Prepare for D-day

 

I watched part of the BBC coverage of the 80th anniversary of D-day in Normandy. 

When the Ukraine’s President Zelensky met with the last few veterans and spoke with them you could see something pass between them. The old veterans had once stood where Zelensky and his countrymen now stand, in the heat of battle, against terrible odds, determined and resilient but facing an uncertain future and outcome. The veterans have tasted the victory after a long struggle and great losses; the Ukraine longs for a time of peace after victory which they can commemorate.

Wars are not always won by might or strength of numbers though as the allies can testify to. Two very beautiful miracles in WW11; one was the Dunkirk evacuation where the weather conditions were absolutely perfect (extremely rare for that area) with calm seas to assist the small boats, and total cloud cover which hindered the Luftwaffe from bombing the vessels and forcing them above the clouds where the RAF were waiting for them.

The other was the Battle of Britain; outnumbered 4:1 by German fighters; even with the best aircraft and more motivated pilots the odds were really too much to expect victory. Unless of course there is an unseen factor at play; which there was. Intercession. For the entire duration of the air battle, groups of intercessors prayed day and night for the RAF for some heavenly air cover and they got it!

I recall at the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine as the Russian tanks approached Kyiv, many people of different denominations across the globe, as they watched things unfold on the news, were also consistently in prayer to stop their progress and push them back into Belarus. We prayed every night as a family here. And this has always been the key; to seek God’s intervention at key moments from the Old Testament days to our own. Many of Our Lady’s apparitions point us to this. In Fatima we were told to pray to prevent WW11, alas that went unheeded. 

In our day, we see conditions similar to previous times: Russia invading Ukraine and also the Chinese sabre rattling near Taiwan and swamping the West Philippine Sea with uninvited militia vessels. With consistent prayer we can disrupt whatever plans and schemes are being cooked up by evil men and watch as the Lord’s plans are fulfilled. Best to begin now though and not wait until it’s too late!

Our Lady Help of Christians...a story from the USSR

Josyp Terelya is a Ukrainian Catholic who, along with many other lay people, helped keep the faith alive in the underground church during the communist regime, after most of the clergy had been either killed, imprisoned or expelled. He was zealous and out-spoken and became such a thorn in the side of the KGB that whenever he spoke, he was arrested; whenever he was imprisoned he promptly escaped, even from their maximum security prisons, the church’s answer to Houdini.

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Eventually they lost patience and decided to kill him. In solitary confinement, cell 21, they planned to freeze him to death. In this way they could avoid all the paperwork of a formal execution. “It was the middle of winter and they were forcing in frigid air. The walls were coated with ice so thick you could make it ring by tapping an object against it. They stripped me of my winter clothes, leaving me there in a light shirt. In half an hour I felt my jaws freeze shut. I couldn't move them and the very roots of my hair hurt.

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My mind was working, I was aware I was freezing and gathered my strength. I climbed the grate on the cell door to warm my head against the ceiling light bulb. The guard on duty, looking through the peephole saw this and switched off the light. I sat on the bed and began to freeze.

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There was an old quilt you could see through and I wrapped myself in it. Too weak, I finally lay down, praying and awaiting my death. It was then that I became aware of an intense flash in the room, a very powerful light, and heard what sounded like someone walking in my cell...the cell started to feel warmer. Against my frozen eyelids I felt the palm of a woman’s hand. When the hand lifted I was able to open my eyes. There before me was the Virgin Mary.

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“You called to me” she said “and I have come” (She told him when he would be released, that he would be unharmed, and consoled him in this trial) “After the Blessed Virgin disappeared, I took off my shirt and started walking around the cell, that’s how warm it was. I was sweating.

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After half an hour the KGB officials & prison hierarchy came to the cell, along with a doctor; all in fur hats & warm coats, they could not believe I was still alive, let alone standing there without a shirt. They were furious and demanded to know what had happened.

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I told them the Mother Of God was here with me”... Josyp was released 4 years later, at the time Our Lady had told him and the rest as they say is history, the communist regime is gone, Lubyanka prison is closed, and the sanctuary lamps burn brightly again across Russia, even in the heart of Moscow, drawing the people back to God. During the apparitions of Our Lady in Fatima ,she prophesied that Russia would be converted and her Immaculate heart would triumph, how wonderful to see it being fulfilled before our very eyes !