Video-message of His Beatitude Sviatoslav. July 22. 149 th day of the war

Today is Friday July 22, 2022 and for 149 days the people of Ukraine have been holding back a large scale and numerous Russian invasion that has set foot on our land and kills and maims the inhabitants of our homeland, our sons and our daughters, destroys the towns and villages of Ukraine.

In recent days and nights again, almost the entire territory of Ukraine has been liberally bombarded with Russian bombs. Human blood flowed. The cries and cries of Ukrainian children probably reach the skies. The fiercest battles are fought in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, around the cities of Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Bakhmut. But yesterday we were all simply appalled by the news of the massive shelling of the city of Kharkiv, where the enemy deliberately targeted the most densely populated areas of this huge city of one million people. Officially we know this morning, at least 4 people died and 25 people were injured in varying degrees. Our Dnipropetrovsk region was subjected to heavy shelling. Moreover, according to the information we received from public sources, and according to officially registered data, 358 children died in Ukraine, and those who were injured, including seriously injured, are probably three times as many. But this is only official data, and probably no one knows the real number. This is why it is very painful that innocent people die, that defenseless innocent people die, that the weakest die, that children die because of this unjust war.

But Ukraine holds firm. Ukraine is fighting. And Ukraine prays.

Today, we continue with you our reflections on Christian prayer, on this life of prayer so important for each one of us today. We have already said that prayer is the breath of the soul. And we know that when we go through an episode of physical stress, then, our body demands that we breathe more and more often. Likewise, when we experience the tragedy of war, our heart, our spiritual life demands deeper and more frequent prayerful breathing.

Today I want to reflect with you on a very special type of prayer, which we often forget, but without this type of prayer our spiritual Christian life is not fully complete, without this type of prayer we do not know each other not. And this type of prayer is called an examination of conscience or a daily examination of our conscience.

The wisdom of Christian asceticism and the demands of our spiritual life call us, especially at the end of each day, to stand before God in prayer, and then to look back at how we lived that last day, to remember, if possible, all our actions, because just after a day it is still possible to do so, to remember the details of our day and then a very interesting panorama will open before us. We will begin a journey into the depths of our own hearts.

Saint Augustine calls the inner spiritual life of a person, the inner world, a kind of underground gallery, an underground labyrinth, which one must enter at least once a day, holding in his hands the lamp of the Holy Spirit, the lamp of the Word of God. And that is how we can look so deep into these labyrinths, how far the light of divine Truth will enlighten us. And these are the journeys in one's own spiritual world. Every day, we must bring to light, above all, before ourselves and before the Face of God, all our deepest desires, our thoughts, our movements of the heart.

And it is very important to read two pages from an open book, which then will become clear. We must first reflect on the good that we could have done on this day, the good that we have received from God, therefore from our loved ones, because sometimes we only notice and remember the evil done by ourselves or the others. But all the good we receive from God, we often forget and do not pay direct attention to it, we think it is something that belongs to us. And we ourselves know how to do so much good, we ourselves are called to be good, it is our true nature. And knowing what good we were able to do today is a very important condition for an examination of conscience. And then the second page: let's take a closer look at our failures, all the things that may not have gone as we would have liked, all the things that we may have done wrong. Let us remember our sins, and at the end of this prayer, ask the Lord God for all our sins and give thanks for the graces we have received, the graces received from the Lord God. And thank you for the whole day.

Such a prayer for the examination of conscience is extremely useful and important, because just as the strategist, who, to go into battle, must know his strengths, must correctly assess his abilities and weaknesses, every Christian must, in order to go to the he next step in the spiritual life, we must know our strengths and weaknesses, and thank God for everything, and ask him right away our sins. “Let not the sun set on your malice,” says the apostle Paul.

O God, bless Ukraine. O God, help us overcome evil through daily prayer and self-examination. Help us believe that when we ask for forgiveness, You render evil powerless, You are the one who binds the devil and his servants. O God, help us to persevere in doing good to the end. O God, bless Ukraine.

May the blessing of the Lord be upon you through His grace and love for humankind, always, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

+ Sviatoslav