Praying for Ukraine

 Before Mass, during Lent we are praying a Rosary for the "hot spots," in the world.  I have Ukraine.  

Today we are praying for the people of Ukraine.  The country itself has often been in the jaws of Russia, due to it’s access to water, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.  It once had the Crimean Sea but in 2014, Russia took it.  Its natural resources have also been coveted by Russia.  Ukraine has iron, gas, oil, lithium, and many others.  The agricultural resources are so renowned that Ukraine is known as the bread basket of the world.  These are some of the reasons, Russia wants Ukraine.

Ukraine has always claimed to be a separate nation.  It has its own language, even when it was annexed by Catherine the Great, as part of the Russian Empire, and then as part of the Soviet Union.  When the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine declared itself an independent entity in 1991.

The last time, Russia invaded Ukraine was in 2014, where it claimed the Donbas region.  There are many people there that desire to be Russian. This was the excuse—to defend the Russians living in Donbas. But Putin used the invasion to annex the Crimean Peninsula. Since then, war has simmered between the Donbas Russians and Ukraine.

Three days before Putin invaded, a year ago, he declared Donbas and Luhansk as Republics. This is what prompted NATO to impose sanctions on Russia. Since then, Putin often speaks of the ethnic ties that justify his invasion in his aim to restore Russia to national greatness.

Another motivation for Putin is religious.  Of course he might be using religion to convince some people that he is restoring the Russian Orthodox Church to be the only accepted church in Russia. Putin’s invasion is supported by the Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Kirill has called Putin’s invasion a religious miracle. Putin and Kirill consider the West and that includes Ukraine, decadent and morally reprehensible. In a country where 71% identify as Orthodox, Putin promotes himself as defender of the values of the church, and Patriarch Kirill legitimizes his geopolitical ambitions.

This afternoon, let us invoke the intercessions of the patron saints of Ukraine and Russia.  St. Olga is patron saint of Ukraine.  She is also patron of widows, defiance, and vengeance.  Yes, vengeance.  The story is that she married as a teenager and had one son.  This is the 10^th century; her husband was brutally murdered by a neighboring tribe.  She was only around twenty years old, and her son was three.  She wanted vengeance and she got it.  She wiped the tribe that killed her husband off the face of the earth.  This was before she became Christian.  Upon converting to Christianity she repented and forgave all whom she felt had wronged her.  So she is patron saint of those who want vengeance but think better of it.  Her family was converted, along with her.  That includes her grandson, Vladimir.

Her grandson, Vladimir the Great, expanded the kingdom into what is now seen as the first Russian principality, which Vladimir Putin now views as the forerunner of the imperial Russian state. Olga’s grandson is acknowledged as a saint for his role in completing the Christianization, Olga started. Is the name sake of St. Vladimir modeling him?

Russia has a few patron saints because of the many countries she has assimilated.  There’s St. Vladimir and St. Olga, St. Nicholas (our Santa), St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Andrew, St. George, Michael the Archangel, etc. 

Let us pray through the intercession of all the saints, especially the patrons of Ukraine and Russia; we pray for peace and the laying down of weapons.  We ask for wisdom, discernment, and compassion for those in power to broker peace.   ROSARY