33 years ago on 24th August, Ukraine regained its independence. Today, Ukrainians fight to protect the freedom they conquered and safeguard the independence that they own by undeniable right. For Ukrainians, independence means more than a status.
“Volia” (воля) is a Ukrainian concept that can be translated as “will” or “freedom” and the deliberate choice to be free. On Ukraine’s Independence Day, the country celebrates the volia of the Ukrainian people which resulted in the choice to again become an independent state in 1991. We pray for them as Ukraine continues to proclaim that right.
zelenskyy_official Ukraine. Our land. Given by God. Kissed by the sun. Rocked by the winds. Tempered by fire. Defended by its sons and daughters. It cannot be mistaken for anything else. It can never be given away to anyone. Happy Independence Day of Ukraine!
Marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the ‘Standing with Giants’ installation featuring 1,475 silhouettes of soldiers, soldiers and airmen, as well as two female nurses, is coming to an end. The installation was completed in mid-April, and will be removed from 1 September. It is a dramatic depiction of the D Day Landings.(Photo by Piers Northam)
Last week, whilst staying with a friend in Falaise, I was able to share in the commemorations of the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Normandy. Known locally as the ‘Battle for the Falaise Gap.’ or ‘in military terms, the ‘Falaise pocket’. Just outside the town over 20,000 German soldiers made a final stand. On August 17th when Falaise was fully liberated by Canadian, British and Polish troops they were able to move on to the decisive battle in the Normandy campaign. It had taken since D Day on the 6th June to reach Falaise. By the evening of 21st August the German army was surrounded. About 50,000 managed to escape but an estimated 50,000 were trapped. These all died. It had been a costly battle with heavy losses on the Allied side. By August 30, just a few days later, Paris was liberated and the remnants of the German Army retreated across the Seine.
D Day memorial at the recently opened British Normandy Memorial, a joint commemoration with the people of France.
Normandy Beaches.
You came as shooting stars discharging fury from your boats, intent on our death. We defended land which was not ours, uncertain of our rights, but fear consumed us; made us fight back.
We no longer fought for an ideology, nor for the immortality of a band of evil despots. We no longer cared for that, as we showed the whites of our blinkered eyes. We might yet win but all around us death claimed our emptying souls.
And yet, we killed easily at first. You were wading up mud-soggy beaches. Your dying bodies filled with our shrapnel , wept blood into the earth. And then, we too began to die, our blood mingling with yours – the earth also claiming us in that moment of killing.
We stopped being enemies; not yet friends, but lesson-bearers certainly – for goodness, honour, freedom, hope and peace – dare we say, love? United in a vital task.
Send our message to Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, to Iran, America, China – to all the traumatized places where they need the humility of liberation.
Porthsychan Cove, Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. Photo by Gill Henwood
Waves lapping on the shore, caressing pebbles, Stroking backwards and forwards, a rhythm of serenity and quiet pause, contradicting the rush and the frantic lifestyle which often overwhelms that inner search for peace; for stillness.
We are advised to search for the still, small voice which Elijah heard after the frenzy of earthquake, wind and fire.
The thing is that he did not seek it. The voice sought him. All he did was stand uncertain of what was happening. His world was crashing around him. Confusion reigned. But God waited and came quietly, speaking words Elijah needed to hear.
And so for us Like the waves, God’s grace flows across the pebbles of our life as clear, pure water, bathing us with His love. He seeks us out and refreshes our life with new hope.
Sense the movement of the waves and listen. You may just find that there is a message for you which you need to hear.
[Mr G 8th August 2024]
“after immense Activity one passes into a phase where passivity is the only way. I pray that you may be finding this passivity as the way in which the soul serves God, not by doing this or that but by passively receiving the great stream of His love and compassion.
The Transfiguration. Icon written by the late Sister Sr Irène of the Community of Le Bec.
August 6th is the Christian feast of Our Lord Jesus’s Transfiguration on the Holy Mountain. (Luke 9: 28-36). There, the three chosen disciples, Peter, James and John, were given a glimpse of the glory of God when Jesus was transfigured—when he became bathed in glorious light. It foreshadowed the Resurrection when God’s glory would be fully revealed in the Risen Christ but it also was a comment on the Crucifixion which would seem less than glorious and yet was part of the glory of God who transformed the world with love. It is the capacity of God to transform (or transfigure) darkness that is the hope Christians and those who belong to other faiths, must always hold on to.
By a quirk of fate, this feast is also the day when America dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima 79 years ago. There is an irony that nuclear energy which is at the heart of the world and is part of the great earth energy that sustains life should have been used to destroy so much life. It also gave birth to the modern age where nothing seems to be safe anymore. Human innocence was finally laid to rest in Hiroshima. We now have the power not only to destroy each other but also the very planet itself. As we know only too well, this terrible responsibility is not necessarily safe in human hands. We are now capable of blowing this fragile earth to smithereens at the whim of a handful of despots whose exercise of power and terror threatens us all.
So in our present darkened world, we need to return to the Mountain of Transfiguration and the subsequent Hill of Calvary and discover another way—a better, more glorious way which is also the costliest way—that of love. We are being called afresh by God to be Companions of the Transfiguration. Some years ago, one of the marks of a Companion was said to be this:
“To stand within the redemptive and re-creative energies of God; to stand with Christ at the place where Divine Love and evil meet; to stand alongside individuals in their need and in their pain; to put hands and heart to some work of help and healing within reach.” Never more so is this needed than today. Never more do we need to pray and to identify ourselves with this Transforming work.
[Mr G, The Icon of the Transfigurtion was written by Sister Irène of the Community at Le Bec Heloine. Traditional methods were used. Between each stage, prayer and contemplation interspersed the work. It was a private commission. A similar Icon on the same subject and with the same style is in the Chapel of the Transfiguration in the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, Epping.]
Mr G's Ponderings 