Separated by War, United by Prayer

June 1, 2022

A Knight and his wife reflect on their experiences from different sides of the Ukrainian border

By Petro Galuga and Oksana Galuga

June 1, 2022

Oksana Galuga is pictured in Warsaw, Poland, where she is staying with the older of her two sons.

Editor’s Note: Like so many spouses from Ukraine, Petro and Oksana Galuga do not know when they will see each other again. They left their home in Kyiv on Feb. 24, as soon as Russia’s attacks began, and traveled together to Lviv, more than 500 km (300 miles) to the west. Oksana, who has struggled with health issues, continued to Warsaw, Poland, where the older of their two sons has been studying for several years. Meanwhile, Petro, the state secretary of the Knights of Columbus in Ukraine, has been helping to coordinate the Order’s humanitarian work while serving with State Deputy Yuriy Maletskiy on the Anti-Crisis Committee formed by the Archdiocese of Lviv. In the following testimonies, Petro and Oksana reflect on their marriage, their months apart, and their response to the crisis in their homeland.

‘WE ARE TOGETHER’

At the very beginning of the war, literally in the first hours of the war, we left our property, left our home. We threw a few things in the car, grabbed the dog and moved here to Lviv. It has been revealing: Man, as it turns out, needs very few things to live.

We moved to my parents’ apartment here, but two weeks later, Oksana went to Warsaw. We are not a unique family; many thousands of families are now separated. Men stayed here in Ukraine due to the military mobilization, and women and children went abroad to protect them from air alarms, bombings and rocket attacks. Because even here, in western Ukraine, it is not so safe. There is a risk of explosions almost every day.

I meet with brother Knights in Lviv; we used to meet in church in Kyiv, surrounded by our families. Now, in church, I see only men, men without women.

This forced separation is not easy, psychologically or spiritually. Marriage is a spiritual bond, a community that is designed to teach husband and wife to live together in dialogue and in the presence of God. The question is, how can couples separated in different locations go through this difficult time together?

Oksana and I call each other several times a day. We ask how the day went, how things are, and we share with each other. But we also spend part of our time together in prayer. And this common prayer unites us very much. I can’t explain how it works, but the Lord works in our marriage. In those moments, we just feel closer.

“Marriage is a spiritual bond, a community that is designed to teach husband and wife to live together in dialogue and in the presence of God. The question is, how can couples separated in different locations go through this difficult time together?”

Of course, we hope and wait for the moment when Oksana will be able to come to me, or I will be able to go to her. We hope that this moment will be soon, that we will not be forced to be in such a disconnected state for months to come. But at the same time, this prayer allows us to experience marital union. When we communicate with God, the Lord somehow acts so that we are together. In those moments of common prayer, we are together.

My first wish for other married couples who are separated now is that they pray for their spouse and for union with their spouse. My second recommendation is that they stay active, civically active, especially at this time. The Knights of Columbus teaches men to devote part of their time to charity — to community, to society — and now there are many opportunities to help others.

For me, the first days were the hardest — the experience of leaving everything, the stress, the fear. You constantly read the news, and the news is all disturbing. It is very difficult to experience these emotions; the anxiety is constantly accumulating.

But when I work with my brother Knights and other volunteers, there is simply no time to read this stressful news. For a month and a half, the work was 24/7. There was a constant arrival of humanitarian goods, shipped by our brothers in Poland and financed by Knights all over the world. In the evening when you go home, you feel joy from the good you did during the day. And you understand that you are part of a very large community, that Ukrainians are not abandoned.

The common prayer of the Knights of Columbus — Jończyk2 million men around the world praying for peace in Ukraine — is also very important for me. The Lord will listen, and we very much hope that peace will come to our land soon. We sincerely hope that the Lord will give wisdom to those people who came to us with weapons, that they lay down their weapons, that they retreat, that they stop killing Ukrainians. Our prayer — knightly prayer, masculine prayer — has a special power.

— Petro Galuga, a project manager for the Ukrainian Postal Service, has been a member of the Order since 2013 and has served as Ukraine state secretary since 2020.

State Secretary Petro Galuga, who serves on the Anti-Crisis Committee of the Archdiocese of Lviv with State Deputy Yuriy Maletskiy and others, helps to coordinate the unloading and distribution of humanitarian aid arriving from Poland. *Photo by Andrey Gorb*

‘BUILT ON A ROCK’

Before the war, my husband and I sat down and discussed the plan of what we would do. And our plan was that if the attack started, we would flee to western Ukraine. My health is far from good, and with my disabilities, the best thing I can do to help is not to interfere with the military, not to cause difficulties for the defenders. What if someone were to lose their life saving me?

On Feb. 24, I woke up at 5 a.m. from the fact that there were pink flashes outside the bedroom window. Petro opened the window and heard the siren, and we realized that this moment had come. We managed to escape, fleeing to Petro’s parents in Lviv. But my health was deteriorating, so I went to my son in Warsaw.

Petro and I will celebrate this summer — I hope we will celebrate — 25 years of married life. We are very close to each other; I can talk about him as myself.

Leadership is his characteristic trait — so characteristic that I can follow him without asking where I’m going, without asking the road; my husband leads me there, so everything is fine. Petro is very much in keeping with his name. Petro is the rock. Our domestic church is built on a rock, and he is a true priest of our domestic church.

I know a lot of secrets to a happy marriage. For example, when I get up in the morning, I think, “How can I make this world, this day, better for my husband?” And Petro gets up in the morning thinking, “How I can make the world better for my wife?”

I love and miss him very much, but I hope for the best and try to be brave. I try to remember that this world was not created by me, with God settled somewhere in the corner. This world was created by God, and he gave me a place in this world. Everything is in his hands, and that means there is great hope for good.

These are someone else’s words, but I like them: “In the dark times, you can see bright people very well.” The Polish people have given so much help. To say that I am grateful to them is to say nothing — I cannot find words that express my gratitude for their support.

We know that if it comes to a fight, you first have to decide, choose your barricade and stand on it until the end. After thinking about it, I thought, “I can’t do much with my hands or feet: I can’t dig trenches, I can’t fight, I can’t weave camouflage nets. But I can pray.” So I try to wrap my husband, my family, my schoolchildren, my colleagues, our defenders, known and unknown, in prayer. This is my barricade; I must not leave it.

— Oksana Galuga is an editor and teacher, with a master’s of English language and literature from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv.

Separated by War, United by Prayer

‘WE ARE TOGETHER’

‘BUILT ON A ROCK’

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