The International Union of Superior Generals (UISG) has called a world day of fasting and prayer for peace on August 14, the eve of the holiday of the Assumption of Mary.
The UISG allows the general superior to meet in an ecclesial environment, with the aim of building bridges and developing networks to create different modes of communication between religious through geographical distances, different languages and cultures to be in communion between them and together build a global community, as indicated in their website.
Receive the main news of ACI Press by WhatsApp and Telegram
It is increasingly difficult to see Catholic news on social networks. Subscribe to our free channels today:
Before the wars and conflicts that afflict different parts of the world, especially in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine or Democratic Republic of the Congo, the UISG declared that “we cannot remain as silent spectators.”
“Every day we see faces marked by pain, destroyed lives, private peoples of their dignity and peace, especially women and children,” they regret in a statement released on August 6.
In this context, the religious claim to feel “the deep need to raise their voice and join our hearts”, to walk alongside those who suffer, listen to “the cry of the poor and the earth” and “protect life and demand justice.”
Therefore, they call for next Thursday, August 14 a day of “prayer, discernment and testimony”, so that peace “is not just a desire, but a reality built among all.”
The superior generals urged that this day be lived as a day of fasting and prayer, invoking the intercession of the Mother of God, Our Lady of Peace, whose party is celebrated on August 15.
“Let’s confirm to her, to tender the clamor of the peoples and teach us to be a humble and prophetic presence in the places of suffering,” reads the statement.
In addition, they propose to promote moments of prayer and reflection on the word in the communities, commit to civil and ecclesial authorities asking them to open reconciliation paths and support concrete actions of global solidarity.
The superior generals have prepared this prayer for peace that they propose to pray to the faithful who want to join the day:
Maria, mother of peace,
In this time wounded by war,
We entrust you to the people torn by hate,
To divided families, to hearts broken by violence.
You who kept the pain silently,
Teach us to watch, not to close our eyes,
to remain next to whoever suffers,
to pray even when words are missing.
Done to the world peace, Lord Jesus,
not the one that is imposed with force,
but the one born from justice,
of forgiveness, of truth, of love.
Make us instruments of your peace:
hands that raise,
voices that comfort,
hearts that open.
We beg you for women and children victims of conflicts,
For escape migrants, for whom they are prisoners of fear.
We beg you for those who have lost hope
and for those who are still sowing hate.
Make our fasting solidarity,
that our prayer becomes action,
May our silence be a voice for those who have no voice.
Maria, Queen of Peace,
intercede for us,
so that in every corner of the earth
Relap the light of the Gospel again.
Amen.
Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
Graduated in journalism and advertising from the CEU San Pablo University of Madrid. Specialized in religious information in Spain since 2015. It has been a senior correspondent for ACI Press and Ewtn News at the Vatican for two years and is currently a correspondent for Europe based on Spain.