Category: Intentions

Migrants are often victims of criminal human smuggling and human trafficking.

Among other causes, this happens because of corruption on the part of people willing to do anything for financial gain.

The money from their dirty, underhanded business is blood money . I’m not exaggerating: it’s blood money.

We pray that the cries of our migrant brothers and sisters, victims of criminal human smuggling and human trafficking, may be heard and considered.

In a divided and fragmented world, I want to invite all believers, and also all people of good will, to reconciliation and fraternity.

Our faith leads us to spread the values of peace and mutual understanding, of the common good.

We pray that Christians, followers of other religions, and all people of goodwill may promote together peace and justice in the world.

Thank you.

Every child who is marginalized, abused, abandoned, without schooling, or without medical care, is a cry that rises up to God.

In each of them is Christ, who came to our world as a defenseless child; it is Christ who looks at us through the eyes of each of these children.

Let us pray that every country decides to take necessary measures to make the future of children a priority, especially the future of children who are suffering today.

In the Middle East, concord and dialogue among the three monotheistic religions is based on spiritual and historic bonds.

The Good News of Jesus, risen out of love, came to us from these lands.

Today, many Christian communities, together with Jewish and Muslim communities, work here for peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness.

Let us pray that a spirit of dialogue, encounter, and reconciliation emerge in the Middle East

Today, a new impulse to the Church’s missionary activity is needed to face the challenge of proclaiming Jesus and his death and resurrection.

Reaching the peripheries—the human, cultural, and religious settings still foreign to the Gospel: this is what we call the missio ad gentes.

We must also remember that the heart of the Church’s mission is prayer.

In this Extraordinary Missionary Month, let us pray that the Holy Spirit may engender a new missionary “spring” for all those baptized and sent by Christ’s Church.

Oceans contain the bulk of our planet’s water supply, and also most of the immense variety of living creatures, many of them are threatened for various reasons.

Creation is a project of love given by God to humanity.

Our solidarity with the “common home” is born from our faith.

Let us pray this month that politicians, scientists and economists work together to protect the world’s seas and oceans.

What kind of world do we want to leave for the future?

Let us leave a world with families.

Let us care for our families, because they are true schools for the future, spaces of freedom, and centers of humanity.

And let us reserve a special place in our families for individual and communal prayer.

Let us pray that families, through their life of prayer and love, become ever more clearly “schools of true human development”.

The decisions made by judges influence the rights and property of citizens.

Their independence should keep them safe from favoritism and from pressures that could contaminate the decisions they have to make.

Judges must follow the example of Jesus, who never negotiates the truth.

Let us pray that those who administer justice may work with integrity, and that the injustice which prevails in the world may not have the last word.

I would like to ask you to look at the priests who work in our communities.

They are not perfect, but many give it their all until the very end, offering themselves with humility and joy.

They are priests who are close to the people, ready to work hard for everyone.

Let us be thankful for their example and testimony.

Let us pray that priests, through the modesty and humility of their lives, commit themselves actively, above all, to solidarity with those who are most poor.

The ethnic, linguistic, and tribal divisions in Africa can be overcome promoting unity in diversity.

I want to thank the religious sisters, priests, laity, and missionaries for their work to create dialogue and reconciliation among the various sectors of African society.

Let us pray this month that the Church in Africa, through the commitment of its members, may be the seed of unity among her peoples and a sign of hope for this continent.