On Tuesday evening, 16 December, at the Collège des Bernardins, there was a presentation of the latest book by His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: "Ukraine, 365 Days of Suffering and Hope. Daily Chronicle of the First Year of War in Ukraine." Brother Matthew was asked to review the book, in recognition of the community’s constant fidelity alongside Ukraine.

Here is the full text he read:

When I arrived in Taizé, I was struck by Brother Roger’s commitment. From the 1960s, he sent young people and brothers clandestinely to Eastern Europe, including Ukraine. A German brother, a former prisoner of war in the Soviet Union, had reminded him not to forget those living behind the Iron Curtain. I wanted to belong to a community ready to support believers who lived their faith at the risk of their lives.

In the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union, these visits became public. After Ukraine’s independence, our brothers went there regularly, and many young Ukrainians took part in Taizé meetings from those years on. At the 1992 European Meeting in Vienna, I welcomed many young Ukrainians and attended my first Greek Catholic liturgy. I myself was sent to Russia and went there almost every year from 1992 until the pandemic.

My first visit to Ukraine was in 2015: with European young people and several brothers, we visited Kyiv and Lviv during Easter week, one year after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in the Donbas. I then understood how different Ukraine is from Russia, a reality many in the West took time to grasp.

We prayed on Maidan Square in memory of the martyrs of the “Heavenly Hundred.” Welcomed in several churches, including the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection, we were received by His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk. He presented to us the defensive, cultural and spiritual struggle that Ukraine is waging.

This pilgrimage marked me deeply: discovering Ukrainian culture and faith, and also their painful history of repression and genocide. Ukraine is a “blood-soaked land,” but also the land of a people able to rise again, carried by their faith. After 2014, despite sanctions, many in the West seemed to forget that Ukraine was constantly harassed. Many saw a distant conflict that did not concern us.

In 2022, I left Europe to visit my family in Australia on 22 February. People spoke of troops massed at the border, but without believing there would be an attack. When I arrived on 24 February, my brother told me, “Russia is attacking Ukraine.” The invasion had begun.

The book “Ukraine, 365 Days of Suffering and Hope,” which gathers His Beatitude’s daily messages, is essential. Its Ukrainian title — “Ukraine stands firm! Ukraine fights! Ukraine prays!” — is a rallying cry that runs through the messages and brings us from within into the path of the Ukrainian people facing Russian aggression. It describes the first year of the war and why the country continues to resist.

From 24 February on, His Beatitude understood the need to speak to his faithful and to all who seek meaning amid anxiety and death. Through his words, we see the struggle of a shepherd who wants to guide his flock pastorally and morally, and the struggle of a people for its dignity.

The Archbishop of Reims, Archbishop de Moulins-Beaufort, notes very well in the French preface that “His Beatitude proposes this demanding and encouraging programme in his warm voice, blending the most concrete details with the most reliable spiritual, theological or philosophical references.”

Reading this book, I am struck by the gratitude expressed by His Beatitude. From the first day he thanks the Churches, governments, individuals, health workers, soldiers, all who supported a people fighting for freedom. On that first day, 24 February 2022, he states: “We are a peaceful nation that loves the children of all nations with Christian love, whatever their origins or beliefs, their nationality or their religion.”

His prayer is deeply Christian and does not exclude enemies. On 13 March, the 18th day of war, he writes: “This night in Ukraine was full of anxiety and trials. (…) We pray for our enemies who have come to our land and have sown devastation, death, fear, great mutilations.”

On the 60th day, 24 April, Easter Day, he says: “A spontaneous victory slogan was born in Ukraine… ‘Hello! We are from Ukraine!’ But today we say: ‘Christ is risen! We are from Ukraine!’ (…) With these words, we proclaim to the whole world the radiant joy of the Lord’s Passover.”

Thus, in the heart of distress, Christ’s Resurrection is proclaimed with a call to joy. This conviction that death will not have the last word shows a deeply rooted faith. As the book unfolds, we understand that the war will last and that we must recognise the feelings it arouses while transforming them into creative strength.

On 13 July, after 140 days of struggle, His Beatitude declares: “Today I want to invite everyone to pray that we may transform our anger into the virtue of courage through our gentleness and long-suffering… Let us protect our hearts from anger and hatred... let the enemy not succeed in filling our hearts with the demon of anger.”

But it is his teaching on resilience that touched me most. From 30 September, he describes national resilience born of the unity of the country, which “cannot be only an external unity… It is unity in the values… that we carry in our hearts and around which we unite.” He speaks of the people’s dignity, Christian love, the Cross as a sign of invincibility, interior work, and faith in God as a source of hope.

From 5 October, he addresses personal resilience, the “ability to get up after a fall…”. It becomes a question of values, a “lifebuoy in the midst of the tumultuous waters of life.” He also recalls “prayer, without which it is impossible to stand firm,” that “moment when the Lord takes me… into his hands and guides me.”

Resilience is renewed through gratitude, present even in “the experience of the pain and suffering of our people in the occupied territories.” It shows itself in three features:

– “First, a person’s ability to become aware of something important: what they have, they have received”;

– then “gratitude always leads us to the source of gifts”;

– finally, “it makes a person able to receive even more… Gratitude seems to widen the heart.”

He also emphasises that “Resilience is based on the depth and completeness of human relationships”; each person is “a being who grows… within a network of human relationships.” Faced with “the horrors of war,” he calls for courage and wisdom, citing: “Wisdom… moves more swiftly than any motion” (Wis 7:24).

This resilience allows growth despite trials and helps to orient the future. “We must not forget that the way we live and act today will determine what Ukraine will be after victory,” he tells us.

The Ukrainian people bear witness to this. Let us pray that this resilience may be renewed. When I became prior of Taizé, I promised the brothers not to travel too much in the first year, with one exception: to make a pilgrimage to Ukraine. With two brothers, we travelled across the country in April 2024 from Lviv to Kyiv, via Ternopil, Zarvanytsya, Zhytomyr, Bucha and Irpin. I saw a resilience that is resistance of hope: people in mourning yet committed, and young and old for whom prayer is a source of unity and strength.

In Zarvanytsya, we met His Beatitude and his brother bishops, several of whom are here today. I remember his words: “Prayer opens a space that allows healing.” Faced with his people’s suffering, he sees that inner life makes it possible to remain open to what is new. This process does not always produce immediate results, but, together with other means, it helps to move beyond wounds and gives birth to the hope of a healed humanity. Prayer gives the strength to stand firm.

A powerful testimony to a people’s struggle, offered by the spiritual head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, this book is also a catechism of Christian life and values with universal reach. We have much to learn from this wounded people. Their resilience is a beacon for us all.