With Shevchenko's word – in the soul and on the lips

After all, this word is so powerful that we hear it across the centuries. Powerful not by the loudness with which words can be spoken, but by its meaning, depth, and height, by its spirit, encoded prophecies, a prayer that flows from there, across the centuries, to each of us.

For indeed it sounds like a prayer: “Quiet world, dear land, my Ukraine. Why have you been ravaged, why, mother, are you perishing?” Or this: “Look at the quiet paradise, at your country! Love the great ruin with a sincere heart!” And this – is it not a prayer: “In your own house – your own truth, and strength, and freedom.” Shouldn't we remember it today when “Ukraine has struggled to the very edge. Worse than the Pole, her own children crucify her”? And the hostile Moscow is only glad, scorching with war his beloved land, Shevchenko's, and ours, Ukraine. He saw this too. Even then, back there, across the centuries, when he wrote: “Dnipro, my brother, is drying up, leaving me. And my dear graves are being dug up by the Muscovite... Let them dig, excavate, they are not looking for their own. And meanwhile, let the turncoats grow up and help the Muscovite to rule, and take the patched shirt off the mother...”

Oh, how he saw all this, at the same time warning-pleading: “Love each other, dark-browed maidens, but not with Muscovites. For Muscovites are foreign people, they do evil with you...”

Thus one would return and return to the lines of the Prophet, to the lines of the Genius. To ask oneself: “What are we? Whose sons? Of which fathers?” To learn from others and not to forget our own. To understand: it depends on each of us when that day will come, that “the shameful old time will be forgotten, and the good glory will revive, the glory of Ukraine.”

The word of Shevchenko, the wisdom of Shevchenko, his lyricism and his song, his science and his faith filled the festive meeting, which on the occasion of another anniversary of the birth of the Kobzar took place in the auditorium of the Cathedral of Saints Volodymyr and Olha, in the Ukrainian neighborhood of Chicago. It was crowded here. And it was especially pleasing that both in the hall and on the stage, special activity belonged to children and youth.

The concert program, which was worked on by the head of the cultural and educational reference at the parish, Mrs. Olga Karabinovych, and the teacher of the Cathedral School of St. Nicholas, Mrs. Iryna Dychi, was filled with poetic lines and songs to the words of Shevchenko himself and other authors who wrote about his greatness.

Powerfully, touchingly sounded “Testament” and “The Dnipro Roars and Moans” performed by the choir “Blahovist” (conductor Olena Balaban). The children's violin ensemble (conductor Olga Karabinovych) performed a medley of songs to Shevchenko's poems. The children of the parish and the students of the Nicholas School recited Shevchenko's poetry, sang favorite children's songs, such as “The Red Viburnum Blossomed in the Valley.”

Oksana Oleksyn, Olena Balaban, and Natalia Taylor as a trio performed “Such is Her Fate” and “A Jackdaw Flies Over the Ravine.” Oksana Daniv and Bohdan Heryavenko sang the duet “The Wind Howls Through the Grove” poignantly. The performances of the soloists were warmly received: young Oksana Dycka chose to perform “My Evening Star”; Oksana Oleksyn soulfully sang “The Sun Sets, the Mountains Darken”; a storm of applause went to the opera singer Halyna Heryavenko, who gifted the audience with songs sung from the heart – “Why Do I Need Black Eyebrows” and “Oh, Three Wide Roads.” And, of course, the performance of Iryna Turchyn was extraordinarily organic – with a bandura play, with a song-thought about Cossack graves.

The accompanists for certain performances were Oksana Pidruchna and Olga Karabinovych, sound was provided by Rostyslav Rybak, and the concert program was successfully conducted by Ulyana Rybak and Matviy Mangela.

For all this, thanks were given to the organizers and participants of the concert by Bishop Benedict Aleksiychuk, Father Roman Artymowych, and Father-Deacon Rostyslav Smyk, who invited everyone to bow to Mrs. Maria Yavorska, the mother of the Hero of Ukraine Mykhailo Yavorsky, whose memory book can be purchased from the family, joining donations for the fallen defender's combat comrades.

Adults and young, parents and children, singers and musicians – each performance touched special strings in the hearts of the audience, convincing: Shevchenko is not just a portrait of the Prophet, adorned with an embroidered towel, and not just the “Kobzar,” which many have at home. Shevchenko is the one to whom you can always go for a conversation, into the universe of his poems and epics. And his parental advice-instructions, one of which sounded in the final song: “Fight – you will overcome! God helps you! For you, there is truth, for you, there is glory and holy freedom.”

We fight... We believe... That there will be no enemy, no adversary, but there will be a son, and there will be a mother, and there will be people...