Glory to Jesus Christ!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Greetings to all of you from Ukrainian Kyiv, our first-throned city.
Today is the first day of a new period: today we enter into the second week of this horrible war. The eighth day. Ukraine is standing. On the eighth day of the war Ukraine is fighting.
Today in a particular way we begin to feel, we begin to discover for ourselves, the role and place of Kyiv in the life of our Church, in the life of our nation, in the life of the Ukrainian State.
Kyiv isn’t just the capital of Ukraine. In accordance with the conception of the founding princes of the Kyivan State, the city of Kyiv is “New Jerusalem.”
Precisely in these days, especially after yesterday’s global Day of Prayer for Peace in Ukraine, we perceive that Kyiv is being transformed into the spiritual capital of the world. Today, to this place, the eyes of people throughout the world are turned—of all churches, religions, and confessions. And thus, in a particular way we feel that inscription from the 46th Psalm of David in the central apse of the Cathedral of Saint Sophia: “God is in the midst of her, she shall not be shaken; God shall help her right early in the morning.” [Psalm 45:6 LXX]
In the context of this universal prayer, yesterday representatives of all churches and religions of Ukraine, the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, gathered together again in the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in order to pray for peace in Ukraine.
It is precisely the presence of God in the midst of His City, in the icon of God’s wisdom, that is embodied in the life of our people, in the life of our state.
We ask today that this wisdom of God that has always been the foundation of the life of our Church and our people, become the foundation of the strength of our fortitude. So that God’s wisdom rule over human madness. So that the God of Peace, upon whom we rest, give us the opportunity to defend this peace, placing our hope in Him so that we might not be shaken.
Before the dawn, says the Psalm, God will bless us, will help us.
This night we saw again the horrors of war. We saw the horrific bombarding of Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine. We saw once more this night the horror of death. Today, according to the information of international organizations, there are already close to 800,000 refugees from the war in Ukraine, on the eighth day of the war. Every day, hundreds of Russian soldiers are dying. Today there are already thousands of dead on the side of our enemies.
We pray: O God, in Your wisdom, stop the war.
I would like to thank all those who today with their own eyes behold Kyiv, who are living with those spiritual rhythms with which lives Kyiv, as “New Jerusalem.”
O God, receive our prayer! O God, preserve Your city! Be in our midst, and then we will not be shaken.
O God, before the morning bless us and give Ukraine peace.
May the blessing of the Lord be upon you, through His grace and love for humankind, always, now and ever, and for ages of ages. Amen.