Coinciding with the initiative of one minute for peace that we celebrated on the 8th of June, today we meet to pray together for peace.
In the face of so many conflicts that are present in our world, let us ask the Lord to move the hearts of all the people who have in their hands the end of war in so many places.
And we also request the Lord that each one of us may be an artisan, around us, of new ways of peace, based on dialogue, respect and listening to others.
We thank you for your participation and also request a little patience to pray together in the babel of languages.

The programme of our meeting includes a time of listening to the Word and the sharing of prayers prepared by our friends from Ukraine, Myanmar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Peru, Holy Land-Palestine and Mexico, representing all those who live in conflict situations.
(Eva Fernández Mateo, Coordinator of the Secretariat)

In the name of the Father …

INTRODUCTION
(fr Antonio Cano Cano, vice-Assistant)

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to this moment of prayer on this new day of “One Minute for Peace”.
We know that many of our brothers and sisters are in conflict for different reasons. Many peoples suffer from the violence of the powerful, many people die because of cruel clashes, because of wars, our world is bleeding to death. We need peace!

So many families live in conflict, so many ruptures that divide and confront. We need peace!
How many times we walk, inwardly, divided, we live a great uneasiness, we lose hope… We need peace!

“Peace to you”, this is the greeting of the Risen Christ, who shows us his wounds, the signs of his love. The Peace that the Risen Christ brings makes us live in harmony with ourselves, with others, with creation, with God.

Let us pray this evening that the Holy Spirit may be poured out on us so that we may be artisans of peace, that he may be poured out on peoples at war so that they may find peace, that he may be poured out on those who hold the destinies of peoples in their hands, so that they may work for peace.
Let us take a moment of silence and request the presence of the Holy Spirit.

LET US PRAY
Comfort refugees, deportees, political prisoners and migrants, especially those who are most vulnerable, as well as the victims of hunger, poverty and the dire effects of the drug trade, human trafficking and all other forms of slavery. Lord, inspire the leaders of nations to ensure that no man or woman may encounter discrimination and be violated in his or her dignity; that in full respect for human rights and democracy these social wounds may be healed; that the common good of the citizenry may be pursued always and solely; and that security and the conditions needed for dialogue and peaceful coexistence may be guaranteed.  (Pope Francis. Blessing Urbi et orbi 2023)

PSALM 147
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
¹³ For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
¹⁴ He grants peace within your borders;
he fills you with the finest of wheat.
¹⁵ He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
¹⁶ He gives snow like wool;
he scatters frost like ashes.
¹⁷ He hurls down hail like crumbs—
who can stand before his cold?
¹⁸ He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
¹⁹ He declares his word to Jacob,
his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
²⁰ He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his ordinances.
Praise the Lord!

Isaiah 52, 7-10
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, Announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, “Your God is King!”
Hark! Your watchmen raise a cry, together they shout for joy, For they see directly, before their eyes, the LORD restoring Zion.
Break out together in song, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the LORD comforts his people, he redeems Jerusalem.
The LORD has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; All the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God.

COMMENT
This text is a hymn to hope because the Lord consoles, rebuilds, saves. But we need men and women to proclaim this message of hope, we need all of us to proclaim peace with our lives and our words. Men and women who are artisans of peace and thus announce to the whole world that the Lord, our God, gives us peace and brings us the salvation.

Prayer of the countries

Ukraine

Prayer in time of war in Ukraine
fr. Vasyl Bilash

Lord, God, Jesus Christ, You are the Way, Truth and Life, in this difficult time of the trials of war, we turn to You again with a special request – give us wisdom and strength to stand in the fight for our life, freedom and truth, which the Russian occupiers want to take from us again today. Give, о Lord, endurance in this struggle to stop evil and protect our children, women, parents, our homes, cities and villages, our land of Ukraine, as well as all other countries of Europe. Support, o Jesus, all the warriors of the Light!

Stop, Lord, the genocide of the Ukrainian people, save from the deaths of civilians and soldiers, turn away from us the evil deeds of the enemy, terrorist attacks and catastrophes. Embrace with your own hands our children, orphans, widows and mothers, wounded and captured, chaplains, doctors and volunteers, those who have lost relatives and homes, who are tired of war and suffering; accept, O Lord, into your arms the dead and those who gave their lives not out of hatred for enemies, but out of love for their neighbors and for You.

Lord, also stop corruption and the trickery of internal enemies. Stop the danger of gender ideology, which wants to destroy the souls of our Ukrainian children and enslave them with spiritual slavery. Convert, o Lord, sinners, forgive them for the sins of abortion, impurity, drunkenness and consumerism – pour out Your Holy Spirit on this world and renew the face of the Earth!

Lord, Jesus Christ, grant us Your peace! Amen.

Myanmar

Lei Lei Win

O eternal God, we pray from the country of Myanmar who are facing difficulties in conflict zone.

Special request:

• To protect our country from internal conflict and natural disasters.
• To protect our members and people living in internal conflict areas.
• To heal the trauma of the children who cannot go to school in the internal conflict region
• To help the people who have fled to the place of internal conflict to get in safety
• To give strength to the people and their families who have been physically damaged by landmines to continue without losing their minds.
• To lead the villagers who lost their lives due to the firing of heavy weapons to a safe place
• To give strength to the people and churches whose homes were destroyed by Cyclone Mocha to rebuild properly.
• To give us the strength to recover after being hit by the Mocha Cyclone.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Prayer for peace in our country and for all nations
Justin Kalunga

The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all things (Psalms103:19).
Lord, God of Peace, King of Glory, You who make the heavens Your dwelling place and the earth Your footstool, before You every knee bends.
Lord, in Your immense love, You have said that if two of us agree on earth to ask for anything, it will be granted to them by our Heavenly Father (Matthew18:19).

Merciful Lord, we ask You to forgive our sins and to cover our country (…) with the Blood of Jesus Christ.
Be merciful to us and heal our land (…), stretch out Your Mighty Hand and protect us, in the name of Jesus Christ.
O Lord of hosts, give ear to our groans and come to our aid; fight and crush all these enemies thirsting for human blood who have taken our country hostage.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we bind and chain the demonic spiritual strongman who controls and dominates our country (…) by violence, and we lock him up in the abyss for ever.
By the Blood of Jesus Christ, we cancel and break all the evil alliances that have been contracted with demons in the name of our nation.
Heavenly Father, may Your light shine upon our nation, our continent and our world, illuminating it and dispelling all the darkness that covers it, in the name of Jesus Christ.

May all the walls of crisis and violence erected by the devil against the Tranquillity and Peace of our country be shaken, demolished and reduced to ashes, in the name of Jesus Christ.

May confusion return to the camp of these agents of the devil, these vampires who are troubling our country, so that they may eat their own flesh and drink their own blood, in the powerful name of Jesus Christ.

May the wind of Reconciliation, Peace, Victory and Healing of the Holy Spirit begin to blow over our nation, so that this situation of crisis and violence may miraculously change, in the name of Jesus Christ.
May all the diabolical weapons forged against our nation be null and void, in the name of Jesus Christ.

Lord, in these times of war, may nothing disturb our Peace and Security in the country, continent and world that You have given us, in the name of Jesus Christ.
We now activate Your protection in our lives, our families and throughout our nation, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Lord, we are Your people and You are our God, give us one heart and one way so that we may fear You and have Your will done for our nation, in the name of Jesus Christ.

O Lord, bless our nation and keep us, make Your face shine upon us and grant us Your grace; turn Your face towards us and give us Your peace, in the name of Jesus Christ.
May Divine Peace reign over our nation, over Africa and over the whole world, in the name of Jesus Christ.

Thank You Lord, God of Peace, for Your Hand is already at work and You have answered our prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen !
May God bless our country, our continent and our world. Amen Allèluia.

Prayer for peace in Peru

Manuel Marín Pérez

O God, creator of the universe
who extends your fatherly concern
over every creature and who guides the events
of history to the goal of salvation,
send your Spirit to help us to dialogue and find harmony and peace
and find harmony and brotherhood,
that we may all build true peace,
the fruit of justice for all and the meeting of brothers and sisters
who seek the common good.

Keep violence and corruption away from us and give us
a heart full of love,
especially for those most in need.

Holy Land

San Francisco Youth Group / Bethlehem Palestine
Zain Sleiby

Lord, with our human weakness
we feel that it is difficult to establish peace in the world.

But with our faith, we are all confident that you are our strength.. We are all confident that with you nothing is impossible.
If our prayer is full of faith, it can move mountains.
Give us, O Lord, true leaders who act according to your word with all honesty and take it wherever they go, that they may be an unquenchable light of peace in the world.
Give us, Lord, true leaders whose hearts are united with your sacred heart, which is full of mercy and compassion for our neighbour.

Lord, we truly need such leaders, so that all peoples know you and people realise that this land on which they fight and kill each other in cold blood is but a temporary and mortal thing, and only you are the rest forever.

We need these people, because we are all confident that if they know you as their God, the spirit of understanding will prevail and our goal will be heaven and to see your holy face. Your face full of mercy. But we repeat this is not impossible because you truly exist. Our God is the God of love and peace and we all trust in you!

We have nothing but prayer, it alone is able to change everything, it is our only weapon against the equipment of evil and war. which is full of the spirit of hatred, killing, hatred and destruction, so that they may know you and radiate the seed of peace with strength once again. Brotherhood, serenity, love and mercy from their hearts and minds darkened by darkness, and peace reign in our beloved homeland Palestine and in all countries that suffer the pain of war and destruction From here in Bethlehem, the city of the Prince of Peace, where, O Lord, you have announced peace to all, to men of good will, that our prayers may reach you for all the countries that bleed in sorrow…

We thank you, our God, because our union in you is what unites us today, announcing all those who seek peace.

Mexico

Ana Maria Rebeca Vilchis Chavez

Lord Jesus, You are our peace, look at our country damaged by violence and dispersed by fear and insecurity.

Comfort the pain of those who suffer.
Give wisdom to the decisions of those who govern us.
Touch the hearts of those who forget that we are brothers and sisters and cause suffering and death.
Give them the gift of conversion.

Protect families,
our children, teenagers and young people, our villages and communities.

As your missionary disciples,
responsible citizens, may we know how to be promoters of justice and peace,
so that in you our people may have a life of dignity. AMEN.
Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us.

OUR FATHER