Sisters call for global prayers for peace ahead of Feast of the Assumption

Carmelite Sisters in Barquisimeto, Venezuela among nuns calling for prayers. Image: ACN.

Source: Aid to the Church in Need

As wars rage around the world, religious Sisters are appealing for people in all the planet's 196 countries to pray for peace.

The International Union of Superiors General (IUSG) is calling for today (14th August), the eve of the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, to be kept as a day of prayer and fasting.

The aim is for people to unite in prayer for the multiple conflicts raging in the world, including in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Nigeria, Syria, Burma (Myanmar) and many others.

In their call for prayer the IUSG said: "We cannot remain silent spectators. Every day we see faces marked by pain, lives destroyed, peoples deprived of dignity and peace, especially women and children."

The date for the initiative was chosen to invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary, ahead of the Marian feast day.

The Sisters added: "Let us entrust ourselves to her, so that she may respond with tenderness to the cries of the people and teach us how to be a humble and prophetic presence in places of suffering."

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is joining their call.

Regina Lynch, executive president of ACN International, said: "Wherever there is conflict, women and children are marginalised, and it is often they who suffer most.

"Religious Sisters are often on the frontlines of wars, helping the innocent in whatever way they can, without regard for their own safety. It is therefore very commendable that this group of women should be leading the way in denouncing warfare and calling for peace and reconciliation."

She added: "Mary is the Queen of Peace. Let us pray that she may touch the hearts of decision-makers all over the world, that they may yearn for the peace of her son, Jesus Christ.

"On this feast of her Assumption into heaven, we recall that there is a woman, in body and spirit, at the side of Our Lord.

"No doubt she will be sympathetic to the pain and anguish that the women religious are witnessing and shall intercede for an end to the conflicts."

LINK

Aid to the Church in Need: https://acnuk.org