Why I believe Ukraine’s daily one minute of prayer is a miracle

Sharyn Borodin shares how a single minute each morning unites war-torn Ukraine in silence, remembrance, and hope. In those sixty seconds, an entire nation lifts its eyes heavenward, finding strength not in power, but in prayer.

What happens when an entire nation falls to its knees in prayer? What can the Holy Spirit speak in 60 seconds to the hearts of a broken country? During the first year of full-scale war in Ukraine, cities around the country began to implement a daily minute of silence every morning at 9am. I remember the first time I experienced it. 

I was walking through the city center of Ternopil, in Western Ukraine, and I heard this ticking sound come over the loudspeakers. “What is that?” I wondered to myself. That’s when I noticed that everyone walking around me had suddenly stopped. They were just standing quietly. It was when I saw a woman bowing her head and making the sign of the cross that in dawned on me. These people were observing 60 seconds of silence. A minute of prayer asking God for peace, and a moment of quiet in recognition that some of the Ukrainian nation did not survive the previous day.