When the Kremlin-initiated military operation began in February, I was looking at several television networks (BBC, Al Jazeera, DW) in horror at what was happening over the following weeks through March and April.

I found myself in tears, shocked and aghast at how people could inflict such devastation on their brothers and sisters with such blatant disregard.

Given the sense of helplessness we probably all feel, I have been watching my prayer during this time, tracing its changes over the period when the media we have access to, no doubt biased in its own way, reveals what are visually horrific and unbridled acts of violence.

My prayer is changing.

In the first few weeks it was something like this:

Lord, couldn't you organise an assassination for the fellow? Look at what he's doing to his own people!

It would then change as I contemplated the Lenten and then the Easter gospels with a shift:

Lord, God of might, all powerful and yet all loving, soften his hard heart and comfort those suffering.

More often now, than at the beginning when I could not even let the Word sink into me, it goes something like this:

Jesus, you graciously call me brother; make me aware of my own hardness of heart, my own blatant disregard of others, or my judgment and dismissal of them, and in turn, of my own self. In that awareness, may I become your instrument of peace in all my relationships.

I would like to think that the third prayer is how I pray all the time, but the truth is that I probably alternate from one to the other depending on my mood or whether or not I have lived a particular day more or less aware of the world around me.

Wouldn't it be great if life were as simple as I wished it to be, or that I'd be a saint sooner than yesterday!

But neither is that the truth. Such a wish belongs to the world of pious fantasy.

Nevertheless, I take heart because the prayers Jesus prayed are simply human and fully so. Psalm 139, a favourite of many, lists the wonders God has done, how faithful and loving is this creator God of ours whose hand is upon us and who is so close, knitting us together as we are being formed, with us to the end (vv. 1-18). But, or better: and then comes the invective against the psalmist's enemies:

O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies. (NRSV 19-22)

However, there is a shift in the remaining verses when the prayer realigns the thoughts and worldview of the psalmist who prays to be more self-aware, putting trust in the God who knows the heart (vv. 23-24).

This refocus brings about a greater humility and a prayer to be aware of the wicked ways we each of us have within our own hearts.

Such a realignment returns us to our creatureliness; we can no longer judge or dismiss others or think ourselves self-righteous in relation to Putin and his generals, or Hitler, or the present-day leadership of Israel.

In Ps 22, the psalm some scholars attribute to Jesus' last prayer on the cross, the metaphors change.

The enemies are turned into jackals and roaring lions or the horns of oxen from which a saving God will rescue the psalmist, because of the confidence and trust placed in the relationship the one praying has in the God whose face is not hidden from those who love and are loved by such a covenantal God. It is a psalm full of trust in and praise of our God.

The psalms, it seems to me, give us the freedom to pray as we are: human beings constantly in need of being brought up short, challenged to remember that we are not the creators of our destiny.

If the astrophysicists are right, then every movement we make, every empowering thought, wish or prayer can and does affect the universe, earthing us as human (humus) yet, creatures that we are, also co-creators but only with the God of peace and mercy.

• Dr Kevin Dobbyn FMS is Coordinator, Te Ahi Ka o Matauranga - a community of young adults whose main ministry is hosting other young adults, students and young Christian workers and professionals.

Since uninterrogated assumptions are never helpful, it may be worth seeing if there is another perspective available.

I will not argue that Putin is a democrat.

An abiding image from my visit to Russia in 2008 was that of armed and uniformed people on the street. So, not Scandinavia.

His background - like that of George Bush the elder - was in intelligence and Russian democracy.

It remains imperfect, with extraordinary concentration of wealth, legally mandated internal surveillance of its citizens, pliable courts and very little civic opposition.

(Then again, the Snowden revelations, the use of torture and drone strikes by Western nations, the homogeneity of our parties and the power of our own richest should give us pause.)

Nevertheless, there are good reasons - beyond media control - why the Russian president enjoys poll ratings of which an Abbott or an Obama could only dream.

To understand them, a brief retrospective is in order.

The fall of the Soviet Union saw state assets distributed to party bosses and friends of Boris Yeltsin, himself a weak and unstable, albeit authoritarian leader (when sober).

Unemployment and crime skyrocketed, and pensions and wages fell through the floor (when they were paid at all).

I remember being shocked when I heard Russian and Ukrainian friends referring to the Brezhnev era as schastliviye vyek (a happy age) - because people had a job and food to eat.

Gorbachev, beloved of many in the West, is regarded by just as many Russians with loathing, as the man who opened the path to Yeltsin and the wholesale destruction of the state. Continue reading

• Justin Glyn SJ in Eureka Street.

Justin Glyn is a Jesuit presently studying for the priesthood.

The same may be said of the planet as a whole.

Whether intellectually or intuitively, many are asking the same question: Where are we heading?

How do we explain the long list of financial, environmental and humanitarian emergencies, epidemics, small and larger conflicts, genocides, war crimes, terrorist attacks and military interventions?

Why does the international community seem powerless to prevent any of this?

There is no simple or single answer to this conundrum, but two factors can shed much light.

The first involves a global power shift and the prospect of a new Cold War.

The second relates to globalisation and the crises generated by the sheer scale of cross-border flows.

Is a new Cold War in the making?

The geopolitical shift has resulted in a dangerous souring of America's relations with Russia and China.

The dispute over Ukraine is the latest chapter in the rapidly deteriorating relationship between Washington and Moscow.

In what is essentially a civil war in which over 3,000 people have been killed, the two great powers have chosen to support opposing sides in the conflict by all means short of outright intervention.

The incorporation of Crimea into Russia, Moscow's decision to use force in Georgia in 2008 and its support for the independence of the two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are part of the same dynamic.

The conduct of Russian governments in the Putin era has been at times coercive and often clumsy at home and abroad.

But the United States has also much to answer for. For the last 25 years its foreign policy has been unashamedly triumphalist.

In his 1992 State of the Union address, President George Bush senior declared: "By the grace of God, America won the Cold War". Continue reading

Source

• Joseph Camilleri in The Conversation

Joseph Camilleri OAM was the founding Director of the Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University.

Details are not yet in place, however the meeting comes at a time when the Catholic Church seeks to improve ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

Relations between Russia and the Vatican have been fraught since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, with Moscow accusing the Roman Catholic Church of trying to poach believers from the Russian Orthodox Church, a charge the Vatican denies.

On the other hand, Putin has sought to establish himself as a defender of Christianity, both in Russia and in nations where the faith is under attack, notably in the Middle East.

Putin has also played an active role in negotiations to avoid escalation of the war in Syria.

Both subjects are likely to figure prominently in Putin's conversation with the Pontiff.

Pope Francis wrote to Putin in September as head of the G20 group of global powers to ask him to press for a political solution to the conflict in Syria without outside intervention.

The coming to power of Patriarch Kirill in 2009, who headed the Russian Orthodox' diplomatic arm for years has helped the relationship between the two states.

Sources

• Washington Times
• ABC News
• Reuters
• Image: BBC Wales

In a letter sent on Sept 4 to Mr Putin in his role of host of the G20 conference, and published on Thursday, Francis wrote: "It is regrettable that, from the very beginning of the conflict in Syria, one-sided interests have prevailed and in fact hindered the search for a solution that would have avoided the senseless massacre now unfolding."

Through Mr Putin, Francis appealed to the G20 leaders gathering in Russia: "The leaders of the G20 cannot remain indifferent to the dramatic situation of the beloved Syrian people which has lasted far too long, and even risks bringing greater suffering to a region bitterly tested by strife and needful of peace.

"To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution." Continue reading

According to the opposition Putin is a despot, but Patriarch Kirill sees him as a gift from heaven. While the country's leader harshly clamps down on public demonstrations, the Russian Orthodox Church turns a blind eye, it goes even further by blessing him as the saviour of the mother nation. An indissoluble bond between altar and throne becomes an obstacle on the path towards ecumenism. This authoritarian tendency raises concerns for the Church in Rome and further alienates the "estranged brothers" (Catholics and Orthodox). AsiaNews comments: "Putin back in the Kremlin, like the tsar his challenge is to embrace reforms. Not only the pomp and ceremony of the inauguration but also the violent crackdown against protests in Moscow have led many to compare Putin III to Russia's last tsar. If power becomes entrenched, the opposition will radicalise, something Russia has already seen in the past, with revolution lurking around the corner."

Full Story: Vatican Insider