March 22-29, 2025

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Dear Friends!

This week we were on a humanitarian mission in Kherson. For us, each such trip is not just a duty, but an opportunity to be close to those who live every day in a reality that is difficult to imagine if you are not there. We are going to support our volunteers who bake bread every day, feed Kherson residents and support the city’s infrastructure after shelling in the social laundry, which we run in these extremely difficult conditions.

The situation in the South of Ukraine remains extremely tense. The enemy shells Kherson and surrounding villages every day. These shells do not choose targets – the missiles hit houses, hospitals, places where people simply live. The other day, missiles hit the central part of the city. Civilians died, among them the elderly. Ms. Olena, the administrator of our social kitchen, was at the railway station with her mother at the time of the shelling. Just when the train from Lviv was arriving and the platform was full of people waiting to meet them, women, children, and the elderly, the enemy cynically struck. Fortunately, rescuers helped them get out of the station unharmed physically. But what remains in their hearts and thoughts after this is beyond words. Reconnaissance drones are constantly flying in the city. People in areas close to the river live in daily fear. And despite this, our volunteers do not stop. They risk themselves to help others – they bring bread, water, and food to places that are scary and difficult to reach, where old, lonely people live.

I’ve met a man who risks his life every day to support those who are weaker. In his eyes there is no fear, there is love for people and simplicity of intention to bring bread and other food, and be with those who are having a hard time. I often think about how valuable this bread is…

This week, young people from Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region, came to our St. Martin Center in Fastiv as part of the national program “Side by Side”. This is the first time during the years of the great war that they had the opportunity to leave their basements and shelters, just to live a few days in peace, in relative safety, to see their peers, to feel that the world could be different. We remember how, even before the full-scale war, we took in children from the so-called “gray zone” and rehabilitated children from the Donetsk region as part of a project we run together with the Christian Rescue Service. We took in more than 42 groups — 650 children over several years, every month they had the opportunity to recover and rest. And on January 20, 2022, just a few days before the big invasion, we managed to evacuate 40 children from Mariupol – they left literally in the last hours before the city became hell.

We continue to help our Defenders in the Southern Direction – we provide generators, sleeping bags, power banks and everything they ask us for in their requests. We do not stop to be their “reliable rear”.

Last Sunday in Warsaw, our Charitable Friends of Freta held a fair. People whom we may never meet in person, but who responded and collected PLN 18,104.56 for the families of the fallen Ukrainian soldiers. This help is not just about money, but about memory and solidarity. I am writing this to you so that you know: this war is not about a distant country, about numbers in the news. It is about people. About mothers holding their children’s hands under shelling. About teenagers who are learning to live, not just survive. About those who risk their lives for the sake of others.

Your support — prayer, word, donation — saves lives and gives us strength. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for your open hearts.

May the Lord bless you and your loved ones. We pray for you daily.

Fr. Mykhailo Romaniv OP