As Russia intensifies its attacks on Ukraine, faith leaders across the world are calling for all of us to intensify our prayers for peace.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine coincides with the beginning of Lent — a season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in preparation for Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.
This is a time in which we enter into a spiritual desert to purify our hearts. But with the dire situation in Ukraine, we should look upon this Lent as a special time to also petition God for His help.
Deacon Eugene Logusch, administrator of St. Mary’s Assumption Ukrainian Catholic Church, who led a prayer service Feb. 25, noted the importance of the season of Lent, in which we focus on the Christian life. “We are called to live the Christian life, through first and foremost the love of our neighbor,” he said.
“We are also called to pray unceasingly,” Deacon Logusch said. “In the end, we recognize that God’s will should be done. When we pray the Our Father, we say ‘Thy will be done.’ That requires an enormous act of faith. It requires an understanding that we as Christians cannot author change.”
Pope Francis recently called on believers and nonbelievers to combat the “diabolical insistence, the diabolical senselessness of violence” with prayer and fasting. He invited all to make Ash Wednesday a day of fasting for peace in Ukraine, calling on the Queen of Peace to “protect the world from the folly of war.”
At the diocesan level, bishops with significant numbers of Ukrainians in their flocks organized Masses and offered prayers to comfort those worried about friends and family in their native country. Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski of St. Louis posted on his Facebook page: “Please join me in praying for the people of Ukraine and all those whose lives are in peril due to political unrest. Sacred Heart of Jesus, fountain of all blessings, give them peace and consolation. Immaculate Heart of Mary, Pray with us and for us that all hearts will be converted, so as to share in your fullness of love for God and all mankind.”
During Lent, Christians are called to contemplate daily the crucified Christ and see in His wounds the wounds of our sin and all the hurt we have experienced, Pope Francis said. In the midst of life’s most painful wounds — war, abuse and other human-inflicted sufferings — God awaits with His infinite mercy because it is there “where we are most vulnerable, where we feel the most shame” and where He comes to meet His children again.
Just as we unify ourselves with Christ in Lent, let us unite with the people of Ukraine as they seek to maintain their freedom and independence. As we pray for peace, remember as Pope Francis said: peace in the world always begins with our personal conversion, following Christ.