I imagine nearly all of you were gathered around televisions last evening, listening to President George Bush’s address to the nation. We were united across the Province in a shared horror of this all-but-inevitable war. For us at the Provincial House, the ultimatum and deadline were even more devastating: we had just had news that Anne Montgomery is again in Iraq with the Christian Peacekeepers Team and expects to stay at least two weeks, perhaps longer.

In this time of death and destruction and broken lives, of terrible violence and fierce hatred, let us join together in prayer for Anne, for the Iraqi people, for combatants on both sides, for our world, and for ourselves:

To you, Creator of nature and humanity,
of truth and beauty, we pray:
Hear our voice,
for it is the voice of the victims of all wars and violence
among individuals and nations.
Hear our voice,
for it is the voice of all children who suffer and will suffer
when people put their faith in weapons of war.
Hear our voice
when we beg you to instill, into the hearts
of all human beings the wisdom of peace,
the strength of justice and the joy of communion.
Hear our voice
for we speak for the multitudes in every country
and every period of history who do not want war
and are ready to walk the road of peace.
Hear our voice
and grant insight and strength so that we may always
respond to hatred with love,
to injustice with total dedication to justice,
to need with sharing of self,
to war with peace.
O God, hear our voice,
and give the world your everlasting peace. Amen.
-Pope John Paul II, adapted

We are deeply united with you in prayer that these holy days of Lent may bring true conversion of heart for ourselves, and for our country we pray that we might again learn that peace-making and restraint are expected of a great nation.

In the Heart of Christ,

Kathleen Hughes. rscj
(for the Provincial Team)