I was emotionally and positively touched on my recent visit

I have to say without shame or hesitation, I was positively and emotionally touched following my encounter with the Ukrainian war refugees and volunteers who serve them, whom I met recently in Poland.

Although I have been in Poland several times over the last few months overseeing the arrivals of our humanitarian aid and discussing with our charity Caritas various issues relating to the most urgent kind of aid needed, its transport and distribution, I haven’t had much chance to meet many of the refugees themselves.

My last trip to Poland changed all that and was a deeply personal trip; my sister-in-law is working with some 3000 war refugees in a small-town South West of Warsaw, Nadarzyn.

They are mostly made up of women and children, with some elderly people who despite great difficulty managed to make it out.

However, they left behind their male relatives; husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, who have remained in the Ukraine to defend their homeland.

This illustrates the brutal reality of war and its dreadful cost in terms of separation from all they hold dearest in this world their menfolk, homes, towns, villages, extended family, friends, the loss of language, culture, workplaces and schools.

The children have suffered so very much, torn away from everything familiar to them, then the loss of beloved fathers and grandfathers from their lives is a cause of endless heartache, confusion and disorientation.

And all they want to do is go home! Home is such a basic and fundamental human need. We ourselves can hardly imagine what it must be like to be homeless.

But these women and children feel that deepest sorrow of all: the loss of country and the sorrow of being homeless.

Don’t misunderstand me, these Ukrainian refugees are housed with Polish families, or are accommodated in houses and flats of their own.

And they are deeply grateful to all who have opened their hearts and homes to them, and who daily offer them their care, support, friendship and love.

And this has made all the difference and helped them to cope with this unimaginably horrific ordeal.

Yet, the one thing they all want is to go home, to return to everything that is familiar, loved, cherished and valued.

However, they know in their hearts that they can never return to the life they had before, for all is irrevocably changed.

The life they once had is now forever lost to them, and part of what I saw was mourning for the passing of their former way life.

My sister-in-law Monica was really overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of the Scottish people, she sends to all of you her eternal and heartfelt thanks.

You cannot imagine the immense difference this aid will make to the life of these brave and irrepressible people: cowed they maybe by the barbarity of this war, but certainly not defeated.

They have been through so much and have faced the harshest and most unendurable losses with tremendous forbearance and unshakable Christian faith.

They pray with such fervour for peace in their homeland, for the safety of their loves ones and the chance to go home again.

May God grant their prayers and the world continue to support their cause.

This Thursday is the feast of the Ascension, when Christians celebrate the return of Jesus home to the Father.

After he had completed his earthly ministry and remained with his disciples 40 days after the resurrection, Jesus returned home to heaven.

As Jesus prepares the apostles for his departure from them, he tells them he goes ahead of them to make a home for them with the Father.

The Ascension is never about Jesus leaving us alone, he does not abandon his followers, but promises to remain with them; he will be present with them when they gather in his name, and they will also recognize him in the breaking of bread, and in his true, real and abiding presence in mystery of the Eucharist.

But the Ascension also reminds us of the importance of the home that Christ has prepared for us with God.

God is the one with whom we should always be at home, because we are never a stranger to him, but always welcomed as his precious, beloved and irreplaceable child.

On Ascension Thursday, which reminds all of us we have a home with God, I pray for the brave Ukrainian people that they may soon have the opportunity return home.