"Pochaiv is my love...": confessions of pilgrims at the ancient shrine
From Donetsk to the USA, from a former communist to a seminarian. Living stories of people about how the Lavra changes destinies, heals the hopeless and remains an outpost of faith in an era of trials.
What does the Pochaiv Lavra mean to me? Pochaiv pilgrims are asked this question.
Heavenly world. Nadezhda, 45 years old:
– I have been going to the Lavra since I was six years old. My mother brought me here. And I come with my three children. Fortunately, we live in the town of Pochaiv itself. We have the opportunity to attend all the Divine services.
When I pass through the Lavra gates, a kind of heavenly world touches my soul, as if the Mother of God invisibly takes me into Her embrace. I feel an ever-stronger desire to venerate Her holy Foot in the Dormition Cathedral, to kiss the Wonder-working icon, to venerate the relics of the Venerable Fathers of Pochaiv, and then, after the service, to drink the holy water from Her healing spring… The grace of God is impossible to put into words…
Outpost on the mountain. Archpriest Pavlo:
– The Pochaiv Lavra is an outpost of Orthodoxy in Western Ukraine. Since 1594, the papal union of Greek Catholics, like a flock of ravens, has circled over the Lavra for centuries. And there was a period when it captured it for a certain time by God's permission.
And today the enemies of the canonical Church are striving by every means to seize this shrine and subject it to desecration, just as happened to the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. But the Mother of God and Sts. Job and Amphilochius of Pochaiv stand guard over it. And the people of God will not allow this. And the Venerable Fathers of the Kyiv Caves, by their prayers, will restore the Pechersk Lavra as well, just as it was in the twentieth century, after the shrine was closed by Khrushchev in 1963.
As it is written in Scripture: "My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Mark 11:17). Peoples from all over Ukraine and from all over the world flock to the Lavra because the Pochaiv Lavra is a world shrine.
Dreams about the Lavra. Oleksandr, 43 years old:
– I knew one Kyiv elder who was immobilized, a wheelchair-user. He told me that he often had a dream that he was walking on foot to Pochaiv…
And today thousands of people walk here in the Cross processions for hundreds of kilometers. What drives them? God's love, faith… And I walked to Pochaiv with my family. And the Lord gave strength… Rain or shine, we walked. And the Mother of God sheltered us, giving us food and refuge. After such processions, I felt as though I were flying on wings for an entire year – this is what Pochaiv means…
Miracle across the ocean. Liudmyla, 60 years old:
– My little grandson suffered from epilepsy. We lived in the USA. And we went to an Orthodox church where there was an icon of the Pochaiv Mother of God. My grandson received communion and venerated this icon. Three years in a row. And then the epilepsy disappeared.
And I came here especially from across the ocean to thank the Queen of Heaven for the healing of our Maxim. He is already sixteen years old. He studies at the university and serves in the church – and thank God for this!..
Repentance of a communist. Tymofiy, 65 years old:
– I am already an old man; I have five children and six grandchildren. But long ago, in our youth, we had no children for ten years. My wife, Elena, went to church, while I did not. I was an atheist and a Communist, and I scolded my wife.
Eventually she forced me to secretly go to Pochaiv. I confessed and received communion there. And peace came to my heart. And what do you think? She became pregnant. Since then we have been going to Pochaiv every year. For more than 35 years now.
If today our rulers repented and turned to God, there would be no war, no disasters. There would be one Church in Ukraine and there would be peace and harmony...
Prayer of a seminarian. Serhiy, 20 years old:
– I come from Donetsk, where the war is going on. My father is at the front. And I am already finishing the Pochaiv Theological Seminary. I sing in the choir. My father told me that the Mother of God protects him. He could have died many times, but the Lord preserves him…
I pray for him and for all of Ukraine. I believe peace will come to our land. We, students, take example from the Pochaiv brotherhood, from the abbot of the Lavra His Eminence Metropolitan Volodymyr, from Metropolitan Serhiy of Ternopil, who teaches us, from Bishop Job, our beloved rector, who is like a father to us.
I think that I will be attached to the Pochaiv Lavra all my life even if I don't take monastic vows. As God wills.
