War is the suicide of humanity because it kills the heart and kills love ~ Pope Francis, 2nd June 2013
On Monday one of our sisters celebrated her 90th birthday. Two of her siblings came, and they shared a family photo, taken on the eve of evacuation in 1939. With great clarity and simplicity they recalled this enforced separation from their parents and all that was familiar, to keep them safe and alive during war. That was then: more than 80 years ago; another era, slipping away from us. That was World War II, which my parents had also vividly recalled. That was Monday: now, since Thursday, we've seen Ukrainian families fleeing invading tanks and missiles, and children being sent to safety while their fathers prepare to defend their country.
How many times must never again become again...?
At work, all our team meetings begin with a prayer. Yesterday morning, the colleague whose turn it was to lead it had no words, as so many of us do not, in the face of a senseless invasion and war, and a darkness descending on our world. So, she played this Ukrainian Orthodox Kyrie by the Kyiv Chamber Choir, its brief, haunting melancholy somehow capturing the pain and melancholy within each one of us.
I have played it again since then, especially after watching the news. There are no words... and yet there are: the aching, heartfelt words which came to me when I first heard that the invasion had begun, and are with me still...
Heart of Jesus, source of all love and peace, have mercy on Ukraine... have mercy on us all...
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