarms revenge. Amen.

             Prayer For Peace by St. John Paul II   Icon: Ivanna Demchuk- Ukraine

ON-GOING PRAYERS TO THE MOTHER OF GOD

 

This week, Archbishop Mieczysław Mokrzycki, Latin Rite archbishop of Lviv, Ukraine,  spoke of the crises in his country:

 “The general public and the media are focusing only on the human factors of this equation: political leaders, diplomats, strategies, armies... but at the end of the day, God will always have the last word.”

“Whatever God permits, will be the decisive factor. That is why we cannot stop begging for prayers time and again and from all the world, as Pope Francis continues to do. Rest assured, our prayers can change the course of this conflict.

The Archbishop, originally from Poland, has led the Lviv archdiocese since 2008. He served as  (St.) Pope John Paul II’s deputy personal secretary from 1996 until the pope’s death in 2005, after which he spent two years as secretary to Pope Benedict XVI.

 Archbishop Mokrzycki said the Catholic Church all across  the country is preparing for the possibility of Ukrainians to be displaced from their homes, especially from the eastern area.

 “We are ready to welcome people into our churches and provide them with food and water. We have organized first aid courses for priests, religious and laity, so that in an emergency they can care for the wounded.”

Madonna- Ukranian artist- Olesya Hudyma

PRAYER FOR UKRAINE'S PEOPLE

Now, as Russia deploys troops to Ukraine, we commend the praying of this prayer to the Mother of God, asking for an end to escalations and troop deployments.

                                                 Oksana Andrushchenko

We fly to Your patronage, O Virgin Mother of God. Despise not our prayers in our needs, but deliver us from all dangers, since you alone are pure and blessed. 

O most glorious Ever-Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ our God, accept our prayers and present them to Your Son and our God, that for the sake of You, He enlighten and save our souls.

SAINTS PRESERVE US!

 

I am asked  sometimes why the emphasis on the SAINTS? Several have even suggested I go back and put on this Blog some of the saints I have already done over the years, especially those most relevant to our present world crises- threats of war, the on-going Covid, etc.

Feb 2 the holy Father in an audience said:  “Even when we rely fully on the intercession of a saint, or even more so that of the Virgin Mary, our trust only has value in relation to Christ. As if the path toward this saint or toward Our Lady does not end there, no. Not there, but in relationship with Christ. He is the bond, Christ is the bond that unites us to him and to each other, and which has a specific name: this bond that unites us all, between ourselves and us with Christ, it is the ‘communion of saints’.

As Catholics, we have a great devotion to the saints as we know them  to be good models for us in our faith as we journey to the Father. We feel a connection to these holy people, who in so many ways were a lot like us. It is one thing to read about  and study the saints of eons past, but our modern saints we can know much more about- not just myths of their holiness- but how truly human they were- how like us in our own sin condition. How they strove to be good, to go beyond the norm.  We have tapes and photos and documentation like no other time in history.  There is no covering up and sugar coating their lives.

St. John Paul II  said: “The Saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult moments in the Church’s history.”  

With all we face in our world today, we need all the help we can get. It is to our spiritual advantage to get to know and make friends with the saints. Most of us treasure the friends we have, those we can really talk to in depth, through thick and thin- so why would we not want to have friends who can intercede for us in matters beyond what anyone here can help us with?  As we prepare for Lent, which is just around the corner, try to find a friend or two you can relate to- those who has already achieved what we strive or.    

                                                     Cathedral-  Los Angeles, CA

"Devotion to the saints is “simply talking to a brother, a sister, who is in the presence of God, who has led a righteous life, a model life, and is now in the presence of God. And I talk to this brother, this sister, and ask for their intercession for the needs that I have.” (Pope Francis)