Holy Week and War
Living Through the Battle of Kyiv
In the Orthodox East, April 17, 2022, is Palm Sunday. Today is also the 53rd day of the Russian-Ukraine War and the 41st day of the Spiritual Warfare and ending of Great Lent. Palm Sunday is for us Eastern Orthodox, a Feast Day. Not a full-blown feast, mind you, but a feast before the Feast of Feasts. You wonder what that means? Orthodox Christianity is more described as a way of life versus a religion by its practitioners or adherents or whatever word you in the West wish to call them. In Ukrainian, we are called pravoslavny christiyan. Pravoslav means truth if translated. Not however, truth in the western logical sense of the word. But Truth in the mystical sense of the Word. I am not here to convert or to go deep into what it means to be a practicing Orthodox Christian. Some explanation, however, is required.
First and foremost is, this is Palm Sunday and despite what the world might be doing or involved with, this is a Holy Day. Now, I can’t speak for the Russians sitting in their tanks and armored personnel carriers just about a 4-hour drive to the east. The situation seems to have made them forget that this day is one of the most important in our shared faith. Yes, our faith is very much similar whether we are Greek, Antiochian, Israeli, Bulgarian, Russian, Romanian, Georgian, Ukrainian, American or any other nationality. If you attend Divine…
