One year of perseverance
„You know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance [have its perfect work] so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1, 3-4)
Dear Sisters,
It has been a year since the day Russian troops relaunched an offensive bringing death and terror to Ukraine. This year has been a life test for our faith, hope and love. And we united and stood together. We searched together for answers, cried out to the Lord from the deepest depths of our souls in prayer, helped and supported those who needed us. Yes, this year required a lot of hope from us, even when there was darkness, fatigue, hopelessness, anxiety… love for people, for life, for those who are near and for those who are far away… faith that God is present, even in cities destroyed by bombs, in the bloody bodies of the wounded and the blackened bodies of the tortured, that He is present even in the sounds of sirens and in the cold darkness of blackouts.
And here we are…once again in the time of Great Lent…we have lived this year of war with the mystical presence of Good Friday in our daily lives. A year ago, we didn’t know that Good Friday could be so long… And yet here we are… the test of our faith produces endurance. Endurance in the defense of life, light and hope.
Thank you to all of you who patiently pray and believe, thank you to all the sisters who work with children and adults who have suffered from the war, to all those who opened their hearts, their monasteries, to all those who provided spiritual and psychological support, to all those who witnessed, wrote, spoke. Thank you to everyone who collected funds, sent projects, and transported humanitarian aid. Thank you all, peacemakers.
Endurance for us, dear sisters, is not a path that ends… After endurance, let perfection (perfect work) follow… In the future that is before us, it will be a constant companion on the journey. We are invited to be perfect like our Heavenly Father, that is, to be merciful like Him. And this daily act of mercy, which is born of endurance, will lead us further.
I invite all of us to be merciful to ourselves, to our fellow sisters, to every wounded life… May our hearts remain capable of gentle and sensitive protection of life, enveloping the weak with love, and of delight in the “small miracles of God” that we encounter every day on our paths of peace.
