03/14/2022 – Good Friday

Today Good Friday is the Feast of Our Lady of Kieff (Kiev). When Prince Vladimir was baptised in 1010 bringing the Russian people which then included Ukraine into the Catholic Faith, the prince commissioned an icon of the Madonna and Child in thanksgiving and for the spread of the flame of faith throughout his lands. Four hundred years later, the Czar requested the icon be transferred to a church he had built in the Kremlin in Moscow. This caused great upset in Kiev.

Our Lady appeared to the official charged with removing the icon and told him not to take the icon, that if he did she would replace it immediately. He took the icon and the next morning a perfect copy was in its place. Tempers had been high between Kiev and Moscow and Our Lady diffused it by assuring them by the replication of the icon that she was Mother of all and the Queen of Peace.

It is Providential that this Good Friday with the tragedy of war that we should commemorate the Our Lady of Kieff and the peace she brought to Ukraine and Russia.

Today as we meditate Jesus Redemptive Suffering let’s also bring peace by replicating Jesus’ image and that of Our Lady in ourselves through our Good Friday rosary for peace.