‘GOD WILL BRING PEACE’

Saying “God will bring peace,”  Father Michael Myshchuk, and other clergy of the area’s Ukrainian churches, led a Prayer Service for Peace on March 19 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception that was hosted by the Diocese of Albany.

Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger presided over the Moleben -  which is a supplication prayer service in Eastern churches that is in honor of either Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, or a particular saint or martyr - asking for intercession for peace in Ukraine and an end to the Russian invasion of the country.

Along with Father Myshchuk, of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Watervliet, clergy were also present representing St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic churches in Hudson and Amsterdam, St. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church and St. Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Troy and St. Michael’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Hudson.

“I believe because America stands with Ukraine and because the world stands with Ukraine, Ukraine stands,” Father Myshchuk said during his homily. “It stands straight and faces the evil of aggression. … It stands and hopes for better days to come. Not only are the people standing with Ukraine but I believe our God and savior also stands with the people of Ukraine. And not because they are special, but he stands with Ukraine because they are suffering. 

“We are here to pray for peace today. We pray to the Father, the Son and to the Holy Spirit and to the Holy Trinity. We ask the Holy Mother of God to intercede for us, we ask the archangel Michael to intercede for us … 

“How will this peace come to us? We do not know. It seems the situation is very difficult to predict but I know it will come. God will bring peace. I do not know how. But I know there will be peace in Ukraine. There will be joy. There will be happiness on the streets. There will be rebuilding. … people will wake up and not be afraid to go outside. … They will have everything that everyone else has but right now we have to urge God to interfere.”

Later in the service, Bishop Scharfenberger called prayer “an act of protest.”

“What we have done today is pray. But prayer is an act of protest, it is an action in which we stand before God, inspired by God, to praise God and ask his blessing. In our tradition, we speak of the four pillars of prayer that we can define in one English word: acts. A-C-T-S,” the Bishop said. “We pray in four different ways: we adore God, we say prayers of contrition, we say prayers of thanksgiving and prayers of supplication. All of these are action words. Prayer is action. Prayer changes hearts; prayer changes lives because prayer is God's voice in us going back to the father in a wonderful cycle.”

Bishop finished his remarks by leading the faithful in the Prayer of St. Michael the Archangel.

“May our prayers today change our hearts and the hearts of all of those who have in them thoughts of hatred, thoughts of vengeance, thoughts of revenge, any sort of evil. We ask the Lord to drive out. And we do this in the name of St. Michael the Archangel. We pray that prayer at the end of every Mass and if you know that prayer, I would invite you to join with me, the prayer of Michael the Archangel, whose image stands right in the center of the capital city of Kyiv::

"Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen."