AT LEAST ONE MINUTE FOR PEACE ON THE WAY TO FRATERNITY
In prayer with Mary Queen of the Human Family, Queen of Peace, every day of the month and especially on the 8th
IFCA has been promoting since 2014 a simple initiative ONE MINUTE FOR PEACE, recalling the invocation for peace in the Vatican Gardens on 8 June 2014 by Pope Francis together with the then President of Israel, Shimon Peres, the President of the Palestinian Authority, Maḥmūd ʿAbbās – Abu Mazen and in the presence of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I.
Ten years have now passed, we need to intensify our prayer. From 8 June 2024 to 8 June 2025 we propose a monthly appointment praying for peoples in conflict in the company of witnesses of peace, encouraged by Pope Francis.
8 DECEMBER Sunday – Immaculate Conception
In the company of Blessed Armida Barelli
“In the fields of the economy, culture, politics, school as well as work, in constant attention to the smallest, the frail and the poor, I encourage you to seek out paths to walk with everyone, pursuing peace and justice. This is what Blessed Armida Barelli did in her time, with a spirit of total entrustment to the Lord and with a style marked by concreteness.”
(Pope Francis, 22 April 2023)
Let us pray for women peacemakers
Prayer to Mary Immaculate 8.12.2023
Invocation for peace (08.06.2014)
Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!
We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain. Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instil in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace. Amen.
Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness. Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman.
Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, “sister”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam! Amen.
