 [ This is an ] " Hour of Darkness " ... in which the spirit of violence and of discord brings indescribable suffering on mankind ... The nations swept into the tragic whirlpool of war are perhaps as yet only at the " beginnings of sorrows " ... but even now there reigns in thousands of families death and desolation , lamentation and misery . The blood of countless human beings , even noncombatants , raises a piteous dirge over a nation such as Our dear Poland , which , for its fidelity to the Church , for its services in the defense of Christian civilization , written in indelible characters in the annals of history , has a right to the generous and brotherly sympathy of the whole world , while it awaits , relying on the powerful intercession of Mary , Help of Christians , the hour of a resurrection in harmony with the principles of justice and true peace . 
