January 4-11, 2025

Christ is born!

In these Christmas days, which are still ongoing, meetings are exceptional, visiting others, cards, greetings, gifts… For us this week, the meeting with the families of the deceased Fastiv residents was exceptional, so many wounds that need the touch of the newborn Christ. Children, wives, mothers and fathers also come to the nativity scene. For them our Shelter was such a place, prayer, carols and most importantly, this meeting is comforting. We thank Mrs. Tamara Bobosa for gathering the families. She is a woman who knows everyone by name, who knows their stories. We thank her for her big heart and kindness. We thank our Charitable Friends of the Freta Street in Warsaw, who raised funds to purchase over three hundred gifts for the families. We thank the Fastiv Children’s Music School, teachers and children who decorated this meeting with their singing and talent.

Yesterday we returned from the frontline Kherson. We took aid for our Defenders, generators, briquettes and food for the social kitchen. This year in the Catholic Church we celebrate a Jubilee year, so it is also a spiritual journey, because the church in Kherson is one of the temples where pilgrims may obtain indulgences. This week we once again sent fuel pellets to heat the shelter in Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region. Newly evacuated people are constantly being brought there. Until spring, the residents of Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, New York and Bakhmut remained to live there. The situation in the Donetsk region remains very tense and difficult.

Thank you to our benefactors from Zwolle, the community of lay Dominicans, who supported our humanitarian missions with their donations. We remember our meetings with you very warmly and we are grateful to you for your support during such a difficult period for us. I wish everyone who reads our reports a warm holiday weekend and quiet evenings for Ukraine.

With prayers

Fr. Mykhailo Romaniv OP