Papal Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Saviour of the world, save Russia – from all the wickedness of her tyrannical government, from all her mad dreams of empire and unjust domination, from all her shameful prostitution of the Gospel and supposedly orthodox Christianity in the service of a junior antichrist, from all her cynical perversion of the truth into lies, from all the endemic lawlessness, impunity, thuggery, amorality and corruption of her criminal elite, from all the complicity of her military, administration and everyday people in evil, from all her hateful crimes against the people of Ukraine and other nations – and save us all from our sins, for all have sinned; granting this in thy mercy at the prayers and all-prevailing supplications of the Most Holy Mother of God. Her Immaculate Heart will triumph!

To this end, pray as the Pope will pray in Rome on the Solemnity of the Annunciation, Anno Domini 2022, and join in the Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Victory in Spite of All Terror

I have often wondered however what would have happened if two hundred thousand German storm troops had actually established themselves ashore. The massacre would have been on both sides grim and great. There would have been neither mercy nor quarter. They would have used Terror, and we were prepared to go all lengths. I intended to use the slogan “You can always take one with you.” 

— Sir Winston Churchill, Their Finest Hour (London: Cassell, 1949, 246)

This is what Ukraine is facing today.

YOU CAN ALWAYS TAKE ONE WITH YOU.

God grant them victory:

It is an easy matter for many to be shut up in the hands of a few: and there is no difference in the sight of the God of heaven to deliver with a great multitude, or with a small company: for the success of war is not in the multitude of the army, but strength cometh from heaven. They come against us with an insolent multitude, and with pride, to destroy us, and our wives, and our children, and to take our spoils. But we will fight for our lives and our laws: and the Lord himself will overthrow them before our face: but as for you, fear them not. — 1 Machabees 3, 18-22

God forbid we should do this thing, and flee away from them: but if our time be come, let us die manfully for our brethren, and let us not stain our glory. — 1 Machabees 9, 10

To the invaders, death:

Long ago, the great army of Sennacherib threatened Jerusalem; it suffices to allude to the proud lies and evil blasphemies of the Assyrians and their king to see the parallels with today; God grant that matters come to pass as they did then:

And it came to pass that night, that an angel of the Lord came, and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand. — 4 (2) Kings 19, 35

And they arose in the morning, and behold they were all dead corpses. — Isaias 37, 36

After this reversal, Sennacherib returned home, and was slain.

GOD GRANT IT.

As Judas Machabeus prayed:

O Lord, who didst send thy angel in the time of Ezechias king of Juda, and didst kill a hundred and eighty-five thousand of the army of Sennacherib: even so destroy this army in our sight today. — 2 Machabees 15, 22; 1 Machabees 7, 42

Domine, qui misisti angelum tuum sub Ezechia rege Juda, et interfecisti de castris Sennacherib centum octoginta quinque millia: sic contere exercitum istum in conspectu nostro hodie.

AMEN.

Prayer for the Deliverance of Ukraine in Time of Invasion

Pray that even now the unjust onslaught of Russian armed forces may be defeated, and Ukraine delivered!

Prayer for the Deliverance of Ukraine in Time of Invasion

Adapted from the Great Book of Needs

[If at the Divine Liturgy:] After the Augmented Litany, the Holy Doors are opened, and the deacon (or priest) exclaims:

Let us attend, and with compunctionate hearts, having inclined the knees of our souls and bodies, let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. 

And the priest (on bended knees) says this prayer in a loud voice with compunction:

O Lord God of powers, and God of our salvation, O God, who alone work wonders: look down with mercy and compassion on Your humble servants, and out of love for mankind hearken and have mercy on us and on the land of Ukraine. For, behold, enemies have once more gathered together, in order to cause division and enmity. But You who know all things, understand that they have risen up unrighteously, and that it will be impossible to oppose their multitudes unless You show us Your help. Therefore, we who are sinful and unworthy pray unto You in repentance and with tears: “Help us, O God, our Saviour, and deliver” the land of Ukraine “for the sake of the glory of Your Name” (Ps. 78:9), that the enemy may not say: “Their God has forsaken them, and there is none to deliver and save them.” (Cf. Ps. 70:11) But let every nation understand that You are our God, and we Your people are always protected under Your dominion. Reveal Your mercy, O Lord, and let the words spoken by Moses unto the people of Israel (Exodus 14:13-14) be applied to us: “Fear not. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. For the Lord shall fight for us.” Work for us a sign for good, that they who are filled with hatred may see our orthodox faith and be humbled and shaken. Yes, O Lord God, our Saviour, our Strength and Hope and Help, remember not the transgressions and unrighteousness of Your faithful people, and turn not away from us in Your anger. But visit Your mercies and compassions upon Your humble servants, those who fight in defence of Ukraine and her much-suffering people, outnumbered though they be, and hear us who fall down before Your deep compassion. With Your mercy enlighten and make glad the hearts of the civil authorities, and strengthen them by Your might. Rise up to their help and lay low the evil counsels purposed against them by the enemy. Judge them that provoke and make war, and turn their impious boldness into fear and flight. But grant unto the just and God-fearing armies of the children of Ukraine, great boldness and courage to advance and overtake them, and to defeat them in Your Name. And unto them that You have judged worthy to lay down their lives for faith and country, forgive them their trespasses, and in the day of the righteous reckoning grant unto them incorruptible crowns. For You are the health and victory and salvation of them that put their hope in You, and unto You do we send up glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. 

People: Amen. 

Courtesy of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada. “Prepared by the sinful Reader Ilya, feast of the Hieromartyr Clement of Ancyra [23rd January, O.S., 5th February, N.S.]. Brampton, [Ontario, Canada,] 2022.”

Sources:

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/prayer-for-the-deliverance-of-ukraine-in-time-of-invasion

https://www.holyangelssandiego.com/ 

[Errata: “enemy may not to say” changed to “enemy may not say”; “strengthened them” changed to “strengthen them”; “councils” changed to “counsels”; “worthy” added after “judged”; American spelling of “Savior” and “defense” changed to “Saviour” and “defence”; comma added after “hearts” and in the Kyries; references to psalms added and quotation marks inserted.]

God Save Ukraine

"There is no purgatory for war criminals. They go straight to hell, ambassador."

— Ukraine's UN ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya to Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, at the UN Security Council, Wednesday 23rd February 2022.

While we must hope that even the most hardened sinner would repent and be saved ere they die, lest they go straight to hell, realistically there is a but a scant chance of that happening, bar a miracle – and it seems unlikely that Putin, in his own eyes the Autocrat of All the Russias, real and imagined, fondly picturing himself as the worthy heir of Catherine the Great (!), would be the recipient of such; for while the Good Thief, moved by grace, was saved by Christ, it was permitted that Judas should hang himself.

Pray for Ukraine, wickedly invaded by Russia at the behest of an evil man; may the many who will die make their peace with God; may those who defend Ukraine fight manfully in the cause of right, knowing that God can give victory either to many or to few; and, as Churchill put it, in the dark days of May 1940:

“Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the Outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be.” (Cf. 1 Machabees 3:58, 59, 60)

Prayers for Peace and to Avert War in Ukraine

As it appears events may be approaching a crisis, of your charity pray that Russia will not invade Ukraine, that the scourge of war even now be averted: 

Prayers for Peace and to Avert War in Ukraine

Cf. Ecclus 50, 24. 25

Pray ye to the God of all, that he may grant us peace in our days for ever.

Prayer for Peace.

Lord Jesus Christ, who didst say unto thine Apostles: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, do I give unto you,” regard not our sins but thy merits, and grant unto all thy servants, that they whom the Almighty Father hath created and governeth, and whom thou hast redeemed with thy Precious Blood and hast ordained unto everlasting life, may love one another with all their hearts for thy sake, and may be made one in spirit and rejoice in thy perpetual peace. Lord Jesus Christ, concerning whom the Prophet hath said: “And all kings of the earth shall adore him, all nations shall serve him,” extend thy reign over the whole human race. Send upon all men the light of thy faith, deliver them from all the snares and bonds of passion, and direct them to heavenly things; and graciously grant, that the states and nations may be united by means of thine immaculate Bride, Holy Church, and, through the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, may serve thee in all humility; and that all tongues and peoples may form one great choir, to praise thee both day and night, to bless thee, to exalt thee, O King of the nations and the Ruler thereof, O Prince of Peace, immortal King of ages. Amen.

Prayers for Peace.

Let us pray the Lord, that he may crush wars, and give peace in all the earth.

1. God of peace, our peace, peaceable King, R. Crush wars, grant peace!

2. Peace we ask, peace grant unto us: R. Crush wars, grant peace!

3. Remove war and deliver us: R. Crush wars, grant peace!

4. With humble prayer we ask, O Lord: R. Crush wars, grant peace!

5. O pious [Lord], repress wars, grant peace. R. Crush wars, grant peace!

1. From threatening wars, R. Deliver us, Lord.

2. From the scourge of war, R. Deliver us, Lord.

3. From enemies open and hidden, R. Deliver us, Lord.

4. From disturbers of peace, R. Deliver us, Lord.

5. From every hostile assault, R. Deliver us, Lord.

1. That thou wouldst deign to humble the enemies of holy Church, R. We pray thee, hear us.

2. That thou wouldst deign to repress the attempt of the Russians and reduce it to nothing, R. We pray thee, hear us.

3. That thou wouldst deign to avert war and every hostile onslaught from Ukraine, R. We pray thee, hear us.

4. That thou wouldst deign to give peace and true concord to Christian kings and princes, R. We pray thee, hear us.

5. That thou wouldst deign to grant peace and unity to the whole Christian people, R. We pray thee, hear us.

V. Scatter thou the nations that delight in wars. (Ps. 67, 31)

R. Take away wars even to the end of the earth. (Cf. Ps. 45, 10)

Let us pray.

Collect. 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.

Almighty everlasting God, who governest at once things heavenly and earthly: clemently hear the supplications of thy people, and grant thy peace to our times. Through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

Queen of peace, R. Pray for us.

******

Cf. Eccli. 50, 24. 25

Orate Deum omnium, ut det nobis pacem in diebus nostris per dies sempiternos.

Oratio pro pace. (Cf. “Dñe... do vobis: ne respicias peccata mea, sed fidem Ecclesiæ tuæ”)

Domine Jesu Christe, qui dixisti Apostolis tuis: « Pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis, non quomodo mundus dat ego do vobis » (Joan. 14, 27), ne respicias peccata nostra sed merita tua, et concede omnibus famulis tuis, ut quos creavit Pater omnipotens atque gubernat, quosque tu pretioso Sanguine redemisti et ad vitam æternam destinasti, omnes alterutrum toto corde propter te diligentes, cor unum fiant et perenni tua pace lætentur. Domine Jesu Christe, de quo cecinit Propheta: « Et adorabunt eum omnes reges terræ, omnes gentes servient ei » (Ps. 71, 11), regnum tuum ad genus humanum universum extende. Super omnes homines fidei tuæ lumen immitte, a passionum illecebris vinculisque eos libera, atque ad cælestia dirige: et concede propitius, ut civitates nationesque per immaculatam Sponsam tuam Ecclesiam sanctam conjunctæ, beatissima Virgine Maria Regina Pacis intercedente, tibi humillime famulentur; et ex omnibus linguis et populis unus existat chorus, qui, die ac nocte, te laudet, te benedicat, te exaltet, o Rex gentium (Jer. 10, 7) et dominator earum, o Princeps pacis (Is. 9, 6), o sæculorum Rex immortalis (cf. 1 Tim. 1, 17). Amen.

Preces pro pace.

Oremus Dominum, ut conterat bella, et donet pacem in universa terra.

1. Deus pacis, pax nostra, Rex pacifice, R. Contere bella, tribue pacem!

2. Pacem rogamus, pacem nobis tribue: R. Contere bella, tribue pacem!

3. Amove bella et nos omnes erue: R. Contere bella, tribue pacem!

4. Humili prece postulamus, Domine. R. Contere bella, tribue pacem!

5. Pie, bella reprime, pacem concede. R. Contere bella, tribue pacem!

1. A bellis imminentibus, R. Libera nos, Domine.

2. A flagello belli, R. Libera nos, Domine.

3. Ab hostibus apertis et occultis, R. Libera nos, Domine.

4. A perturbatoribus pacis, R. Libera nos, Domine.

5. Ab omni hostili incursu, R. Libera nos, Domine.

1. Ut inimicos sanctæ Ecclesiæ humiliare digneris, R. Te rogamus, audi nos.

2. Ut russicorum conatus reprimere et ad nihilum redigere digneris, R. Te rogamus, audi nos.

3. Ut ab Ucraina bellum et omnem incursum hostilem avertere digneris, R. Te rogamus, audi nos.

4. Ut regibus et principibus christianis pacem et veram concordiam donare digneris, R. Te rogamus, audi nos.

5. Ut cuncto populo christiano pacem et unitatem largiri digneris, R. Te rogamus, audi nos.

V. Dissipa gentes quæ bella volunt. (Ps. 67, 31)

R. Aufer bella usque ad finem terræ. (Cf. Ps. 45, 10)

Oremus.

Oratio. Dñca II. post Epiphaniam.

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui cælestia simul et terrena moderaris: supplicationes populi tui clementer exaudi; et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen.

Regina pacis, R. Ora pro nobis.

War and Peace

Matters in the Ukraine have reached breaking point; Russia is acting just as the USSR did – I think of the cynical and lying manner in which Stalin proclaimed peace while bloodily occupying the Baltic States, for example. That said, I think Ukraine might be well advised to let the Crimea go, since Russia is in de facto control there already.

How upsetting, to think that the pro-Russian President of Ukraine would turn tail and run, and those pro-Europe scum came suddenly to power! How upsetting – to the Kremlin, not known for fondness toward would-be overthrowers of authoritarian regimes.

The real danger comes if Putin (think Stalin, think Lenin, think Ivan the Terrible – Russian autocrats are all the same, just like those Russian dolls all nested inside each other) decides to take more than the Crimea: perhaps the easternmost Donetsk and Luhansk regions, to begin with.

After all, to the detritus of the old Soviet Empire (I mean Kaliningrad Oblast, between Poland and Lithuania), several puppet states "protected" by the Russian military have been added since the breakup of the USSR:

• Transnistria, between Moldova and Ukraine: 4,163 sq km (protected since 1990)
• Abkhazia, formerly north-western Georgia: 8,660 sq km (protected since 1992-3 and especially since 2008)
• South Ossetia, formerly north-central Georgia: 3,900 sq km (also occupied since 2008)
• Crimea: 26,964 sq km (de facto occupied as of late February 2014)

It appears the bear is getting hungrier.

May we expect ethnic cleansing, or just bashings and like cruelty, once the Crimea "overwhelmingly votes to reunite joyfully with the Motherland"? If I were a Crimean Tatar I'd be afraid.

Russia's government of course assumes that the European Union, the US and NATO are all as gormless and spineless as they have so far appeared; which seems a fair assessment. But hand-wringing will not scare away the bear, only a bloodied nose will. At least the Lithuanians have realised what's at stake, and have invoked Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

If NATO mobilised, and the US and UK declared they were willing to enforce, militarily if need be, the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, a "piece of paper" signed also by Russia (perfidy again), which guaranteed the borders and territorial integrity of Ukraine against the threat of force – then Putin might draw back.

Then again, NATO might prove itself the loser in such a conflict, should conflict come. Or Russia. Who knows what may happen? And didn't something very nasty transpire in similar circumstances in 1914?

Do pray for peace:

Aña. Da pacem, Dómine, in diébus nostris: quia non est álius qui pugnet pro nobis, nisi tu, Deus noster. 

V/. Fiat pax in virtúte tua. 

R/. Et abundántia in túrribus tuis.

Oremus. 

Oratio. Deus, a quo sancta desidéria, recta consília, et justa sunt óреrа: da servis tuis illam, quam mundus dare non potest, pacem; ut et corda nostra mandátis tuis dédita, et hóstium subláta formídine, témpora sint tua protectióne tranquílla. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum. R/. Amen. 

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi, dona nobis pacem.

Regína pacis, ora pro nobis.

****** 

Ant. Give peace in our time, O Lord: because there is none other that fighteth for us, but only thou, O God. 

V/. Peace be in thy strength. 

R/. And plenteousness within thy towers. 

Let us pray. 

O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed; Give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by thee, we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may pass our time in rest and quietness; through Christ our Lord. R/. Amen. 

O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace.

Queen of peace, pray for us.

Geopolitical Opinions

While I have mainly restricted myself to religious thoughts on this blog, I have been concerned by the unfortunate events in Georgia (საქრთველო) of late.  Now, it was in the immediate aftermath of the breakup of the evil USSR that Georgia itself underwent fragmentation, not without violence, whereby Abkhazia and South Ossetia in the main attained de facto independence (subsidized and supported ever since by Russia, even to the extent of granting Russian passports to the majority in each rebel area), but few seem to recall with anything but indifference that this occurred at the cost of expelling many Georgians from these regions, persons who had every right to abide there.

To think that all this occurs in a country only slightly larger than my home State of Tasmania!  Georgia stands to lose about 20% of her territory...

While significant parts of South Ossetia remained ethnically Georgian and under Georgian control, presumably until the present disastrous war, the victorous separatists in Abkhazia expelled 200,000 or so Georgians (strictly speaking, Mingrelians, bilingual in Georgian and their own closely-allied tongue), in a feat of ethnic cleansing - insane sinister term! - that made that autonomous republic majority-Abkhaz for the first time: this immoral fait accompli is behind the failure of all conciliation with Georgia, for Abkhazia has no desire to permit the return of so many refugees, refugees who if returned would swing the population and votes in Abkhazia back to reunion with Georgia, refugees who, denied their moral right of return to their homes, have dwelt in appalling slums in Tbilisi ever since.

It seems all too obvious that, given the incredible foolishness of the Georgian government in trying to seize back control of the South Ossetian separatist areas without realizing the likely Russian response, the dismal process of ethnic cleansing is becoming a fait accompli in all of South Ossetia too.  Given the estimated 160,000 refugees from the conflict displaced within Georgia, the vast majority being Georgians, it appears that the end result of the foolhardy adventure has been the driving out of most remaining Georgians and central government control from all of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Whether or not Russia now or later recognizes Abkhazia or South Ossetia, or even annexes them, they are now more than ever what they have been in truth for more than a decade: Russian protectorates, divorced from Georgia, and cleansed of Georgians.  The Russian military will doubtless retain stronger footholds in both henceforth.

So, what of all this?  The Georgian government has in essence to accept the unacceptable.

It seems to me that the best that could be hoped is for the situation to be regularized: that is, for Georgia to petition for the retrocession to itself of majority-Georgian border areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in return for recognition of both as independent from Georgia, with guarantees of non-intervention in both.  For in fact this is what the situation has been virtually from the first years of Georgian independence.  It can only be hoped that such limited border readjustments may permit some of the many hundred thousand Georgian refugees to return 'home'.

What more to ask?  A shrewd move would be to offer to recognize South Ossetia as independent - but to recognize it as independent in union with North Ossetia.  Better a puppet state straddling the Caucasus between Russia and Georgia - an attractive albeit foredoomed scenario - than the worst-case of Russian annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the semipermanent occupation of adjacent areas of Georgia itself, à la Czechoslovakia 1938.

(And just to bring in further worrisome facts: one of the southern regions of Georgia is majority-Armenian, and another has a plurality of Azeris - consider the actions against prostrate and fissioning Czechoslovakia of Hungary, Poland and the USSR after the Munich agreement...)

Perhaps saddest is the way the Russian media coverage has been so slewed towards its own government's propaganda as to persuade the Russian populace that their armed forces have acted in defence of persecuted minorities against a criminal regime, whereas the truth is almost the opposite.  (Certainly Ossetians were killed in the initial, so-stupid Georgian advance: but the Georgians have since paid a far higher price.)  The governments of both states have only recently been elected in democratic elections - but that in Georgia was certainly a freer and fairer poll than that in Russia, where military-fascist and authoritarian traits are all too discernible in its leadership and political apparatus, just as throughout Russian history.

I note that the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church has been striving to intervene in the cause of peace and humanitarian relief; but I suspect the Cæsaropapist tendencies of the Russian Orthodox Church have been to the fore as usual, anointing Russian aggression mislabelled as liberation just as in the past.  Thus two nominally Orthodox peoples war with each other; the Georgians doubtless remember how for a century their own autocephalous Church had been suppressed by the Russians, and even their liturgy celebrated in Russian.

I can only pray to St George, St Nino Equal-to-the-Apostles and Evangelist of Georgia, and the Most Holy Mother of God, that they obtain of God mercy for all the peoples caught in this unhappy and fratricidal conflict.