Prayer of Thanksgiving of the Ukrainian Soul

All‑generous and merciful God! With tears in my eyes I fall before Your majesty, unable to put into words the state of my soul when my heart is filled with love for You. What happiness, what gift from heaven—to be born and to live on Ukrainian soil! O my God! You are invincible in Your mercy. You are unsurpassed in Your wisdom: Your bounty knows no bounds and in everything one sees the work of Your hands. Mighty Dnipro and the green Carpathians, the blue sky and the golden fields—the land is like a fairy tale: a magical language and nightingale songs, and the embroideries! The people are good and sincere, industrious and wise, and, above all, devout.

More than a thousand years have passed since the light of Christ’s Gospel shone upon our land, and we became children of the Holy Universal Church, whom You, Lord, have entrusted to organically unite, complement, and enrich the Christian traditions of East and West. By Your providence, Lord, Ukraine bears the heavy cross on Golgotha. By a sea of blood and mountains of innocent sacrifices the Ukrainians have testified their fidelity to You, the true God, for only You, Lord, are truth, the way, and eternal life! Where would we be without You?

Throughout the ages, dark forces of evil have tried to erase Ukraine from the face of the earth, especially because we have become a bastion of Christianity. Rarely has any nation in the world endured as much suffering as has befallen Ukraine. Yet we have bravely fought for the holy faith and, with love, died for the truth; we offered You, Lord, the most precious sacrifice—our lives—and laid them upon the altar of freedom. The occupiers tormented us for our love of the grain, and we repaid them with bread; they destroyed us for our kindness, and we gave them water; they carried us from our native fertile land to wild lands at the edge of the world, and we prayed for them. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for the truth, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven!"

We thank You, Lord, that our Ukrainian people have never been occupiers and have never held anyone in bondage, for a person who takes from the world everything and ruins his own soul. Though a thorny path has befallen Ukraine, therein lies our happiness, for through the narrow gate one enters the Kingdom of Heaven. We are alive today, understand, peoples, and Ukraine has not yet perished, because the Almighty God is with us, Who assured us: "I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the age!" Amen.

Source: kyrios.org.ua