Prayer of Metropolitan Andrey (Sheptytsky) for the Ukrainian People

PRAYER OF METROPOLITAN ANDREY (SHEPTYTSKY) FOR THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE

From the editors: This prayer is of interest because, in our opinion, it sets the correct Christian priorities for church and socio-national life. Also, this prayer expresses a genuine concern for the unity of the entire Ukrainian (i.e., Uniate and Orthodox) Church. Judging by what we know, Metropolitan Andrey, while caring for his own Church and his own flock, at the same time ardently defended the Orthodox Church, for example, in interwar Poland (mainly in Volhynia) from the cruel and arbitrary pressure of the chauvinistic Polish authorities of that time.

Almighty God and King of the Universe, our Savior, Jesus Christ, who with all Your heart love the entire human race and with Your boundless providence care for every nation individually! Look mercifully upon our Ukrainian people, and upon every other nation...

Forgive them all their transgressions, destroy all their evil inclinations, and strengthen their good inclinations; have mercy on them in all their needs. Protect them from every wrong and injustice of enemies. Pour out upon them unceasingly Your generous blessing. We beseech You, our God, for special care and help for our people, so that amidst all the trials and temptations from the world, the devil, and his servants, they may always preserve the heavenly light of faith, overcome all difficulties through perseverance in good, and always belong to Your blessed Kingdom of God, both here in this world and in the Heavenly Homeland. Grant us the grace that we all, as one, united by the unity of faith and the bond of love under Your guidance and the guidance of the Holy Ukrainian Orthodox Church, may always walk the paths of truth and justice, love and salvation. Send the Ukrainian people Your holy, great servants, so that by their example and word they may be wise leaders in all spheres of national, social, and public life.

Grant the leaders of our people the Light of Your Wisdom from Heaven, grant them numerous, good, and holy clergy! Care for their youth, so that they do not lose the grace of Holy Baptism, so that they receive basic Christian upbringing in the family and school. Bless all our families, so that fathers may be exemplary and zealous Christians, and mothers may be distinguished by wisdom, faith, and diligence in raising children. Encourage many of our people to a more perfect life, to holiness. Call many in every generation to heroic sacrifices for the cause of the Church and the people. Enlighten us all, incline all hearts, so that all may best know and value the Holy Orthodox Faith and, professing it, feel happy, stand in it firmly, even if it were necessary to bear a martyr's death, and so that they may order their lives according to the laws of the Holy Faith. Bless also the temporal good of our people. Grant them freedom, so that they may freely develop their natural, God-given powers. Endow them with true, uncorrupted education. Bless their work in all fields of science, art, and prosperity, and bless everyone and everything, so that our people, living peacefully and happily, may serve You well, and with Your help obtain the Eternal Heavenly Homeland.

And you, Most Holy Theotokos, Mother and Queen of Ukraine, Holy Archangel Michael, and all you Patrons of the Ukrainian people, always care for this people, so that they may become a holy people, so that they may fulfill their divine mission, so that they may contribute to the bright good of the human race, so that they may be a help and comfort to the Holy Church of Christ, and so that they may bring the Eternal King unceasing glory, honor, and worship for ever and ever. Amen.

(After the death of his predecessor) Kyr Andrey prepared worthily for the fulfillment of the difficult duties of Metropolitan, feeling great responsibility before God for the Ukrainian people. One cannot fail to mention the invaluable merit of the mother of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky – Countess Sofia, a multifaceted, educated, and talented person, who with her holy piety planted in the heart of Roman a sincere love for the Lord and people, an admiration for everything beautiful and good, and raised such a devoted son to the Ukrainian people. A letter from his mother, Sofia Sheptytska, which is kept in the archival materials of the Lviv archive, reveals to us not only a lovely woman – the mother of Andrey Sheptytsky, but also her refined mind. Let us try to feel this by reading the lines of the blessing of Countess Sofia Sheptytska to her son Andrey Sheptytsky for the metropolitan throne in Lviv:

"My child, blessed in the Lord! The greatest treasure I have received from God is you. And this most precious treasure of my life I return to God. For this moment, when you take upon yourself the cross to which the Lord has called you – for your whole life, under the Cross or on the Cross, for all your work, intentions, suffering, and joy, for your soul and mind, heart and health, for everything you will do, what you will decide, for all your work on building the Church of God and spreading His Kingdom on earth... ... for all the crosses with which people may burden you, and for all the love that you will give them, I send you a solemn, God-tested Blessing". 14.01.1901.

Only a truly very wise and pious mother could give her beloved son to the service of the Lord and people and so nobly bless him for the Metropolitan throne.

At the festive and solemn enthronement of Kyr Andrey, which took place on January 17, 1901, in St. George's Cathedral in Lviv, thousands of faithful, hundreds of priests, and various brotherhoods gathered. The greetings on this occasion and the speeches were very sincere. Among those present, the Armenian Archbishop Isakovich also spoke, whose speech was permeated with chauvinism and made an unpleasant impression on those present, and on Metropolitan Kyr Andrey himself. Polish nationalists also did not particularly happily perceive the fact that a wise, influential bishop with his own ideas and views – a Ukrainian patriot, and from a wealthy family with glorious ancient aristocratic roots – had ascended the metropolitan throne.

Andrey Sheptytsky felt that he should immediately let everyone understand that he was a Ruthenian and would walk with his people until the end of his life and work for their sake. Therefore, when Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky stood on the ambo (pulpit) in full episcopal vestments, with a miter and a staff in his hands, he clearly said to those present that he: "brings love to his flock and wishes to deserve the love of the whole people through sincere work and sacrifice." Dispelling the doubts and ambiguity that then prevailed among some layers of the clergy, Andrey Sheptytsky further declared: "I want everyone to know and understand this, when I take the position of Metropolitan of the Rus', I want to be it and I will be it." Throughout his 44-year episcopate, he remained faithful to his word, perfectly fulfilling all the hopes and wishes of his beloved Ukrainian people.

The activity of the Metropolitan was extremely diverse. He was not limited to one area – church-religious, but covered all spheres of Ukrainian culture and life in Ukrainian lands without exception, including all corners of our emigration. Until then, Andrey Sheptytsky had already shown himself to be a multifaceted personality, but only on the metropolitan throne did he develop his activity at full strength. There was no area of church-religious, cultural, or economic life to which Metropolitan Andrey did not devote worthy attention and develop for the benefit of the Ukrainian people.

Perhaps the most important goal to which he gave all his strength was the cause of the unification of the Ukrainian Churches.

The idea of ecumenism did not leave his soul throughout his life. He aimed not only at the union of the Greek Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but at the union of the entire Eastern Church with the Western Church. He wanted to carry out church unification through noble competition. For the achievement of this goal, any violent methods are absolutely unsuitable, because, in his opinion, only mutual knowledge, understanding, tolerance, and, above all, love can yield the expected fruits.

As a Prince of the Church and a champion of Ukrainian religious life, Metropolitan Sheptytsky devoted all his strength to the idea of Christian love for one's neighbor.

Reviving and uplifting the Ukrainian Church, like a "good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep" – Sheptytsky tried to establish a spiritual, moral order among the people among whom he lived. He called for helping the needy of other peoples and nations, and taking them under his care and protection.

He held to the evangelical principle that "there is neither Greek nor Roman, nor Jew, nor Samaritan."

It is enough to recall that at the beginning of the First World War in 1914, Andrey Sheptytsky delivered sermons with a fervent call against the forced imposition of Moscow Orthodoxy in Galicia, which was occupied by Russian troops. He spoke out against the separation of school from the Church and for the liberation of the Ukrainian Church from obedience to the synod in St. Petersburg, for liberation from prayers for the Tsar-autocrat, etc. In his sermons, he called not to commit violence against the Ukrainian Church. For these sermons, Sheptytsky was arrested and "on 18.09, by order of General Brusilov, was taken to Kyiv at night." However, well understanding that the tsarist government intended to liquidate the Greek Catholic Church in Galicia and deprive it of its own hierarchy, Metropolitan Andrey, during a quiet Divine Liturgy celebrated in the "Continental" hotel, secretly ordained Fr. J. Botsian as Bishop of Lutsk, and Fr. Dr. D. Yaremko as Bishop for Ostroh. The next day, the Metropolitan was sent to Nizhny Novgorod, later to Kursk, where he remained under strict guard until the spring of 1916. From there, through Vladimir-on-Klyazma, he was transported to the Suzdal Spaso-Evfimiev Monastery, which had been turned into a prison for priests suspected of treason against the Synodal Russian Church." Despite the protests of well-known diplomatic and church figures demanding the release of the Metropolitan from arrest, Russia did not agree to this. The reason for the removal of the great shepherd was the desire to destroy the Union, which can be said in the words of Jesus Christ: "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered." But the February Revolution of 1917 gave freedom to the Metropolitan.

If in 1914 Sheptytsky spoke out against the forced introduction of Moscow Orthodoxy in all Ukrainian churches, then in the 1930s he similarly protested against Polish pacification, the only one among churchmen to boldly speak out in the press against the burning and destruction of Orthodox churches in Chełm, Podlasie, Polissia, and Volhynia, defending that same Orthodoxy.

As a deputy of the Galician Sejm and a member of the House of Lords in Vienna, he defended the property and social interests of Ukrainian peasants and entrepreneurs from the oppression of financiers – Germans, Poles, and Jews.

In the terrible years of World War II, he hid many Jews in the basements of St. George's Cathedral and, in general, was the initiator of a whole large-scale action of the UGCC to save Jews, and in particular children, who were persecuted and exterminated by the Nazi occupiers.

Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky protested against the persecution of Ukrainian students at Lviv University. In 1919, the ZUNR (West Ukrainian People's Republic) was created. As a member of the Ukrainian National Council, he warmly welcomed its creation.

After a trip to Rome in 1921, he conducted negotiations not only with the Pope but also with representatives of the Entente regarding the fate of the ZUNR, and protested against the annexation of Western Ukraine to Poland.

On September 26, 1923, he was arrested by Polish intelligence and deported to Poznań. The Metropolitan did not take part in political life directly. But he could not stand aside from political events when the need arose to defend his people. In his trips abroad, Sheptytsky developed a policy of defending the rights of the Ukrainian people before the Austrian, and later the Polish authorities, spoke out on the matter of building a Ukrainian university under Austria, and protested against the pacification of Ukrainians in 1930 before the Polish government and abroad. He spoke out with protests in the press against the burning of Orthodox churches and the persecution of the Orthodox in Poland, and against the arrests of Ukrainian patriots by the Nazis. He especially condemned the abolition of religion in schools by the Bolsheviks. He sharply condemned the artificial famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933 and organized the collection of funds for the starving. He gave a detailed assessment of the causes of the repressions in the Moscow-Stalinist empire in the message "To the Venerable Clergy and Faithful (1936): "Can you have a reason not to believe me? What interest could I have in warning you if the Bolsheviks were obviously leading our people to good? That which I tell you and the whole world knows, because it is a fact confirmed by hundreds of Germans, French, and Americans – for example, that more than three million people died of hunger in Ukraine, or that the Bolsheviks waged war on the peasants, or that thousands and thousands of our countrymen from Ukraine are perishing in the Solovki. No one denies those facts; they have been announced in the entire European and American press."

His activity on the political field had a Ukrainian state-building direction.

The Metropolitan protested against the aggressive totalitarian division of Europe between Hitler and Stalin.

On September 17, 1939, he secretly appointed M. Chernetsky, K. Peptytsky, and J. Slipyj as exarchs on the territory of the then USSR.

During the German occupation, he spoke out against arrests, executions, and concentration camps. Perhaps the only church hierarch in Europe, Sheptytsky openly spoke out against Nazism in a letter to Pope Pius XII and in a special letter addressed directly to Hitler and in the pastoral message "Do Not Kill!", in which, in particular, he condemned the inhuman genocidal – anti-Semitic and, in general, all terrorist and repressive actions of the Hitlerites. He was a Holy Man because he loved the whole world and spoke out against any violence, including the corresponding methods of struggle practiced by the OUN. The Metropolitan condemned all manifestations of xenophobia and chauvinism, racism, and anti-Semitism.

As a good shepherd, he was never afraid of anything and was ready for anything for the sake of the good of the people. As a Prince of the Ukrainian Church, Sheptytsky worked on deepening true religiosity (spirituality and piety) and raising morality and ethics among our people. By promoting righteousness and morality through sermons and spiritual-religious practices, he tried to raise the culture and prosperity of the people, keeping in mind that along with prosperity and general culture, the morality and faith of the entire people also rise.

Andrey Sheptytsky worked a lot on the development of spiritual education.

After returning from exile in 1917, he financed a whole series of periodicals, journals, and books on religious-Christian themes for various segments of the population. Among them is literature for children – this is "Our Friend" and the booklets of the "Our Friend" library; for youth – "Progress." In 1930, he founded the "Ukrainian Catholic Union" for the intelligentsia within the framework of Catholic Action. The Ukrainian Catholic Union published three journals at the Metropolitan's expense: "Goal," weeklies for the intelligentsia and for the people, "Christ is Our Strength," the literary-scientific monthly "Bells," and the "Bells" library. For the publication of books and other literature, the Metropolitan purchased a separate printing house, "Biblios." The Metropolitan financed the youth organization "Eagles," which published a magazine for youth, "Ukrainian Youth."

In 1933, he initiated a huge youth rally "Ukrainian Youth to Christ" in Lviv, which was attended by more than 100,000 urban and rural children.

The "Uniate" idea of Andrey Sheptytsky was aimed at solving the problem of church unity in the form of a Ukrainian Patriarchate, with the supremacy of Rome, but so that the domestic bishops would be dependent only on the Ukrainian patriarch. A similar idea – the creation of a single independent (autocephalous Orthodox-Catholic) Kyiv Patriarchate with simultaneous communion with Rome and Constantinople – was put forward in the 30s-40s of the 17th century by the Orthodox hierarch St. Peter Mohyla, and Metropolitan Andrey sought the means for its realization.

After World War I, Sheptytsky sent Ukrainian priests to Volhynia, but the Polish authorities opposed these measures, understanding that this would raise national-patriotic consciousness and bring the truth about the union (the joining of the Eastern and Western Churches) to the faithful with unconditional benefit for the local Ukrainian population. But the Orthodox of Volhynia and other corners of Ukraine visited Sheptytsky in Lviv and even sent their children to the schools of the Basilian Sisters, for whom Sheptytsky provided scholarships and assistance.

The Metropolitan always defended the wronged. He defended Orthodox Ukrainians from Polish persecution, in particular, as already mentioned, he spoke out against the burning of churches and forced pacification. He spoke out with protests in pastoral letters, which the Polish authorities intercepted and burned, but the word of Andrey Sheptytsky still spread and reached Ukrainians – Orthodox and Greek Catholics, even abroad.

Understanding the need to lead the Ukrainian people out of the corner of "provincial obscurantism" to the European level of education and science, Andrey Sheptytsky, back at the beginning of the 20th century, began the organization of scientific theological institutions similar to European ones, developed secular science and education, and himself worked fruitfully as a scientist and professor of many disciplines.

Knowing German, French, English, Italian, Hebrew, being a recognized Semitologist and a person who mastered many dialects of the Ukrainian language, Sheptytsky was perfectly prepared for scientific work. His grandiose scientific heritage requires deep study. And the Metropolitan's archive itself is a treasure trove of scientific research. Sheptytsky did not spare effort or money for the development of science and education. In 1923, he founded the Theological Scientific Society and the journal "Theology." In 1929, he founded the Greek Catholic Theological Academy. Every year, the Metropolitan educated scientists and professors in Switzerland, Vienna, and Rome at his own expense. He developed folk and secondary education, financing various educational institutions and gymnasiums. For example, let us mention that for the folk schools of the "Native School" he bought 5 buildings (one of the buildings cost 650,000 zlotys). He also financed the building for the Basilian Sisters' gymnasium. Within the framework of church autonomy, he founded a private gymnasium – the so-called Minor Theological Seminary and the "Inberkat" (St. Josaphat's Bursary), and gave large grants to all Ukrainian schools. He cared for the Ukrainian Girls' Gymnasium of the Basilian Sisters and gave them land for a large building. He built the Great Bursary of the Native School for 120 students in Lviv, and generously endowed Ukrainian schools, gymnasiums, and bursaries. In the metropolitan buildings of St. George, students of the Hrushevsky Ukrainian Folk School were taught. In Lychakiv (a suburb of Lviv), he built three buildings to house the Prince Lev Ukrainian Folk School and the Prosvita reading room; he founded and cared for the Cantor's Bursary in Lviv, from which cantors, choral conductors, bookkeepers, cooperators, and public leaders emerged; he founded and cared for the Theological Academy (he took care of its scientific and theological publications, etc.); he bought land around St. George's Square for the future Ukrainian University; in 1926, he leased land on Mount Sokil in the Rozhniativ district of the Ivano-Frankivsk region to the "Plast" youth organization for 99 years for one zloty (at that time, land could not be gifted and leased for more than 99 years).

Walking the path of Jesus Christ, sincerely permeated with love for one's neighbor, throughout his life, the Metropolitan developed charitable activity, helping orphans, the sick, and the poor, founding institutions that smoothed out human misfortune and poverty.

Source: Ukrainian Christian Culture

Source: kyrios.org.ua