Thursday, September 29, 2022

Saint Michael, Help End this Horrible War!

Today is the feast day of the Archangels: Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel, and Saint Rafael. We really need their help in the grave moments that are coming upon so many peoples in this world.

The picture here is a detail from a UKRAINIAN Byzantine icon of Saint Michael. The suffering that continues in Ukraine after seven months of invasion is staggering. Now there are new perils and unimaginable dangers that might result from the Russian leadership's desperate escalation of the stakes in their own disastrous and largely-failed invasion. Prayer is especially necessary in these days.

Holy Archangels, pray for us. 
 
Saint Michael, protect us from the wickedness and snares of the devil…

I beg you to protect Ukraine, and help deliver Russia from a tyrannical regime that endangers its own people as well as its neighbors. Help deliver all people in this conflict and throughout the world from the machinations of those in power who think themselves to be "gods" and authorize themselves to crush the dignity of human persons under their feet.

Protect and give courage especially to Russian young men who are now being drafted into the military, that they will refuse to kill their brothers in this unjust, horrible war of aggression. 
 
Holy Archangels, protect our poor world from the scourge of war, and pray for the conversion of every heart to the One who's coming was announced by Saint Gabriel.