I posted the message below * on another thread but learnt something today that adds poignancy to the suffering in that place. This city is, as far as I can establish, the only major population centre in the entire world (population nearly half a million) which was named by its founders for Our Lady. The Ukraine was the first country in the world to be consecrated to Our Lady as far back as 1037. Is there any wonder that Satan is aiming to destroy it and apparently, many if not all, of its people. We know that Mary is destined to crush his head and he is determined to destroy all that is particularly and especially Hers. Both The Ukraine and Mariupol are Hers and, of all the suffering places and people in that poor country none is under greater risk of total destruction than Her city. To me, this is clearly Satanic, it's personal. Putin and his minions are merely tools in Satan's hands. PRAYER TO OUR LADY QUEEN OF ANGELS FOR THE DEFEAT OF SATAN August Queen of Heaven! Sovereign Mistress of the angels! Thou who from the beginning hast received from God the power and mission to crush the head of Satan, we humbly beseech thee to send thy holy legions, that under Thy command and by Thy power, they may pursue the evil spirits, encounter them on every side, resist their bold attacks and drive them into the abyss of eternal woe. Amen. * The Russians are currently besieging a city in Ukraine called Mariupol. The name means Mary's city in Greek referring, of course, to Mary, the Mother of God. A people of Greek origin (The Pontic Greeks) who speak Tatar but worship in old Greek gave the city its name. The Pontic Greeks have long been regarded with suspicion by the Russian state because of their refusal to conform to Russian Orthodoxy. Catherine the Great deported them from their original home in the Crimea to the Ukraine. Stalin persecuted them suspecting them of being less than fully patriotic to Russia and, in 1937, most were deported from the Ukraine. The few survivors have particular devotion to Our Lady under the title 'Our Lady Opener of the Gates' (referring to the gates of Paradise) and to an ancient icon under that title which much resembles that of Czestochowa. Let us pray that Our Lady will protect all her children, Catholic, Greek and Russian.
