Today, Pope Francis from the hands of the bishops of Kazakhstan during the visit “ad limina apostolorum” will receive an icon of the Mother of God with fishes and a prayer book in the Kazakh language. The Pope will be the first owner of this prayer book.
The current experimental version was prepared on the basis of the prayer book of 2009 in Russian with elements of some prayers in Kazakh. This prayer book was the result of the work of a large group of people, which covers different parishes of Kazakhstan. So, in the literal sense of the word, the bishops convey a particle of the whole Church of Kazakhstan to the Pope. The desire to publish a prayer book in the Kazakh language was born a long time ago, and in many parish communities volunteers made their own versions of translations of prayers. Later, based on these options, a narrower group of editors developed the first official version. The editorial office of the newspaper “Credo” supervised this work.
This prayer book will be useful for those parishioners for whom Kazakh is the main language. Also, it will probably help to take a step towards the use of this language in prayer for those who do not use the Kazakh language in everyday life.
We would like to thank those who worked as part of a group of literary editors, as well as those whose names are not listed among the creators of this prayer book, but who made a great contribution to its appearance. We thank everyone who provided spiritual and material support for the implementation of this project.
As for the icon of the Mother of God with fishes, it is the artistic embodiment of the image created as evidence of reverence and gratitude for a miracle, prayed for by the repressed Catholics of North Kazakhstan, who literally could die of starvation if not suddenly appeared after numerous prayers ascended to the Virgin Mary Lake, full of fish near the village of Ozernoe. This village was proclaimed the National Sanctuary of the Virgin Mary of the Queen of Peace.
We believe that, though not in Kazakh, but the Pope prays for the people of Kazakhstan. And now he can offer these prayers in front of such a symbolic icon.
