God our Father,
you have heard our prayer, grant us to hear yours, which never changes:
that we may love one another as you love us,
as you love without exclusion or control over others.
Grant us in this to follow Jesus your Son, our Brother,
who accompanies us with his Spirit throughout time.
How long, Father, is the road to peace and brotherhood among peoples.
From a human perspective, it seems that the road will never be completed;
no sooner has it been glimpsed than it must be cleared once again
of the ruins of our violence, our utopias and our carelessness,
which have allowed evil to take hold.
Yet we stand before you in hope,
for you always inspire courageous people who know how to reawaken the sources
and call on peoples to give the best of themselves.
There are always humble people who join forces
to give the future another chance.
There is always Jesus and his Gospel,
the unshakeable cornerstone, the foundation of all our new beginnings.
There is always his Spirit, the breath of healing on our wounds and our brokenness.
May he pray in us, may we pray together with him,
in trust in you, Father.
Lord,
you are the boundless space of our freedom,
the ever beyond,
yet, in the assembly of praise,
we are but strangers, guests, passers-by,
perpetually torn between the infinity of our desires and the limits of our means.
Here we are before you, Lord,
in the evening, when there is no more time to do,
when we must be available and welcoming.
May your Spirit visit us and send us forth…
We are all born in prayer,
we are all born with prayer on our lips,
we beg for air to breathe,
milk to feed us,
tenderness to welcome us.
We are all born, even without realising it, with prayer in our hearts.
So, like children, let us simply pray,
let us cry out to God, believing that He wants to give us what is good for us.
God, who sent your Son into the world to reveal to it the infinite tenderness you
have for each person, inspire in our humanity workers for peace, open to his spirit.
May we bear, by welcoming his peace within us, the fruit of justice and righteousness in the service
of our sisters and brothers. May we, day after day, become disciples of Jesus who, through the mystery of
his incarnation and his Passover, has become for us the mediator of your Peace, promised to all.
Jesus, Lord,
you invite us to ask in your Name,
to believe firmly that the Father loves us
as He loved you.
Encourage our prayer
and prepare us to welcome
what He wants to give us,
for He alone knows what is good for us.
It is in your Name that we pray
and already give Him thanks.
You have called us to walk our lives with you,
to walk with many others,
to walk in brotherhood,
to walk in the presence of God, your Father and our Father.
Grant us the strength to follow through on this desire,
which you yourself have placed within us.
Accompany us with your Holy Spirit!
Jesus, who took the blind man by the hand to lead him away from the prying crowd, will you give us
your inventive sensitivity? Will we allow ourselves to be moved, as you were, by the silent distress
of those who cross our paths?
It takes time for our hearts to become like yours. This is our prayer today. Hear us
and be with us through the promised Spirit, to accompany us throughout time.
Lord,
The crowd was divided about you, some seeking your identity, others believing they
recognised you. For us too, you are always the one we seek, the one who eludes our grasp,
always beyond our words. May your Spirit keep alive in us this question: who
are you, Jesus Lord, for this question is one of love, inexhaustible, always renewed.
For you are, you were, and you are coming, forever.
