This week, our hearts are even more filled with sadness because three anniversaries fill them with pain: the massacre on the Maidan, the annexation of Crimea, and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
These events are full of suffering, and we have been trying to live with them for more than 10 years. They are also full of both physical and spiritual struggles. And in the spiritual battles, prayer is among the means by which we can support ourselves and all those who suffer from this war.
The shadow of the Second World War also filled our Church in America with pain.
The answer was prayer.
Prayers for peace, for victory, for the protection of sons and daughters who stood up for justice. The Church urged the faithful to pray both at home personally and in churches all together. Texts of prayers were printed in the press. In the churches, faithful prayed novenas and molebens to the Mother of God of Perpetual Help as well as traditional Byzantine vespers. People prayed by name for all those who joined the army and printed their names in the church press, so everyone could pray for them.
Historian Mykola Chubatyj wrote in 1941 in The Way newspaper about prayer that it is the power with which the martyrs of the Ukrainian people in heaven cry out to God for justice.
«Those millions of Ukrainian martyrs who died of frostbite or bloated from hunger do not attack dead matter with tanks, airplanes, or precision rifles, but with their prayers in heaven, they attack the mercy of the Almighty Creator of centuries and the history of nations. They are begging for the Truth for their enslaved people, for the freedom of their people, and their long-suffering country. Those prayers surely reached the Most High, and in God's register it is surely already written: "Courage, child, your faith will save you." Persevere and believe that the truth will come out on top, because God is with you!»
Let's pray tirelessly for peace, justice, and the victory of the Truth. Pray at home alone, and with your family. Pray in your parishes together with others. Let's learn from our predecessors, martyrs and saints, and storm the heavens in prayer!