Prayers for Peace in the Middle East
July 25, 2006

Brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Once again the Image of God on earth is being desecrated in the slaughter now going on in the Middle East as the children of Abraham, Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike, attack one another in God's name, killing hundreds of innocent people on both sides of the Israeli/Lebanese border. The problems of that region have once again erupted in bloodshed, and there is no swift end in sight.

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, had asked for last Sunday, July 23, to be a day of prayer and penance in Catholic churches throughout the world. On July 20, for us the Feast of the Holy Prophet Elijah, the Vatican Press Office issued the following statement:

"The Holy Father is following with great concern the destinies of all the peoples involved and has proclaimed this Sunday, July 23, as a special day of prayer and penance, inviting the pastors and faithful of all the particular Churches, and all believers of the world, to implore from God the precious gift of peace.

"In particular, the Supreme Pontiff hopes that prayers will be raised to the Lord for an immediate cease-fire between the sides, for humanitarian corridors to be opened in order to bring help to the suffering peoples, and for reasonable and responsible negotiations to begin to put an end to objective situations of injustice that exist in that region; as already indicated by Pope Benedict XVI at the Angelus last Sunday, July 16.

"In reality, the Lebanese have the right to see the integrity and sovereignty of their country respected, the Israelis the right to live in peace in their State, and the Palestinians have the right to have their own free and sovereign homeland.

"At this sorrowful moment, His Holiness also makes an appeal to charitable organizations to help all the people struck by this pitiless conflict."

The Chancery has prepared a brief prayer service, which I have asked be used in all the parishes of the Eparchy, beginning on Sunday, July 30. I would also ask that you continue these prayers in your parishes until all of the petitions of the Holy Father have been met. Israel has already opened a corridor for the delivery of humanitarian aid. However, neither the cease fire the Pope asks for nor the "reasonable and responsible negotiations" have begun. Our prayers are still desperately needed until these events come to pass.

Moreover, the unjust war pursued in Iraq continues to bear rotten fruit in the ongoing bloodshed, sectarian division, and political instability of that land. At the same time, amid so many other dire consequences, this war continues to foster a condition ripe for the recruitment of more and more young Muslims for the murderous purposes of extremists throughout the Islamic world.

In order to encourage continued prayer in your homes, I am reproducing below a prayer from the service we will use in church. The prayer is adapted from one written by the Reverend Said Ailabouni, the original of which may be found at the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: www.usccb.org. I would ask that you cut it out and use it in your daily prayers:

God of mercy and compassion
of grace and reconciliation,
pour your power upon all your children in the Middle East:
Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze,
Palestinians, Israelis, Lebanese, Iraqis, and Kurds.
Let hatred be turned to love, fear to trust, despair to hope,
oppression to freedom, occupation to liberation,
that violent encounters may be replaced by loving embraces,
and peace and justice could be experienced by all. Amen.

Until at least a cease-fire is declared and negotiations are begun in the current Israeli/Lebanese conflict, I ask you to keep the people of those lands in your constant prayer. This is the proper role for Christians in situations of war. May the God whom we know to be Mercy and Compassion keep us faithful to this duty.

+ John Michael