Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church (OLPH) in Glenview hosted the Mass for Peace in Ukraine on Wednesday.
“Prayer is so powerful,” said Rev. Patrick Kizza of OLPH who spoke to more than 100 people attending mass on Wednesday evening.
“We need peace and peace should come from our hearts and we need Jesus,” Kizza said. “Unless we have Jesus in our hearts, there will be no peace.
“We need to pray for each and every person,” Kizza said. “People are suffering.”
OLPH invited the Catholic Community of Northbrook and St. Catherine Laboure Catholic Church (of Glenview) parishioners to pray for people displaced by the war in Ukraine.
“We are trying to do things together,” said Rev. Isaac Lara, pastor of St. Catherine Laboure Catholic Church, who offered the homily during mass. “This was a good opportunity for us to come together as a group.”
During the homily, Lara spoke of peace.
“The presence of God in the world is the presence of peace in the world,” Lara said after mass. “That’s basically the message.”
Lara urged people, “to pray and welcome God in our lives.”
Kizza said, “The journey has just started.”
OLPH hosted the 7 p.m. mass and the 30-minute adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and rosary (which took place before mass).
“Oh, we have to pray,” said Madelyn Tirpak of Glenview, coordinator for the March 30 mass and an OLPH parishioner for about 15 years. “Peace starts in us, in our hearts.
“We have to pray for peace around the world,” Tirpak said.
“This is important to do this.”
OLPH is among numerous Archdiocese of Chicago parishes organizing masses and sacraments to pray for peace in Ukraine and in the world.
“The power of prayer can change the world,” said Maggie Wycklendt of Glenview, who attended the mass with family.
Blue and yellow vertical lighting to represent the colors of Ukraine were visible outdoors of the OLPH rectory entrance along Grove Street.
“We need to pray a lot … we need to pray a lot,” said Sister Paulanne Held of OLPH.
Monica Cassidy of Glenview, a 35-year OLPH parishioner and also the church’s Respect Life Ministry coordinator, acknowledged the number of donations collected at OLPH to benefit Ukraine.
There was a collection bin in the church’s vestibule where refreshments were also served after mass. Outside of the parish center was also a Ukraine donation collection location.
“In a nutshell, our group tries to increase respect for life from conception until natural death,” Cassidy said, explaining OLPH’s Respect Life Ministry.
For about three weeks during March, the ministry encouraged parishioners to donate what they could. Items collected have included sleeping bags, blankets, medical kits and flashlights, Cassidy said.
“They (supplies) are being taken to shipping points in the northern suburbs,” Cassidy said. “They’re actually loaded on cargo planes and sent directly to Poland and then to Ukraine from there.”
Regarding the mass, Cassidy credited her father Joe Cramblit of Glenview.
“My 94-year-old dad had a comment about it, which I think actually explains everything,” Cassidy said, referring to her father Joe Cramblit. “He said, ‘We can either have World War III, a nuclear war, or we can pray.’
“And who wouldn’t pick prayer?”
“So that’s what we’re doing,” Cassidy said. “Prayer is the most powerful thing we can do. We can collect stuff, but praying . . . praying is what’s going to make a difference.
“The only thing that is going to save our world right now is prayer and turning back to God,” Cassidy said. “We all need to turn to God.”
Visit https://www.olphglenview.org.
Karie Angell Luc is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
