Through this message, Our Lady confirms that she walks with us through this valley of tears. At the beginning of the season of Lent, the Church has been calling us, and Our Lady does so with this message, to prayer, fasting, acts of love and renunciation.

Sadly, this time is also marked by the terrible war in Ukraine. No war has brought anything good. Every war has left behind the dead, the wounded and the mourners. In war, everyone loses, both those who attack and those who defend themselves. Every war begins in the human heart, within. The heart is the place where a man meets God or closes before Him. Heart is hidden from sight and is revealed by words, appearance and fruits. Man has a terrible ability – he can be two-faced. The human heart, as the Bible teaches us, can be hardened, petrified, hard. The heart can be wounded, filled with fear and hatred.

We cannot and do not have to hide from God as we do from people. “I, The Lord, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve” (Jeremiah 17:10).

No one had ever any idea that there could be a war, killing, destruction in our time in Ukraine, where innocent people suffer the most. Every war is the work of the devil. Only Satan inspires people to kill and destroy.

Our Lady as Mother suffers with us and for us. Her life, too, was filled with pain, persecution and rejection. But Our Lady knows that God has, in spite of everything, the last word. The weapons of God that he gives us and calls us to are prayer, fasting and renunciation. From a political perspective, these means of God seem weak and powerless. But from God´s perspective, these means will eventually bring victory. We need God’s grace of perseverance and patience. Only God can touch, transform and convert our wounded and enslaved hearts.

Our Lady warns us of the power of Satan’s action and the fruits that he leaves on earth, and which are death, hatred and fear. She is the new Eve who crushed the head of the serpent, the enemy of man.

The Holy Father also calls us to fervent prayer and fasting for the end to the war. As the true shepherd of Christ’s faithful, he addresses us saying, “Jesus taught us that the diabolical senselessness of violence is answered with God’s weapons, with prayer and fasting. May the Queen of Peace preserve the world from the madness of war.”

Let us take refuge in Her, the Immaculate and full of grace, to protect all who are directly affected by the war in Ukraine.

Let us pray: Mary, the Queen of Peace, you who gave birth to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, grant us the peace that only your Son and our Savior can give us. We especially ask you, Mother, for all who are filled with fear for their lives because of the terrors of war. Touch and liberate human hearts that sow war, death and hatred around them. Pray with us and for us, Our Lady, that we may persevere in hope, believing that God will turn everything for the good of those who believe in him and take refuge in him. Never have we heard that you abandoned anyone who turned to you in trust. Do not forsake us, Mother, who gave birth to Jesus, the Prince of Peace; do not forsake anyone who feels abandoned and forgotten. May especially those who are at risk of war and in fear for themselves and their neighbors experience the help and closeness of your intercession.

Accept our humble prayers, the Queen of Peace, and offer them to your Son for peace, for peace where there is war, for peace in troubled hearts of men. Amen.