{"id":19116,"date":"2026-06-24T17:35:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/osb.org\/?p=19116"},"modified":"2026-06-24T17:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:41:08","slug":"maintaining-fidelity-in-a-time-of-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/2026\/06\/24\/maintaining-fidelity-in-a-time-of-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintaining Fidelity in a Time of War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maintaining Fidelity in a Time of War<\/h1><\/div>

Following a visit to Ukraine, CIB Moderator Sr. Lynn McKenzie reflects on how the Benedictine nuns of Zhytomyr and Lviv remain faithful to their monastic profession, continuing their round of prayer as the conflict escalates.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Sr Maria Kukharyk<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Klara and Maria lighting candle at soldiers grave in Lvivi<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Maria at Tyniec monastery<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

24 juin 2026<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Sr. Lynn McKenzie OSB<\/em>
\nModerator, Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum<\/em><\/p>\n

On this feast of Saint Benedict, it seems an appropriate time for us to examine how we are living our monastic profession, asking ourselves whether we are living it the way we meant to on the day we first professed our commitment to this monastic way of life. For me, as I consider how I am living my monastic profession, I can\u2019t help but be impacted and inspired by the way others live their commitment. Especially is this true as I recall many visits to monasteries around the world. Today I take the opportunity to measure my own fidelity against the remarkable witness of the sisters in Ukraine whom I visited last year.<\/p>\n

Before last August I had never traveled to a country actively in war. August 2025 found me traveling, together with Abbot Marion Nguyen (Saint Martin\u2019s Abbey<\/a>, Washington, USA), to the cities of Lviv and Zhytomyr in Ukraine via a flight to Krakow, Poland. During the war, it is not possible to fly directly into Ukraine. That means crossing the border and passport control from Poland to Ukraine, and back again at the end of the trip. This is no simple matter nor is it brief.<\/p>\n

The experience of being with the Benedictine nuns of Immaculate Conception Abbey in Zhytomyr and their dependent house of St Joseph in Lviv was a powerful, life-changing experience for me. Seeing how the nuns faithfully continue their monastic round of prayer despite the sights, sounds and smell of war all around them is inspiring. Many of the Psalms and other Scripture have taken on deeper meaning for them during this ongoing and seemingly interminable war. The war, even in this fifth year, is escalating. While I imagine that it is very difficult to face each day as the war rages on, still the sisters remain faithful to their monastic profession.<\/p>\n

What follows is a poetic expression of what Psalm 136 (137) means in their life, so beautifully and poignantly expressed by Sr. Maria Kukharyk:<\/p>\n

Psalm 136 (137)<\/h4>\n

The war began on a Thursday \u2014
\nnot a date, not a number,
\nprecisely Thursday, the second week of the psalter,
\nas if God had not yet finished creating the day,
\nbut people had already begun to die.
\nThe sky turned to metal.
\nVoices faltered.
\nWho could catch the right tone after this?
\nWe opened books,
\nthe way one opens windows during a suffocating heat \u2014
\nwith hands that were already trembling.
\n\"By the rivers...\" \u2014 and then memory refuses to sing,
\nbecause every psalm now
\nis about someone specific.
\nAbout captivity.
\nAbout those who didn't make it.
\nAbout those who are being awaited.
\nAbout those who stopped replying.
\nand our harps are no longer harps,
\nthey are a caught breath,
\nthey are a woman in the subway whispering a prayer as if
\nshe were holding up the ceiling with her hands.
\nHow to sing the Lord\u2019s song
\nwhen the siren's wail cuts through space and enters the prayer?
\nWhen even the silence
\nsounds like the anticipation of a strike?
\nAnd we stood in the midst of the psalm.
\nin the midst of the Word.
\nin the midst of the breath.
\n\"How shall we sing the Lord\u2019s song in a strange land?\" \u2014
\nwe are still here, we are still standing on our own...
\nwe hung up our harps:
\non the doorframes by the entrance,
\non the air raid alerts,
\non the rocket notifications,
\non the nails in the monastery walls.
\nand we no longer know \u2014
\nis it us holding onto the prayer
\nor is the prayer
\nholding onto us.
\nSince then, every psalm
\ntastes of ashes.
\nand yet, someone still steps out into the choir loft.
\nSomeone turns on the light.
\nSomeone opens the book.
\nas if stubbornness
\nwere one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
\nAnd while the siren wails over the city
\nwe are learning anew.
\nWe weave our voice into its howl,
\nTo sing in tune.<\/p>\n

Sr. Maria Kukharyk OSB
\nImmaculate Conception Abbey
\nZhytomyr, Ukraine<\/p>\n

Sr. Maria is the author of a new book published in Ukrainian about St Scholastica, entitled, in English, Saint Scholastica: The Woman Whose Love Was Stronger<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Congregatio Annuntiationis web site |EN|FR|<\/span><\/a><\/div>
CIB web site |EN|IT|FR|DE|PT|ES|<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following a visit to Ukraine, CIB Moderator Sr. Lynn McKenzie reflects on how the Benedictine nuns of Zhytomyr and Lviv remain faithful to their monastic profession, continuing their round of prayer as the conflict escalates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[154,420],"class_list":["post-19116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nexus","tag-nexus-benedictine-world-report","tag-nexus-july-2026"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19116"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19127,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19116\/revisions\/19127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osb.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}