Pope Francis kicks off Mideast peace summit of prayer

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VATICAN CITY - Vatican officials insist no political agenda is lurking behind Pope Francis’ invitation to the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to pray for peace together in the Vatican gardens, and no concrete initiatives are expected.

But Sunday’s unusual summit - with Jewish, Christian and Muslim prayers intoned in the shadow of St. Peter’s Basilica - could take on great significance on the ground. And it will certainly enhance Francis’ reputation as a leader unhindered by diplomatic and theological protocol who is willing to take risks for the sake of peace.

The prayer was organized in the two weeks since Francis first made the surprise invitation from the biblical city of Bethlehem. On Sunday, he asked the crowd attending his weekly noon blessing to join in with their own prayers as well.

As Palestinian flags fluttered in the breeze, Francis pressed the importance of “surprise” in the Catholic Church, saying a church that doesn’t have the ability to surprise with its message of love is “weak, sick and dying and needs CPR.”

cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-kicks-off-mideast-peace-summit-of-prayer/
 
Very nervous about this, praying nothing bad comes of it.
 
If I have a guest at my house who belongs to a different religion, and I ask them to pray for me, they will of course be praying following their beliefs. That doesn’t mean I’m supporting those beliefs over mine. In fact, I’m sure they could gather that I’d prefer them to have the same beliefs I do and pray in a way that represents my belief of what/how prayer is/is done. Even more so if it’s the pope.

This is a good thing.
 
It is good to see the Holy Father take up the banner of prayer and peace. I really like this Pope!
 
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/i...to_the_Church_in_Need_CNA_5_16_141.jpgVatican City, Jun 8, 2014 / 11:33 am (CNA).- Representatives of Judaism, Christianity and Islam said prayers from their respective religious communities at Sunday’s historic “Invocation for Peace” at the Vatican, praying for peace in the Holy Land and throughout the Middle East.
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The meeting gathered in one place Pope Francis, Israeli President Shimon Peres, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I.

The June 8 meeting in the Vatican gardens featured prayers in Hebrew, Arabic and Italian.

Below are the official English texts of a prayer from each of the three faiths.

*Jewish prayer from the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) service, read in Hebrew:*

Your servant David said before you: “Who may discern errors? Cleanse me from hidden faults”. Cleanse us, O Lord our God from all our transgressions, purify us from our impurity and cast pure water on us and purify us, as is written by Your prophets: “I will cast clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your impurities and from all your contamination I will purify you.” And it is said: “Take words with you and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all guilt; accept that which is good, and we will offer up the fruit of our lips.” You are merciful, accepting those who turn back to You, and with regard to repentance You promised from the beginning, and with regard to repentance, our eyes look hopefully to You. And out of Your love or us, O Lord our God, who loved Israel Your people in Your mercy, and in Your compassion with which, You had compassion on the children of Your covenant, You granted us forgiveness of sin and the pardon of transgression and the atonement of iniquity.

*Christian prayer written by St. John Paul II, read in Italian:*

Let us turn with trust to God our Father,
who is merciful and compassionate,
slow to anger, great in love and fidelity,
and ask him to accept the repentance of his people
who humbly confess their sins,
and to grant them mercy.
Let us pray that contemplating Jesus,
our Lord and our Peace,
Christians will be able to repent
of the words and attitudes
caused by pride, by hatred,
by the desire to dominate others,
by enmity towards members of other religions
and towards the weakest groups in society,
such as immigrants and itinerants.
Let us pray for all those who have suffered offences
against their human dignity
and whose rights have been trampled.

*Islamic prayer, read in Arabic:*

Praise be to God, who created the heavens and the earth, made darkness and light, brought everything out of nothing, created us as the best part of creation, formed us in the best of forms, bestowing on us hearing, sight, intelligence, and heart. Blessed be God, best of creators.

Oh God, to you all praise, O Lord, to you all praise, O Creator of the heavens and the earth, O You who know the unknown and the manifest, O Lord of everything and its sovereign, we testify that there is no god but You alone and You have no partner, we seek refuge in You from the evil in ourselves and the evil of Satan, his partners, his godlessness and his whispering, and we seek refuge in You from godlessness and want, and we seek refuge in You so that we do not bring evil upon ourselves or bring it upon anyone else.

O God, to You all praise, much praise, good and blessed, we praise You for all the grace bestowed upon us, seen and unseen, in religion or in the world, for Your graces cannot be counted or calculated, and we ask You, our Lord, that they last forever, be preserved and blessed, and that they might help us to remember You, thank You and worship You better, until we worship You, remember You and thank You as You desire, and to You all praise, O Lord, as befits the splendor of Your face and the greatness of Your power.

O God, You are all able and we are unable, You possess all and we have nothing, You know all and we know nothing, You know hidden things, we praise You, we thank You for all that You have showered upon us and all You have done so well for us in religion and in this world, to You praise, our Lord, in first things and in the hereafter, to You praise in good times and bad, to You praise until You are gratified and to You praise when You are satisfied, to You praise after satisfaction, there is no power and no strength but in You.
feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/catholicnewsagency/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/catholicnewsagency/dailynews/~4/u9OdPHEpiZc

Full article…
 
Here are the Pope’s remarks:

en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/06/08/pope_francis_a_prayer_for_peace/1101522

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis Pope Francis delivered remarks to the Presidents of Palestine and Israel, Mahmoud Abbas and Shimon Peres, along with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and delegations representing Jews, ChristiansMuslims, all of whom were gathered in the Vatican Sunday evening to pray for peace in the Middle East and throughout the world. Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks.
Distinguished Presidents,
I greet you with immense joy and I wish to offer you, and the eminent delegations accompanying you, the same warm welcome which you gave to me during my recent pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
I am profoundly grateful to you for accepting my invitation to come here and to join in imploring from God the gift of peace. It is my hope that this meeting will mark the beginning of a new journey where we seek the things that unite, so as to overcome the things that divide.
I also thank Your Holiness, my venerable Brother Bartholomaios, for joining me in welcoming these illustrious guests. Your presence here is a great gift, a much-appreciated sign of support, and a testimony to the pilgrimage which we Christians are making towards full unity.
Your presence, dear Presidents, is a great sign of brotherhood which you offer as children of Abraham. It is also a concrete expression of trust in God, the Lord of history, who today looks upon all of us as brothers and who desires to guide us in his ways.
This meeting of prayer for peace in the Holy Land, in the Middle East and in the entire world is accompanied by the prayers of countless people of different cultures, nations, languages and religions: they have prayed for this meeting and even now they are united with us in the same supplication. It is a meeting which responds to the fervent desire of all who long for peace and dream of a world in which men and women can live as brothers and sisters and no longer as adversaries and enemies.
Dear Presidents, our world is a legacy bequeathed to us from past generations, but it is also on loan to us from our children: our children who are weary, worn out by conflicts and yearning for the dawn of peace, our children who plead with us to tear down the walls of enmity and to set out on the path of dialogue and peace, so that love and friendship will prevail.
Many, all too many, of those children have been innocent victims of war and violence, saplings cut down at the height of their promise. It is our duty to ensure that their sacrifice is not in vain. The memory of these children instils in us the courage of peace, the strength to persevere undaunted in dialogue, the patience to weave, day by day, an ever more robust fabric of respectful and peaceful coexistence, for the glory of God and the good of all.
Peacemaking calls for courage, much more so than warfare. It calls for the courage to say yes to encounter and no to conflict: yes to dialogue and no to violence; yes to negotiations and no to hostilities; yes to respect for agreements and no to acts of provocation; yes to sincerity and no to duplicity. All of this takes courage, it takes strength and tenacity.
History teaches that our strength alone does not suffice. More than once we have been on the verge of peace, but the evil one, employing a variety of means, has succeeded in blocking it. That is why we are here, because we know and we believe that we need the help of God. We do not renounce our responsibilities, but we do call upon God in an act of supreme responsibility before our consciences and before our peoples. We have heard a summons, and we must respond. It is the summons to break the spiral of hatred and violence, and to break it by one word alone: the word “brother”. But to be able to utter this word we have to lift our eyes to heaven and acknowledge one another as children of one Father.
To him, the Father, in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, I now turn, begging the intercession of the Virgin Mary, a daughter of the Holy Land and our Mother.
Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!
We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have been in vain.
Now, Lord, come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instil in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.
Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness.
Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam! Amen.
 
McCall1981 said:
Very nervous about this, praying nothing bad comes of it.
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How can something bad come of it??

Seriously people.

If they were all meeting at the UN to discuss peace you’d be so joyful and prayerful.

But they better not open in prayer. That would be horrible.

I can think of no better way for them to begin discussions than for them to pray. To the one God.
 
Has anyone here seen an announcement similar to this in your church bulletin?

VISIT THE MOSQUE DURING RAMADAN
The Catholic Parishes in xxxxxxxx invite members of the Catholic
community to visit the xxxxxxxx Islamic Center during the Muslim holy season

I copied and pasted it directly from the online version from my parish website. I put x’s in place of the name of my city. I am shocked and very concerned. The catholic schools here have also started taking the students to Mosque for a part of their curriculum. They get a Muslim speaking to them all about Islam and Koran etc and then the girls are separated from the boys and go to prayer, Muslim prayer in the Mosque.
 
guest232 said:
Has anyone here seen an announcement similar to this in your church bulletin?

VISIT THE MOSQUE DURING RAMADAN
The Catholic Parishes in xxxxxxxx invite members of the Catholic
community to visit the xxxxxxxx Islamic Center during the Muslim holy season

I copied and pasted it directly from the online version from my parish website. I put x’s in place of the name of my city. I am shocked and very concerned. The catholic schools here have also started taking the students to Mosque for a part of their curriculum. They get a Muslim speaking to them all about Islam and Koran etc and then the girls are separated from the boys and go to prayer, Muslim prayer in the Mosque.
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Has anyone heard that the Vatican is secretly converting everyone to Islam. No seriously I read it somewhere.

Enough with the nonsense people

If your parish ad is legitimate, which I highly doubt, perhaps the bishop sees it fit in your diocese to educate people who are perhaps overtly prejudiced against their Muslim neighbors.
 
Jon_S said:
Has anyone heard that the Vatican is secretly converting everyone to Islam. No seriously I read it somewhere.

Enough with the nonsense people

If your parish ad is legitimate, which I highly doubt, perhaps the bishop sees it fit in your diocese to educate people who are perhaps overtly prejudiced against their Muslim neighbors.
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I take great offense at your reply and sarcasm. I am VERY serious about this and it concerns me greatly. To insinuate that I am implying that the Vatican is secretly converting everyone to Islam is way out of line and implying that I am making this up. To call it nonsense is even more beyond words.
 
guest232 said:
I take great offense at your reply and sarcasm. I am VERY serious about this and it concerns me greatly. To insinuate that I am implying that the Vatican is secretly converting everyone to Islam is way out of line and implying that I am making this up. To call it nonsense is even more beyond words.
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If this is a directive of your bishop then you should have no problem with it. You don’t have to go nor do your kids.

I think it’s great to educate ourselves about other religions and there is nothing wrong or sinful about doing so.

Your bishop has the authority of Christ as does the church. We either believe it or not.

Perhaps they are just modeling the Pope. catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0902139.htm
.
 
pnewton said:
That is a different issue. This prayer is being led by the Holy Father.
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It is and it isn’t a different issue. Yes, the Holy Father is leading the prayer there. This that I have asked about is of the same subject in that it is about Catholics being told to go to a Mosque. This is dangerous in the sense that the average lay person/family is not educated in the possible dangers of connecting with Islam and such. With this announcement being put in our Sunday Bulletin and then the Holy Father is having Muslim join him in prayer with Muslim prayer gives the idea that there is nothing to be concerned about for the average lay person.
 
MODERATOR NOTE

This thread is wandering. Please return to the topic of the OP
 
guest232 said:
It is and it isn’t a different issue. Yes, the Holy Father is leading the prayer there. This that I have asked about is of the same subject in that it is about Catholics being told to go to a Mosque. This is dangerous in the sense that the average lay person/family is not educated in the possible dangers of connecting with Islam and such. With this announcement being put in our Sunday Bulletin and then the Holy Father is having Muslim join him in prayer with Muslim prayer gives the idea that there is nothing to be concerned about for the average lay person.
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What are the “dangers of connecting with Islam”?🤷

The only danger I see is people educating themselves that the guy down the street is something other than a jihadist who wants to blow things up.

Also, I apologize for my sarcasm earlier. I thought you were a troll.
 
If I may, the book Ecumenical Jihad by Peter Kreeft gives an excellent argument for this sort o ecumenical prayer and dialogue. Yes, Muslims and Christians have bad history. In this day though, we are both facing a common enemy that is a greater threat than we are to each other.
 
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