Editor’s Note: Being very devoted to the Holy Mother of God and Saint Michael, I could not fail to begin my coverage of the Christian faith of the Ukrainian people during the present war, than to film the morning Mass today at Saint Michael’s Golden Domed Monastery, in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine. — This 2 hour liturgy needs no commentary, because the visual and audible splendor of what you are about to see shows clearly how we Catholics in the West have been defrauded by secularized clergy for quite some time. For when clergy love God and love worshiping God, they beautify their Monasteries, Churches services, with art and music which raises the mind and spirit back to God and directs the Christian believer to things beyond what is visible and audible to things eternal and ever lasting.

I wish to publicly thank the monks of St. Michael’s monastery for so graciously permitting me to video live stream their liturgy without advance notice.

The lesson we Roman Catholics can take from this magnificent display of faith in action, art and culture, is that the very bitter debate since Vatican II, between the Novus Ordo LItury and the Traditional Roman Rite, wherein one side demands the vernacular and ends up in mediocrity, and the other Latin with a pharasaical punctuality, is totally superseded by the lesson of authentic LIturgical Tradition, wherein the vernacular (in this case the Ukrainian language) is not at war with faith, art, devotion, music and culture. The Catholic Church needs to liberate herself from this false dialectic and get back to worshipping God the author of Salvation and Beauty, and stop worrying about those who would find such a manner of worship too artistic or beautiful, because such souls are not yet ready for true salvation, but labor still under the very dark influence of the Evil One, who is the father of ugliness and mediocrity.

For those who have never seen the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, please note that Morning Mass begins with the preparation of the gifts of bread and wine, which is then followed by Lauds (recitation of the Psalms) and then the Divine Liturgy (Mass).  Thus the signing begins in earnest about 30 minutes into this  2 hour video.

Note, also, that the Ukrainian Orthodox celebrated Easter this past Sunday, since they keep the Julian Calendar, according to which today’s date is April 15th, not 27th.