The international religious Dominican order to which the Shem Center Director belongs receives an occasional letter informing its members regarding the brothers and sisters in Ukraine who have chosen to remain with the people during this war-torn time. These first hand accounts add citizen perspectives to the news reports we receive in the media. These members of the Dominican Order of both men and women date from the 13th century, its world wide membership having been formed in its spirit and purpose in very similar ways. We consider ourselves a “family” living within a tradition of many noteworthy theologians, artists, itinerant preachers and those serving God’s people in many different ministries. The interfaith character of Shem Center is a response to a mandate given to us by both the Second Vatican Council and the international Dominican Order.

I am a proud member of this group of men and women whose purpose is to bring the Good News of God’s love to all people everywhere. 

— Joseph Kilikevice, OP

---

Dear Sisters, Dear Brothers,

I’ve been getting around to writing another letter from Ukraine for some time. But since my friends have been motivating me, I’m finishing this letter on the day of Saint Hyacinth. This Polish saint of the first generation of Dominicans arrived in Kyiv around 1228, initiating the mission of the Order in the territory that is now Ukraine.

What do Ukrainians wish for themselves now? The answer seems obvious: “Peace!” What other wish could citizens of a large European country have, when a full-scale war has been raging for over 900 days? But Ukrainian writer and political commentator Mykola Riabchuk does not agree completely with this statement. “If we take a closer look at what Ukrainians wish each other on birthdays and other special occasions, we will most often see wishes not for ‘peace’ but for ‘victory’” — he recently wrote in the popular magazine Krytyka. Riabchuk points out that for Ukrainians it is difficult to imagine one without the other. “Without victory, peace is just surrender.” He continued: “Russia left us with no choice when they openly declared the destruction of the Ukrainian nation and Ukrainian state as the objective of this war.” Despite the fact that this war that has been dragging on is causing increasing exhaustion, most Ukrainians think in a similar way. 

I met Mykola Riabchuk over 20 years ago. As a student brother, I came to Kyiv during my vacation to see the Dominican work happening on the shores of the Dnipro River. Mykola and I met in the heart of the city in Independence Square, and our conversation brought fruit in the form of an interview published by the Dominican monthly W Drodze. I remember being surprised by his claim: “Prince Vladimir did not make the best choice when he accepted Christianity from Byzantium rather than from Rome. I would prefer if our country belonged to the Latin rite.” Well maybe if the Order of Preachers had been created a couple centuries earlier and St. Hyacinth had arrived on the Dnipro at the end of the first millennium, then Central and Eastern Europe would look different today.

Our recent days have been filled with alarms: shrieking sirens warn of incoming rockets and drones. After July 8th, the day of the biggest rocket attack on Kyiv since the beginning of the war and the day that part of the Children’s Hospital was destroyed, many inhabitants of the city started to experience anxiety again over air raid alarms. Some time ago, a doctor friend of ours started coming to our priory every evening with his wife and his child. He asked for our hospitality because they feel safer with us despite the fact that our neighborhood is not considered the safest in terms of the destruction it suffers. In this situation, it’s easy to understand the words of Iryna, whom I frequently meet at Mass in our chapel. “Another alarm in Kyiv. In Mykolaiv, Kherson, Odessa, Chernihiv, Kropyvenytskyi. Do you know the names of these cities, where the distances between them can be compared to the sizes of entire countries in Europe? Each time, you wonder how you’re going to go to sleep while keeping up hope that nothing is going to happen to your loved ones […] They are going down into the shelters and cellars again or they are simply saying prayers between two walls of their apartments and telling fairy tales to their children so they don’t feel so scared.” [Wednesday, August 14, 12:54am.] When I read Iryna’s words, I couldn’t fall asleep that night.

Many people associate the sound of shrieking sirens, recently happening a few times per day, with the Ukrainian army’s recently launched offensive into the territory of Russia. Conquering part of the territory of the Kursk Oblast was a big surprise. Despite a difficult situation in the Donbas and substantial losses on the Ukrainian side, it still became a strong impulse for enthusiasm and hope. I feel, however, that this unquestionable military success does not mean that Ukrainians are rejoicing over the sufferings, fear, and uncertainty of the civilian population living there. Oksana, whom I have known since March 2022 when she escaped from occupied Irpin, shared her experience with her friends: “I thought that I am already immune, that I’ve already lived and worked through my experience from 2022. I decided to watch the video from the Kursk region: the destroyed convoy, the people evacuated from Sudja in cars. It was like a trigger that provoked a strong emotional reaction in me. I experienced the same emotions that I did in February and March of 2022. My heart was pounding, tears were rolling down my cheeks, I couldn’t breathe.”

For a couple days in July, our priory hosted Sisters Renata and Kamila from Kharkiv, who came to us with a group of a dozen children from the House of Hope in Korotych. At that time, the heat was intense. While we were preparing the meal, the sisters told us that during the common evening prayer, one of the children asked for cool weather and rain. “I looked at the weather forecast for the coming days, and I decided to explain to the child that praying doesn’t work that way; we should rather pray for the strength to survive the heat.” The next day, it rained and got cooler. The day after, it rained again for the whole afternoon. We were laughing, realizing how the trusting faith of a child exceeds our ‘adult’ — often meaning limited — trust in Jesus and his words: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Mt. 7:7) As I write this, I’m thinking about so many people who pray daily in all those places around the world where military conflicts and wars take place.

Sister Kamila wrote about the evangelical “becoming like a child” on social media for the Day of Children, June 1. “I’m around children all the time. I am discovering with great surprise how they can react to situations in a wise and proportionate way. They always live here and now. They can find a reason for joy and a space for play literally everywhere and in everything. Immediately after the shelling, they are ready to run to the courtyard and continue their play. They wave joyfully to the helicopters flying over, screaming that they are ours. They constantly pray for peace and believe in victory with no hesitation. They are afraid only for a moment, expressing their emotions. They cry over losses and bravely come to terms with them. They quarrel with each other, they call each other names, sometimes they even fight, but then they reconcile and everything is okay. They start over. We can learn so much from them! I understand that they need us, but we probably need them even more. If we could change and become like children, […] I think that then the war would be over, and we would start valuing what it is to live here and now, to love, to trust […]”.

Father Misha and the volunteers from the House of Saint Martin de Porres in Fastiv go a couple times a month on humanitarian missions to Kherson. For over a year, we’ve been running a kitchen and a bakery there, but just last month we started a communal laundry as well. “In July alone, we gave away 11,805 meals and baked over 6,000 loaves of bread, which we delivered to those in need,” Father Misha precisely reported. “People from the neighboring villages asked us to bring them fire extinguishers. Because of the heat, it doesn’t take much for a fire to devour a house or field. Over the last two months, we were entering Kherson only with the permission of the local military administration and precisely followed the designated route. For security reasons, we are not gathering people all in one place. We reach the assigned points quickly and deliver fire extinguishers, kitchen utensils, diapers, hygiene items, bedding, blankets, pillows, as well as clothing.” 

This summer, the Saint Martin Center in Fastiv has already hosted a second group of refugees from Myrnohrad in the Donetsk Oblast. The city is so close to the front line that the authorities decided to evacuate the citizens, especially the families with children. During their stay in our house, the 43 children can benefit from professional psychological help offered by coaches and therapists from Lviv, Kyiv, and Vinnitsa. Meanwhile, the parents are searching for new homes in safer areas of Ukraine. On the day of Saint Hyacinth, the whole group visited the Dominican church in Fastiv and Café San Angelo. Although most of the children are not from religious families, they decided on their own to come to the church to pray and, following the Eastern custom, to light a candle for the people they carry in their hearts.

Dear brothers and sisters, if you ask me when the war is going to end, I will tell you that I don’t know. But I am convinced that each of us in his own way can contribute to its ending. We are called to be builders of peace. As for the way of doing this, we have advice from the letter of Saint Peter: “Above all preserve an intense love for each other. […] Welcome each other into your houses without grumbling. Each one of you has received a special grace, so, like good stewards responsible for all these varied graces of God, put it at the service of others.” (1 Peter 4:8-10)

All of us brothers and coworkers would like to thank those of you who constantly remember Ukraine, who pray for us, and who support us in so many ways. We think of you with gratitude, and today we offer you to God in a special way in prayer through the intercession of Saint Hyacinth.

With greetings and request for prayers,

Jarosław Krawiec OP
Kyiv, August 17, 2024