“Together with him, we were united in prayer and in the act of a special consecration of Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary. In this prayer, we experienced union.”
He said that the bishops of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church joined in the act of consecration from Zarvanytsia, a village in western Ukraine that is home to a miraculous icon of the Mother of God.
“A special moment of our Church’s unity before the consecration prayer was the extraordinary session of the Synod of Ukrainian Bishops,” he said. “We gathered to coordinate our actions, to figure out how best to serve our people, our defenders, our country together.”
“We listened to each other, we tried to understand the most urgent needs. Our Church is with her people, in prayer, in work, in tireless social service to all those in need today.”
In his message on the day of the consecration, Shevchuk reflected on the meaning of the call to pray for the conversion of Russia, associated with Our Lady of Fatima.
“Every bishop of the universal Church will perform this act,” he said. “What does it mean? It means that it is never possible to make a deal, to cooperate with this evil that emerges from Russia today. And that is why we must pray for its conversion, for the eradication of that evil, ‘so that it,’ as the Mother of God of Fatima said, ‘might not destroy other states, might not cause yet another World War.’ We, as Christians, have a duty to pray for our enemies.”
He went on: “We will dedicate Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, because today we need very much the victory of good. It is she who, with her ‘yes’ to God crushed the head of this eternal serpent, is with us today.”
“May the Protections of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and all the bright angels, under the leadership of the Archangel Michael, be victorious in that spiritual battle. And Ukraine, dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, is already winning and will endure in this struggle.”
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