The Custody of the Holy Land joins in the initiative of a day of prayer, fasting and penitence called by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, for 7 October next, one year since “the Holy Land, and not only, has been plunged into a vortex of violence and hatred never seen or experienced before,” writes the Patriarch in the letter to the diocese (please find attached the complete text).
The Custos of the Holy Land, Fra Francesco Patton, has sent a letter (attached) to all the friars inviting them to join in the initiative: “In all our fraternities, shrines and parishes, we will live 7 October as a day of prayer, fasting and penitence,” the Custos writes, inviting them in particular to recite the Rosary and the prayer for peace indicated by the Patriarch “at one of the daily times of prayer of the fraternity.”
A commitment to peace
The Patriarch stresses “our condemnation of this senseless war and what has generated it” and the call of political leaders to “find other ways of resolving the current conflict, which take into account the demands of justice, dignity and security for all.”
“We too – he writes to the Catholic faithful, - have a duty to commit ourselves to peace, first by preserving our hearts from all feelings of hatred, and instead cherishing the desire for good for everyone. By committing ourselves, each in our own community contexts and in the forms we can, we should support those in need, help those who are personally invested to alleviate the suffering of those affected by this war, and promote every action of peace, reconciliation and encounter.”
Prayer for peace
“We also need to pray, to bring our pain and our desire for peace to God.” Hence the invitation to “a day of prayer, fasting and penance on October 7 next, a date that has become symbolic of the drama we are experiencing.”
The month of October is also the Marian month and on October 7 we celebrate the memory of Mary Queen of the Rosary. “May each of us, with the rosary or in whatever form he or she sees fit, personally but better again in community, find a moment to pause and pray.”
The text of the proposed prayer follows here below:
Prayer for peace
Lord our God,
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and Father of all mankind,
Who in the cross of Your Son
and through the gift of His own life,
at great cost You wished to destroy
the wall of enmity and hostility
that separates peoples and makes us enemies:
Send into our hearts
the gift of the Holy Spirit,
that He may purify us from every feeling
of violence, hatred and revenge,
enlighten us to understand
the irrepressible dignity
of every human person,
and inflame us to the point of consumption
for a peaceful and reconciled world
in truth and justice,
in love and freedom.
Almighty and eternal God,
in Your hands are the hopes of men
and the rights of every people:
Assist with Your wisdom those who govern us,
so that, with Your help,
they will become sensitive to the sufferings of the poor
and of those who suffer the consequences
of violence and war;
may they promote the common good and lasting peace
in our region
and throughout the earth.
Virgin Mary, Mother of Hope,
obtain the gift of peace
for the Holy Land that gave birth to you
and for the whole world. Amen.
