Prayers for Clergy, Prayers for Ukraine

Prayers for Clergy, Prayers for Ukraine

We begin Lent with a particularly somber spirit this year, hearing troubling reports of violence and war.

Dark times and moments of crisis can be the making of great leaders, great saints.

One example of remarkable love & courage is Bishop Yaroslav Pririz of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

It’s being widely reported that Bishop Pririz gave the instruction below to all the Priests of his Eparchy of Sambir-Drohobych.

Let’s pray for everyone involved in this conflict, imploring God for peace, and let us ask Him also for the strengthening & renewal of such love and courage among all clergy everywhere.

_____________________________________________________________________________

In connection with the Russian military aggression and the imposition of martial law in Ukraine, I oblige the Pastors of the Sambir-Drohobych Eparchy to the following:

1. Strictly adhere to the duty of remaining in the Parish that is entrusted to your pastoral care, and not to leave the faithful, especially in the current threatening situation.

2. Serve the Liturgy daily for the victory of the Ukrainian army and a just peace.

3. Organize regular prayers in the churches, ensure that they are open all day and accessible to worshipers.

4. Acquaint the faithful with the Address of Patriarch Sviatoslav dated 24.02.2022.

5. Heed the call of the Holy Father to declare March 2nd a day of strict fasting and prayer.

6. Help the Ukrainian army in all possible ways, including through trustworthy volunteer organizations.

7. If necessary, be prepared to receive refugees and provide other humanitarian assistance.

8. Take care of the families of servicemen.

9. Use only official information from state and church sources.

10. Stay in touch with your dean and the diocesan administration. All clergy should remember the importance of obedience to church authority.

11. Do not spread panic, cultivate peace, and counteract possible provocations. Do not make any public statements without the consent of the Bishop.

12. Emphasize mutual assistance, support the spirit of Christian love and charity, prevent manifestations of aggression, revenge, and disorder.

13. Explain to the faithful that our people have a sacred right and duty to defend their land and the independence of the Ukrainian State.

14. The priest is called to reject fear and to be a witness of Christ and His Truth: “the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep” (Jn 10:11).

15. For all necessary clarifications and important messages, contact the Diocesan Office.

Dear fellow Priests, I embrace you all in a fraternal way and ask you to be worthy of your priestly vocation and civic duty. In these times, it is important for us to be united and close in prayer and service to God and our people.

May God’s blessing be upon our people and Ukraine!

Bishop Yaroslav
Bishop of Sambir-Drohobych

Владика Ярослав
Єпископ Самбірсько-Дрогобицький

31 Replies to “Prayers for Clergy, Prayers for Ukraine”

    1. yeah, every link I click on these sites sends me to an annual appeal donation page. And then if I type “latin mass” in the website’s search box and press the little magnifying glass, a pop-up box appears with the following text: “Go to some other diocese. You’re not the Catholics we’re looking for.”

      **kidding**
      🙂

      3
      1. HAHA! Like a Mass in Latin is the answer to all wrongs in the Church or will bring back people in droves. At one time in history, Latin was new to the Mass and Church as it was not part of the apostolic tradition. I believe that the first language of liturgy was Aramaic . New things come along, some stick and some don’t, but Latin in not a panacea.

        1
        1. “Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live, a place where saints and children tell how hearts learn to forgive. Built of hopes and dreams and visions, rock of faith and vault of grace; here the love of Christ shall end divisions. All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome except the freakin’ trads.”

          3
        2. Look, Anonymous, you may not be interested in the EF Mass. I don’t attend it either. But we are hemmorhaging millennial/GenZ Catholics as study after study shows. We should be doing all that we can to make sure they have faith. Mass in the EF does appear to be helping them. https://liturgyguy.com/2020/05/26/2019-20-tlm-survey-what-we-learned-about-latin-mass-attending-young-adults/ Our Church has always made room for legitmate older Rites and those who find God through them. It’s not like the Novus Order is flawless either. I think of all the crappy Youth culture stylings in Masses I have sat through. We need to get past the politics and start taking care of actual souls. Do what is helping underserved groups.

          2
  1. So the same globalist-media complex that just finished terrorizing us with Covid for two years are suddenly dropping all of it and telling us to replace the “mask-up & vaccinate” hashtag with a “stand with Ukraine” hashtag and hate all things Russian?

    And no one is remotely curious as to why?

    Fool me once…

    10
    1. I have a friend who travels to Ukraine regularly. His friends regularly heat with coal, amng other abuses, because Putin uses oil and gas as a weapon in addition to his recent military excursion. I’d agree the US catalyzed the invasion vis-a-vis Bush, the neocons and select warmongering Democrats but in response to the “hate all things Russian” comment, Putin and perhaps noteworthy, the Russian orthodox Church, deserves ample contempt. Not many good guys in this. We support Ukraine, however, in its stricken families, its women and children and in a much persecuted eastern Catholic Church, largely ignored by the prideful western Church but which has generated many martyrs in the godless 20th century.

      2
      1. Say what you want about autocrat Putin, but at least he doesn’t think men can have babies.

        Biden and the godless globalist “west” on the other hand…

        The culture war is now hot. Ukraine is the opening theatre.

        Bad guys are on both sides. But one side has more of a foot on the firmer ground of natural law, patriotism, and religion. And that side is not the one that holds to “western values”.

        Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

        5
      1. Sad. No matter how this shakes out, everyone loses: the parties involved, the Church, the clergy, the faithful, everyone. I pray the Lord rescue all who are tempted to despair.

        9
        1. Indeed everyone loses. I know we’ve debated on here about the cost of and need for the retreat center, the cost of United in Heart, a mega parish in Carmel, etc. The costs of abusive priests and clergy, even in our own parishes and in recent years is really heartbreaking. In addition to abuse turning current and future donors away, huge settlements are paid, lawyers are paid, counselors are paid, insurance premiums increase, much parish time is wasted on this rather than in ministry and on and on. These are all huge expenses, completely avoidable expenses and driven as a cost of SIN. As someone said why are we still in the 21st century after two decades of openness on this matter dealing with this sin of clergy abusing people? Yes I can get upset and sharped tongued about excesses at the retreat center but this SIN and waste gets me furious, disgusted, and disheartened. I PRAY FOR ALL AND FOR AN END TO THIS!

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    1. Regardless, either way, I just offered today’s Rosary for his intentions—for discovery of truth in the matter, and repentance if guilty of accusations.

      1
    2. Sure seems like an odd thing to post when neither you nor I have any access to the files of the investigation. I think from what I’ve read about the new church standards on abuse that it takes fire and not just a little bit of smoke to launch such an investigation.

      3
      1. Well by the looks of the OLMC website and bulletin look Fr.DeOreo has been removed. I will pray for justice. This should never happen in 21 century in our church. Again pray for justice.

      2. https://www.cohenandmalad.com/alerts/our-lady-of-mount-carmel-catholic-church-priest-james-de-oreo-suspended-over-allegations-of-inappropriate-conduct-with-a-minor/

        If it was sexual, which is what we know the new church standards were meant to address, this law firm would not have used the modifier “whether” and His Eminence would have used the word “sexual”. However, go to Current in Carmel Facebook and see all the accusations of pedophile to know that the Bishop should have been more clear that this was not a sexual abuse allegation, if in fact (and probably wasn’t) it is not a sexual situation.

        Then go figure out whether the Bishop is trying to smoke out a good priest with no fire.

        2
        1. All – Please also pray for the adolescent who was the victim of the inappropriate conduct that lunched an investigation by the department of child services and law enforcement.

          4
          1. Alleged inappropriate conduct. Pray also for the lawyers who may make a few bucks off of this, including the defense attorneys. Pray for the insurance company employees and stockholders as well.

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  2. “ 9. Use only official information from state and church sources.”

    Didn’t Bishop Doherty only rely on state sources to determine shutting the churches? CDC, Governor, state health dept., etc.

    3
    1. The bishops were the lapdogs of the state during the covid church closures. They rendered to Caesar what belonged to God. The faithful were abandoned by their shepherds. Period. Trust has been utterly broken.

      9
  3. So last night I attended Stations of the Cross and Benediction with Communion Service. The first Stations always feels so reassuring after a year, a reunion with an old friend. Is there anything more moving than the sung Stabat Mater? For the Stabat Mater piano cannot duplicate the sonorous mood of the organ, though last night we were forced to sing a capella. The chanted Salutaris Hosita and Tantum Ergo in Latin are only regrettable for those who will never experience them. Gratitude fills me. I left last night feeling very blessed. I yearned for heaven, for sure, even in the midst of the sorrow conveyed by the prayers and music of the Passion and Via Dolorosa. I am so fortunate to be a Catholic.

    2
    1. I’m sorry for being off topic there. We have so much negative going on this was just something positive and I think we can all use that. Through the intercession of St. Michael and our Blessed Mother, God please protect Ukraine, restore its peace and drive out the Russian forces and bring about the conversion of Russia.

      3
  4. A brave and holy Bishop. May God bless him , his priests and his flock. I wonder what kind of message our bishops would send to priests if our country was being invaded.

    4
    1. Our bishops would close churches, forbid their priests from offering the sacraments to the public, and tell the laity to stay home & stay safe for two weeks to slow the spread of the invasion. Then, months later, after the invasion has overrun the country, our bishops would re-open the churches under the harsh dictates of the new regime they’ve publicly sworn allegiance to: Laity must keep a fixed distance from each other at all times and may not gather. Laity must wear the emblem of loyalty to the new regime over their faces no matter what. Laity must take the new regime’s medicine without question and furnish proof of being medicated or be banished.

      Then, after the laity have settled into the new normal ushered in by the regime, the bishops would unapologetically kick-off a massive fundraising drive while reminding the laity how grateful they should be for the scraps they get. And when some uppity laity beg and plead for the full feast their ancestors got when everyone faced east, the bishops would declare them rigid, unable to recognize how great scraps really are, and to go somewhere else if they don’t find scraps particularly filling.

      13
      1. Yes, that is what happens when you are a state run church bowing to secular leaders for tax dollars. Notice all the politicians, Catholic in name only, never publicly being corrected. They allow the Biden’s and Pelosi’s of the world to take Christ out and preach anti christ in word and in action. The church is rewarded with huge gov’t contracts for their poverty industry they have the nerve to call ‘charity’. They also got 3 billion in PPP money for closing the churches. They do what the gov’t leaders say and then they are rewarded. There was a huge lawsuit for religious freedom in California that many churches joined but not the Catholic church. No, they refused because it might make the gov’ leaders upset and their over lords might not give them as many gov’t contracts.

        As for defending our borders, they have been promoting open borders for years and the pope even paid $500,000 to an agency enabling illegals to cross over. Since Biden we have a record setting flow of illegals coming over our borders. It’s up to 200,000 a month and we do not know who is coming over. I just read that a terrorist was allowed entry. So we too are being invaded with the help of Catholic Charities and our own tax dollars. We are paying for our demise in countless ways.

        4
      2. You know, the options for speculation on what someone might do is literally infinite, limited only by your imagination of what dreadful thing you can think up the bishops might do. In an act of ecumenical love with the Orthodox, I think Bishop Doherty would demand us to go along with being conscripts in the Russian army on which he will give his blessing. Yeah, like that. The webmaster of this site seems a blessedly faithful Catholic. Not so much the replies, rapidly running off topic, who are of the same army that runs off otherwise faithful Catholics receptive to the Latin Mass once you’ve been to a gathering of this kind of bitching after Sunday mass. That from a trad whose wife will never attend another Latin Mass ever again to his sorrow. This kind of speculation is puerile. What exactly do you hope to accomplish by speculating with infinite possibilities on how the bishop(s) will beat their wives next?

        The call for prayers for Ukraine is wonderful. I especially sympathize with married Eastern Catholic priests with families they must also protect. They are surely conflicted for love of both their parish and actual family. May they find peace and may God’s will be done.

        6

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