Sacred Space launches novena for peace

A nine day cycle of prayers for peace begins echoing around cyberspace today, on Sacred Space, at: www.sacredspace.ie - the Irish Jesuit On-Line prayer site. This initiative is inspired by the 40th anniversary of Pope John 23rd's famous encyclical Pacem in Terris, written at the height of the Cold War. Sacred Space was one of the first websites to build a link to us here at ICN. It has had almost six million visits since 1999 and is now translated into 15 languages, including Japanese, Catalan and Latvian. Site organiser, Fr Alan McGuckian, SJ, says; "Many thousands of people pray at Sacred Space each day and the feedback from all over the world says that they want to be part of a world-wide prayer for peace." On each of the nine days the site will highlight a reflection on a theme from Pacem in Terris, and will include a prayer from one of the major world religions. "Pope John's words struck a chord with all people of good will back in 1963," Fr McGuckian said: "It's worth our while to listen to them again today."