Ukraine
after invasion: prayer in the night is access to God
(Vatican
Radio) After four years as Papal Nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Thomas
Gullickson reflects on the challenges faced by Ukrainians after their country
was thrown into turmoil in 2014. The lives of millions of Ukrainians were
destabilized, leaving up to two million people “on the run” and “having to find
a new homeland,” the Archbishop told Vatican Radio.
In
the midst of the struggle, however, “marvelous things can happen,” he said.
“There’s an openness to prayer, a desire really in some way or another for
God’s intervention and protection.” The responsibility of the Church in such
circumstances is significant. “It’s a big responsibility for the Church to know
how to mediate that and to respond to this seeking on the part of people of
good will in some way or another – to use another expression, wrapped under the
mantle of the Blessed Mother and protected.”
The
Archbishop recalled that during the crisis, Catholic parishes organized nightly
prayer vigils in Kiev which grew into vast outpourings of faith. “The
Conventual Franciscans … started very simply, using the time they were assigned
… at 3 in the morning, to pray the rosary. And at first the people there in the
square didn’t understand what was going on. They didn’t know their
prayers.” The Archbishop told of the Franciscans passing out small white
plastic rosaries to the people coming to pray in the night. “Until finally, one
night alone, they handed out 5,000 rosaries and the people began praying with
them. It’s still exciting for me today. It was a pre-catechesis, it was a
moment of prayer and it has brought the rosary into the lives of these people
as a symbol of something we don’t understand but which they certainly do and is
access to God.”
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