(ANS - Rome)– By joining the call for peace, repeatedly advocated by the Pope, and also raised within the Salesian Family by Fr Ángel Fernández Artime, Rector Major of the Salesians, the Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Yvonne Reungoat, invited all her sisters to celebrate the upcoming August 15 as a day of communal worship and prayer for peace.

Here is her message:

“Dearest Sisters, I would like to offer a proposal; sure that it will find your acceptance. In every part of the world, frequently at the level of Episcopal conferences, days of Prayer are indicated for those who are persecuted for religious reasons, and in general for peace in the world.

Faced with a resurgence of violence in many parts of our world, we cannot keep silent. Therefore, we join our voice to those of Pope Francis, many priests, religious and faithful.

We know that there are many outbreaks of war and we see an escalation of intolerance, persecution, and cruelty. The victims of this senseless violence are frequently ordinary citizens, in particular women and children. We want to be at their side, to have them hear our voice, and especially our prayer, accompanied by a lifestyle in the sign of communion, solidarity, and a greater Gospel witness.

Therefore, together with the Sisters of the Council, I propose that August 15 be a day of prayer and adoration throughout the whole Institute for peace in those places where war rages, and especially in the Middle East. We will thus join with many initiatives in the world, activating the first, most fundamental assistance, the spiritual.

I ask that you involve in the initiative the members of the educating community, in particular the young people, the Salesian Family groups who have as a reference point communities of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and the people of the place.

Peace is, above all, a gift of God. For this reason we invoke it in the first place by prayer. But we also want to commit ourselves to actions of peace and be persons of peace, educating ourselves and others to relationships that manifest it in our communities and in the mission entrusted to us.

Discouragement and pessimism are enemies of peace. The precious good of peace, while being a gift of God, is entrusted to fragile human hands. For this reason, even when we do not see immediate results, we know that working for peace, educating to peace, carrying out gestures of peace, constitutes a human fabric more respective of the dignity of all. In this way by using the building blocks of peace, we want to arrive at building a house for the human family where all feel welcome and live in dignity and safety.

May Mary Help of Christians, Queen of Peace, help us to build it wherever we are and no matter what we are doing. And may Don Bosco, in whose honor we are preparing to begin the bicentenary celebrations, instill in our hearts his pastoral enthusiasm, that of the ‘da mihi animas cetera tolle’.

I greet you with great affection, and ask again they you pray for the forthcoming General Chapter”.

Published 08/12/2014