From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 515):

O you who hear prayer,
to you shall all flesh come.
When iniquities prevail against me,
you atone for our transgressions.
Psalm 65:2‭-‬3

Last night’s initial reports were right. Russia did intentionally hit the historical center and residential quarters of Odesa. Our air-defense forces shot down 9 of 19 missiles.

They destroyed or damaged 44 buildings, 25 of which are architectural landmarks of the 19th-20th century. They killed one and injured 21 people, including four children.
Their main deliberate target was the UNESCO-protected Transfiguration Cathedral, one of the biggest and oldest in Odesa. Even before the actual attack, some sources reported that “Ukraine attacked its own temple with air-defense rockets.” Once again, it was posted before the actual missile strike, and it was written in such a…

Good Morning!
_______________________________

“To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing
its best, night and day, to make you everybody else —
means to fight the hardest battle which any human
being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
─ Laura Riding,
from “Four Unposted Letters to Catherine” (1930)

_____________________________

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and
exciting – over and over announcing
your place in the family of things.”
─ Mary Oliver

ADMIN: This Orthodox Church is located near our historic Presbyterian Church in the center of Odesa. Pray!

From Jamie Peipon (Day 514): It is unfathomable that this type of madness has carried on every day for 514 days. We’ve become desensitized to it and it can be hard to keep up. Both of these pictures are of the Transfiguration of the Savior Cathedral in Odesa, Ukraine. The darker one was taken tonight. This is not a military site. This is an orthodox church.

The church was founded in 1794 and the main structure was built in 1808. It instantly became a significant landmark in the downtown area of Odesa. In 1936, the communists of the soviet union decided to demolish it. It wasn’t until Ukraine was independent once again that the church was rebuilt in 1999. Overnight, hateful and rage-filled men and women in Moscow decided once again that this…

ADMIN: this is an interesting post bye young man, Moscow, doing on the street interviews with a broad spectrum of Russian Muscovites asking each if they agree with Plato’s statement, “The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

From Ira Kapitonova in Kyiv (Day 514):

Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint;
preserve my life from dread of the enemy.
Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked,
from the throng of evildoers.
Psalm 64:1‭-‬2

Day after day, my heart breaks for the cities attacked by the enemy. Zaporizhzhia is under attack right now.

Please, pray for Odesa, as this city has been under continuous attacks for a week. Tonight’s missile strike seems to have caused destruction and fire in a temple and residential buildings. Do they pose a threat to the Russian army?

During the war, when so many people die and suffer daily, you reevaluate many things. With all the destruction brought upon our land, I caught myself thinking that we often take our culture and…