Saturday 25 August 2018

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





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.

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