My Thoughts 08/03/2022

Last Sunday, after Mass, a young mother said that her son had a question for me. Here it is, “What is God going to do about Ukraine?”

I think that is a good way to approach how we pray to God in time of war. The question that we need to ask ourselves is, “How does God wish me to pray about what is happening to the people of Ukraine? What should be my prayer?” In prayer we seek always to come to know God’s will.

Today in the gospel, Jesus teaches us how to pray. He gives us these words,

“Thy will be done on earth as in heaven.”

Jesus gives us this prayer of trust and confidence in God’s goodness. Our prayer needs to be a prayer of trust in God’s power and presence even when we feel his absence. We ask to be delivered from all evil.

The response to todays’s Psalm 33 is,

“The Lord rescues the just in all their distress.”

We can say with confidence,

I sought the Lord and he answered me;
from all my terrors he set me free.
Look towards him and be radiant;
let your faces not be abashed.
This poor man called, the Lord heard him
and rescued him from all his distress.
The Lord turns his face against the wicked
to destroy their remembrance from the earth.
The Lord turns his eyes to the just
and his ears to their appeal.

In the Lady Chapel we have delayed a picture of Our Lady of Ukraine with these words,

“O Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Ukraine, spread your mantle over the people of Ukraine at this time of their greatest need. Protect them and bring them to lasting Peace. We ask this through Christ Our Lord.”