prayer in a new key

I would rather pray for human need. I'd rather pray for those who are sick or in pain or in need. I'd rather pray "for healthful seasons, for an abundance of the fruits of the earth."

I'm far more competent in my prayers framed within all the litanies of Divine Liturgy. especially St Basil's very long pastoral prayers.

And I could participate in Grace for those needs. I could give charity in alms or work to do the Samaritan thing.

But in the face of increasing brutality of Russia toward Ukraine? I pray and pray, but feel utterly powerless: what participation is there in mitigating this evil?

A Russian tank drove up to a nursing home and fired point-blank into the building. An art school sheltering hundreds was bombed. Another Russian tank turned its turret upon a car upon which was clearly painted the word "Children" and fired, instantly killing both parents and a child. Deliberately. Consciously.

And because the resistance of Ukraine has become so costly to Russia, it is becoming more and more possible that Putin will order the detonation of tactical nuclear bombs. Or the release of chemical and biological weapons.

Russia is inflicting horror upon Mariupol, where the water has become toxified because of dead bodies.

And Putin has stepped into the despotism of Stalin (and Beria) upon his own citizens, now calling Russian opposition as "scum" and "traitors." Over 20,000 brave Russian citizens are now in detention -- the Gulag is alive and well in Putin's dictatorship.

He is doing this with the blessing, or nodding approval, from Moscow Patriarch Kyrill, who, along with Metropolitan Hilarion and others in his administration, advocate the doctrine of Russky Mir, the ideology of "the Russian world." (It is hard for me to believe that this same Metropolitan is the one who authored Christ the Conqueror of Hell and endorses murderous invasion at the same time).

If Putin wins Ukraine, Russian Orthodoxy will suffer profound damage, as this ideology will have subverted the entire structure of the Moscow Patriarchate profoundly.

It is possible that the Moscow Patriarchate has already fallen as a real spiritual structure, precisely because of Russky Mir and Putin's bloodthirsty march to Kyiv.

I've gone beyond the business of arguing against any Christian defense of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Such a thing is impossible, and if it is still argued, then there is no longer any rationality or Christianity in such a defense.

But prayer remains, even if there are no physical means that remain for me (or anyone else as individuals) to meet this evil. It is likely that my country and its allies will find it necessary to engage this evil directly.

Prayer remains, though the character of that prayer has changed. It is not the prayer for reconciliation (it never was). This is not a fratricidal conflict, nor is it nationalistic expansionism. It is ideology at its most toxic and death-dealing.

Putin has moved beyond the human pale of outrage. Human nature by itself is limited in its participation with evil. When population murder and destruction and forced deportation occur, it is no longer just depravity of human nature.

It is a bodiless nature at work that wields structural power.

And thus the prayer is exorcistic.

Comments

[Amy]

Yours is the only Orthodox Christian blog/website I bother to read anymore. Thank you for these posts.