In our early Lenten reflecting upon the paintings of Fritz von Uhde, a prayer interlude...
The Pochaev (Ukrainian) Icon of the Mother of God dates back to 1340. The story relates that the Virgin Mary appeared to two monks and a young shepherd. Hint! We might think of the shepherds of Bethlehem — the first to hear of Christ's birth and the shepherd children of Fatima. When the apparition ended a single footprint was left in the rock. Hint! We might think of the Virgin Mary Guadalupe who appeared barefoot and the Lord's mandate to service in the washing of feet. As often happens, a monastery was established at the site. Two hundred years later a visiting Greek bishop gave the original Pochaev icon to the monks as a gift. This icon is of the Tenderness style. Doesn't the world need more tenderness? The icon became known as Wonder-Working as a result of the miracles which accompanied it—most notably the healing of a woman's blindness and a captured monk's wondrous release from slavery.
Prayer for Deliverance Before the Pochaev Mother of God Icon
O Mother of God, as Anna Hoyska was cured of her blindness, deliver the powerful from the blindness which refuses to see the God-bestowed dignity of each human person.
As the holy monk, dungeon-enslaved, was freed and restored to his Pochaev monastery, deliver persons imprisoned in war-torn cities, bombarded and enflamed.
As you turned back the Turkish invaders intent on capturing the monastery, O Mother of Christ, deliver the nation of your bright appearing from the assault of those who rain down flame and terror.
As the Christ in your arms leans on your shoulder, blessing our weary world with his right hand, deliver those struggling to hold on to their faith in God.
As you hold a white handkerchief in your left hand, O Lady, deliver those who know only anguish and tears — the littlest ones and their mothers exhausted with weeping.
As your icon is called the Sacred Relic Between East and West, deliver us from the dividers, the doubters, the hate-stokers, the apologists, the minimizers. Deliver us from all foolish, even stupid media-talk, which frustrates restoration and peace.
As your icon is celebrated as Wonder-Working, deliver us from the fears which weaken faith. Show yourself for the cessation of this horror, this overwhelming awfulness.
Deliver us from the shelling of schools, maternity homes, orphanages, ambulances, playgrounds, churches and hospitals.
Deliver the women and children hiding in subways, basements, underground shelters and even church crypts. Deliver those hiding in rubble; those running for shelter.
Deliver us from the scorching of earth, the burning of trees, fields and farmland, the abandonment of animals.
Deliver us from nuclear assault, cluster bombs, thermobaric-vaporizing-vacuum bombs, which suck precious oxygen from the air to expand blasts, depriving even those sheltering underground of air.
Deliver us from Christians who glorify you, Mother of God and your Divine Child, while dropping bombs on mothers and children. Deliver us from practical atheism.
Deliver the young conscripts sent into war, who embrace false patriotism, who don't even know where they're going or what they are being sent to do.
Deliver us from men who deny water, food, electricity and medicine from civilians. Deliver the children from a life without schools, friends, family security — all deprivations which will scar them for life.
Deliver the women who are giving birth away from safe places and loved ones. Deliver the children who need hospital care.
Deliver us from war profiteers — those who make money off the death, blood-spilling wounds and the destruction of war .
Deliver us from clerics whose prayers are tepid, who preach diplomatic sermons and hierarches whose peace messages are weak — hoping to stay on the safe side of power.
Deliver us from the sacrilegious bombing of cities — sacrilegious because God's children live there.
Deliver us from the blasphemy of war — blasphemous because God's paradise-earth is sacred: the air, the water, the land, the living things.
Deliver us from a Lenten time — called the "Churches Springtime" — which in truth becomes a wasteland of inflicted suffering.
Deliver us from media outlets which hide the bloody truth, and war apologists, especially of the Christian kind, who are not outraged by war's sins and the affront to God.
Deliver the 21st century world, once again resorting to the foolish and wasteful, outdated notion of war, destroying homes — the kitchens where family meals are prepared, living rooms where families gather, nurseries where children should sleep peacefully.
Deliver us from leaders who reveal themselves as criminals — leaders who become crazed enemies of humanity.
Deliver us from the power-greed, money-greed, land-greed of men which makes for invasions and war's despoilment; war's heartbreak.
Prayer Before the Pochaev Mother of God ~ Adapted for Today
My gracious Queen, my hope, Mother of God, shelter of orphans, and intercessor of travelers, strangers, refugees, displaced persons and pilgrims. Joy of those who sorrow, protectress of the wronged, see our distress, see our affliction. Help us, for we are helpless. Feed us, for we are needy strangers and pilgrims. You know our offenses, forgive, heal and resolve it as you will. For we know no other help but you, no other intercessor, no gracious consoler but you, O Mother of God, to guard and protect us throughout the ages. Amen
