Memo from God Via Kyiv

This week we have seen on television and the Internet an incredibly tragic drama unfold. Vladimir Putin sent by air, on land, and by sea an invading force of destruction into Ukraine, a sovereign nation of 43 million people. As we saw roads from the capital city of Kyiv gridlocked with people seeking to flee westward, as we witnessed incoming mortars pounding cities including apartment buildings, and as we watched images Ukrainian families hunkering down in subways and cellars, it looked like scenes of Central and Eastern Europe during the Second World War. We have felt helpless and horrified.  We must turn from this horror to prayer, begging the Prince of Peace for help.
           
Last Friday I telephoned a friend of mine who serves with me on the Administrative Board of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference. Father Michael Hutsko is the pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church in my home area of Mount Carmel, PA.  

As I offered my support and solidarity to Father Hutsko and the Ukrainian people, as well as my prayers, he thanked me and then added with great passion and emotion, “Please ask Our Blessed Mother to protect Ukraine.” He went on to describe a place where people in Kyiv have gone to pray for centuries. In the Church of St. Sophia, which stands at the center of the city, there is the “Unbreakable Wall,” the oldest part of the church that was built in the mid-eleventh century. On this wall there is a large image of the Mother of God with her hands raised in prayer. She is known as the Virgo Oranta – the Virgin at Prayer.  The people of Kyiv believe that as long as the hands of the Blessed Virgin are raised in prayer, the city will stand. My priest friend told me that he stood before this image of Our Lady three years ago and photographed her. He added that this picture is now in his office, and he prays before her for the people of Kyiv and all of Ukraine.
           
We see in this beautiful icon of the Virgin at Prayer that she has a white towel hanging from the belt around her waist. It hangs there to remind the people that she uses this towel to wipe away the sea of human tears that are shed by those begging for her intercession and protection.  That towel must be saturated these days with the tears of the Ukrainian people and all of us who weep with them for the sorrow and bloodshed that has afflicted them.
           
I believe that in the midst of the tremendous suffering unfolding in Ukraine, God is sending us a message—we might say a “Memo.” I think that through this “Memo,” God is crying out to us of His closeness to us and His unfailing love for us and the Ukrainian people.  Certainly we know that God never abandons His people. After all, His name is “Emmanuel,” that is, “God-with-us.” We hear this in Isaiah 7:14 where we read, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.” Without a doubt, God has provided the sign of the Virgin in the Church of St. Sophia, and His people go to her and ask for her intercession in countless churches throughout their land. God is with them, even as they are surrounded by those who would harm them.  As proof to them and us at this time of mourning and weeping, God has given His own Mother who intercedes constantly before the Throne of Mercy.  She is “the Unbreakable Wall” of love and prayer. 
           
We must not think that Ukraine and her people are far away and do not touch our lives. We are connected with so many of them by our baptism and our faith in Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior. We are all fellow pilgrims with them on this earthly journey.  Here in our diocese there are remarkable connections.

-A religious sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth in Pittsburgh told me that her Sisters here in Pittsburgh were joining by Zoom with their eighteen Sisters in Kyiv to pray the Rosary for their protection. “Who knows,” she said, “perhaps we will have some of our Sisters martyred as our Sisters were in Novogrodek in August of 1943.”

- The Sisters of the Merciful Jesus present here in own diocese told me that their General Superior has asked the Sisters in Poland to open their house to welcome refugees from Ukraine.

- A Ukrainian priest from our own area has just returned to Kyiv to help rescue Ukrainian orphans from danger.

These are just a few stories of local connections.  I am sure that our Eastern Rite brothers and sisters in our area could tell us many more.
           
How could we not feel connected with the suffering people of Ukraine as we see what is unfolding? There was a heart-rending clip of a young father putting his 10-year-old daughter on a bus for Poland as he remained in Ukraine to defend his home. There was the very emotional video of the young mother holding her five-month-old daughter, sheltering in the Kyiv subway, begging for help. There was the video of the Ukrainian couple in traditional dress getting married in a Ukrainian church after the invasion began, because with such an uncertain future they were afraid to wait. There is the story of the baby born in the Kyiv subway and the premature babies in Kharkiv moved to a cellar for safety.  Countless other stories of faith and courage are playing out in Ukraine and are held in our own hearts.
           
And through it all God is sending us a “Memo” that says this:

My Beloved Children,

My Heart is again wounded and filled with sorrow over the suffering of My sons and daughters in Ukraine. I love them so much and I love all of you. I will never abandon the Ukrainian people.  I will never abandon you.

I beg you to turn back to Me. Please ask My Holy Mother for help.  If you do, she will always bring you closer to Me.

If you have stopped praying for the conversion of sinners, now is a good time to begin anew. Come to Mass, come to Confession, pick up your Rosary again. Pray, fast and love one another.

I am always with you, especially in your suffering. My Mother’s Immaculate Heart is your refuge and your way to Me. I love you more than you can imagine. Trust in Me!
                                                                                                God

Our Lady of the Rosary, Virgin at Prayer, Queen of Peace and Comfort of the Afflicted, pray for Ukraine and her people!  Pray for us!

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh