Sermon by Msgr. Jan Sobiło, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia, Ukraine

From https://www.de-vrouwe.info.

Day of Prayer in Düsseldorf, May 21, 2016.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

I am very happy that I was able to come today and take part in this Day of Prayer in Dusseldorf. I remember very well the Day of Prayer in Nitra in March. The atmosphere of this Marian prayer meeting is always something very special. It is so beautiful that the Day of Prayer takes place before the image of Our Lady in a true atmosphere of prayer. The exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Eucharist, is of course especially powerful.

                After the Day of Prayer in Nitra, I am even more convinced that St. John Bosco described our times in his dream: The ship of the Church is out of danger only then when it is anchored to the Holy Eucharist and Our Lady. It is also in the Holy Eucharist that we will find peace among the nations, which is otherwise so unstable these days. And the Mother of God, our mother, prepares us for the reception of the Holy Eucharist. A day of prayer such as this lets us look to the future with hope as we see thousands of faithful kneeling in Adoration and praying the Rosary after going to Confession.

                I come from the Ukraine, from the diocese which is found in the war zone. Hundreds of thousands of people have had to leave their homes and apartments. Many children cannot go to their schools anymore. Many people will remain handicapped for the rest of their lives. All of this, even though just a short time ago no one could have imagined that such a war would be possible. Soldiers who previously served together in one army and lived on the same bases are now divided into two camps and are now on opposite sides of the battleground. I saw white rosaries hanging around the necks of many of them. When our priests visit the front lines together with volunteers and reporters, the first thing the soldiers ask them is for a Rosary or an icon. At the beginning of last year, we began to pass out the image of the Mother of All Nations with the prayer. This prayer gives us hope that our Heavenly Mother may reconcile all her children. God, the Father, is the father of us all. His Son gave us His mother on Golgotha so that we too may call her mother. So, everyone, whether Russian, Ukrainian, German, Slovak, or Pole, has the possibility and God given right to call Mary his personal mother. Our life on earth is very short. In heaven we will all be together. It is therefore so important that we reconcile with each other already on earth, so that our unity in heaven may be the continuation of that begun on earth.

                The situation in Donbass, Ukraine, humanly speaking, is very difficult. It seems there is no way out. But it only seems that way to us! When we look at Mary, at the Mother of All Nations, then we see in her eyes the motherly care for all the nations of the earth. The Divine Father is the father of all mankind. And Our Lady continuously reminds us that we who live upon this earth are all brothers and sisters. The Mother of All Nations looks upon each and every person and upon each and every nation with the same love. That means: we should and may place all of our hope in the intercession of our heavenly mother.

                The current conflict in Donbass, in Eastern Ukraine, shows us that prayer through the intercession of the Lady of All Nations can stop all evil. For more than a year now the soldiers on the front have been praying the prayer on the prayer card of Our Lady. I am convinced that if we ask the mother of the Russian and Ukrainian peoples with a pure heart, she will work the miracle of reconciliation between the two.

                The hundredth anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima is approaching and at the same time, we hear the appeals of Our Lady that she speaks to us in Medjugorje. In spite of the many crises, so many people are converting! For this conversion, Our Lady helps us through her intercession and motherly care, but also through the loving look which she directs to us from the image of the Lady of All Nations. I believe that all of Eastern and Western Europe will receive an enormous gift from Dusseldorf today. Eastern Europe will receive the gift of prayer for a spiritual awakening and reconciliation, and Western Europe - richly blessed through the prayer from Dusseldorf - will receive a new light. We need this light to be able to see all the dangers. The return of Western Europe to the deep prayer of the Rosary and more frequent confessions will aid in the awakening of the spiritual roots from which Europe has sprung and grown.

                May many saints - German, French, Dutch - yes, every saint of Western Europe, together with Our Lady, implore for us complete renewal from God the Father.

                May the Lord give us strength and spiritual perseverance so that we may be interiorly prepared for the times that lay before us. May the Lady of All Nations transmit us all the graces of God so that we, with true Christian love, together with all our brother and sisters in faith, may continue on to the Kingdom of God. Let us ask the Divine Father also to guide the Jews and Muslims to His Son Jesus Christ so that they too may feel the power of Divine Love, which flows forth from the heart of the Redeemer and is poured out upon the earth through the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

                I personally pray the prayer of the Lady of All Nations every day when I pray the breviary. This prayer is also prayed by many of the faithful in my diocese in the Ukraine, Zaporizhia.

                At the end now, I would like to turn to the Mother of All Nations and, with joy, pray her beautiful and powerful prayer in Ukrainian in the name of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples.

Friday's Sung Word: "Ao Romper da Aurora" by Lamartine Babo, Francisco Alves, and Ismael Silva (in Portuguese)

A aurora vem raiando
anunciando nosso amor, ô.

Desperta a cidade
o sol no céu flutua
ele é a mocidade,
a saudade é a lua, ô.

A felicidade promete,
mas não vem só
vem a saudade,
saudade é querer bem, ô.

Chega o dia,
desaparece  a tristeza.
fica a alegria
pela propria natureza, ô.

You can hear "Ao Romper da Aurora" sung by Mário Reis here.

Thursday's Serial: "The House on the Borderland" by William Hope Hodgson (in English) – XII

XXII - THE DARK NEBULA

            Years melted into the past, centuries, aeons. The light of the incandescent star, sank to a furious red.

It was later, that I saw the dark nebula - at first, an impalpable cloud, away to my right. It grew, steadily, to a clot of blackness in the night. How long I watched, it is impossible to say; for time, as we count it, was a thing of the past. It came closer, a shapeless monstrosity of darkness - tremendous. It seemed to slip across the night, sleepily - a very hell-fog. Slowly, it slid nearer, and passed into the void, between me and the Central Suns. It was as though a curtain had been drawn before my vision. A strange tremor of fear took me, and a fresh sense of wonder.

            The green twilight that had reigned for so many millions of years, had now given place to impenetrable gloom. Motionless, I peered about me. A century fled, and it seemed to me that I detected occasional dull glows of red, passing me at intervals.

            Earnestly, I gazed, and, presently, seemed to see circular masses, that showed muddily red, within the clouded blackness. They appeared to be growing out of the nebulous murk. Awhile, and they became plainer to my accustomed vision. I could see them, now, with a fair amount of distinctness - ruddy-tinged spheres, similar, in size, to the luminous globes that I had seen, so long previously.

            They floated past me, continually. Gradually, a peculiar uneasiness seized me. I became aware of a growing feeling of repugnance and dread. It was directed against those passing orbs, and seemed born of intuitive knowledge, rather than of any real cause or reason.

            Some of the passing globes were brighter than others; and, it was from one of these, that a face looked, suddenly. A face, human in its outline; but so tortured with woe, that I stared, aghast. I had not thought there was such sorrow, as I saw there. I was conscious of an added sense of pain, on perceiving that the eyes, which glared so wildly, were sightless. A while longer, I saw it; then it had passed on, into the surrounding gloom. After this, I saw others - all wearing that look of hopeless sorrow; and blind.

            A long time went by, and I became aware that I was nearer to the orbs, than I had been. At this, I grew uneasy; though I was less in fear of those strange globules, than I had been, before seeing their sorrowful inhabitants; for sympathy had tempered my fear.

            Later, there was no doubt but that I was being carried closer to the red spheres, and, presently, I floated among them. In awhile, I perceived one bearing down upon me. I was helpless to move from its path. In a minute, it seemed, it was upon me, and I was submerged in a deep red mist. This cleared, and I stared, confusedly, across the immense breadth of the Plain of Silence. It appeared just as I had first seen it. I was moving forward, steadily, across its surface. Away ahead, shone the vast, blood-red ring (15) that lit the place. All around, was spread the extraordinary desolation of stillness, that had so impressed me during my previous wanderings across its starkness.

            Presently, I saw, rising up into the ruddy gloom, the distant peaks of the mighty amphitheatre of mountains, where, untold ages before, I had been shown my first glimpse of the terrors that underlie many things; and where, vast and silent, watched by a thousand mute gods, stands the replica of this house of mysteries - this house that I had seen swallowed up in that hell-fire, ere the earth had kissed the sun, and vanished for ever.

            Though I could see the crests of the mountain-amphitheatre, yet it was a great while before their lower portions became visible. Possibly, this was due to the strange, ruddy haze, that seemed to cling to the surface of the Plain. However, be this as it may, I saw them at last.

            In a still further space of time, I had come so close to the mountains, that they appeared to overhang me. Presently, I saw the great rift, open before me, and I drifted into it; without volition on my part.

            Later, I came out upon the breadth of the enormous arena. There, at an apparent distance of some five miles, stood the House, huge, monstrous and silent - lying in the very center of that stupendous amphitheatre. So far as I could see, it had not altered in any way; but looked as though it were only yesterday that I had seen it. Around, the grim, dark mountains frowned down upon me from their lofty silences.

            Far to my right, away up among inaccessible peaks, loomed the enormous bulk of the great Beast-god. Higher, I saw the hideous form of the dread goddess, rising up through the red gloom, thousands of fathoms above me. To the left, I made out the monstrous Eyeless-Thing, grey and inscrutable. Further off, reclining on its lofty ledge, the livid Ghoul-Shape showed - a splash of sinister color, among the dark mountains.

            Slowly, I moved out across the great arena - floating. As I went, I made out the dim forms of many of the other lurking Horrors that peopled those supreme heights.

            Gradually, I neared the House, and my thoughts flashed back across the abyss of years. I remembered the dread Specter of the Place. A short while passed, and I saw that I was being wafted directly toward the enormous mass of that silent building.

            About this time, I became aware, in an indifferent sort of way, of a growing sense of numbness, that robbed me of the fear, which I should otherwise have felt, on approaching that awesome Pile. As it was, I viewed it, calmly - much as a man views calamity through the haze of his tobacco smoke.

            In a little while, I had come so close to the House, as to be able to distinguish many of the details about it. The longer I looked, the more was I confirmed in my long-ago impressions of its entire similitude to this strange house. Save in its enormous size, I could find nothing unlike.

            Suddenly, as I stared, a great feeling of amazement filled me. I had come opposite to that part, where the outer door, leading into the study, is situated. There, lying right across the threshold, lay a great length of coping stone, identical - save in size and color - with the piece I had dislodged in my fight with the Pit-creatures.

            I floated nearer, and my astonishment increased, as I noted that the door was broken partly from its hinges, precisely in the manner that my study door had been forced inward, by the assaults of the Swine-things. The sight started a train of thoughts, and I began to trace, dimly, that the attack on this house, might have a far deeper significance than I had, hitherto, imagined. I remembered how, long ago, in the old earth-days, I had half suspected that, in some unexplainable manner, this house, in which I live, was en rapport - to use a recognized term - with that other tremendous structure, away in the midst of that incomparable Plain.

            Now, however, it began to be borne upon me, that I had but vaguely conceived what the realization of my suspicion meant. I began to understand, with a more than human clearness, that the attack I had repelled, was, in some extraordinary manner, connected with an attack upon that strange edifice.

            With a curious inconsequence, my thoughts abruptly left the matter; to dwell, wonderingly, upon the peculiar material, out of which the House was constructed. It was - as I have mentioned, earlier - of a deep, green color. Yet, now that I had come so close to it, I perceived that it fluctuated at times, though slightly - glowing and fading, much as do the fumes of phosphorus, when rubbed upon the hand, in the dark.

            Presently, my attention was distracted from this, by coming to the great entrance. Here, for the first time, I was afraid; for, all in a moment, the huge doors swung back, and I drifted in between them, helplessly. Inside, all was blackness, impalpable. In an instant, I had crossed the threshold, and the great doors closed, silently, shutting me in that lightless place.

            For a while, I seemed to hang, motionless; suspended amid the darkness. Then, I became conscious that I was moving again; where, I could not tell. Suddenly, far down beneath me, I seemed to hear a murmurous noise of Swine-laughter. It sank away, and the succeeding silence appeared clogged with horror.

            Then a door opened somewhere ahead; a white haze of light filtered through, and I floated slowly into a room, that seemed strangely familiar. All at once, there came a bewildering, screaming noise, that deafened me. I saw a blurred vista of visions, flaming before my sight. My senses were dazed, through the space of an eternal moment. Then, my power of seeing, came back to me. The dizzy, hazy feeling passed, and I saw, clearly.

XXIII - PEPPER

            I was seated in my chair, back again in this old study. My glance wandered 'round the room. For a minute, it had a strange, quivery appearance - unreal and unsubstantial. This disappeared, and I saw that nothing was altered in any way. I looked toward the end window - the blind was up.

            I rose to my feet, shakily. As I did so, a slight noise, in the direction of the door, attracted my attention. I glanced toward it. For a short instant, it appeared to me that it was being closed, gently. I stared, and saw that I must have been mistaken - it seemed closely shut.

            With a succession of efforts, I trod my way to the window, and looked out. The sun was just rising, lighting up the tangled wilderness of gardens. For, perhaps, a minute, I stood, and stared. I passed my hand, confusedly, across my forehead.

            Presently, amid the chaos of my senses, a sudden thought came to me; I turned, quickly, and called to Pepper. There was no answer, and I stumbled across the room, in a quick access of fear. As I went, I tried to frame his name; but my lips were numb. I reached the table, and stooped down to him, with a catching at my heart. He was lying in the shadow of the table, and I had not been able to see him, distinctly, from the window. Now, as I stooped, I took my breath, shortly. There was no Pepper; instead, I was reaching toward an elongated, little heap of grey, ashlike dust...

            I must have remained, in that half-stooped position, for some minutes. I was dazed - stunned. Pepper had really passed into the land of shadows.

Good Readings: “Desejo” by Gonçalves Dias (in Portuguese)

Ah! que eu não morra sem provar, ao menos

Sequer por um instante, nesta vida

Amor igual ao meu!

Dá, Senhor Deus, que eu sobre a terra encontre

Um anjo, uma mulher, uma obra tua,

Que sinta o meu sentir;

Uma alma que me entenda, irmã da minha,

Que escute o meu silêncio, que me siga

Dos ares na amplidão!

Que em laço estreito unidas, juntas, presas,

Deixando a terra e o lodo, aos céus remontem

Num êxtase de amor!